1.   Abu Rab had been imprisoned after holding an Israeli soldier hostage in what he considered a political act.

2.   But when NATO air strikes last month pounded a Bosnian Serb artillery depot, the rebel Serbs retaliated by taking UN soldiers hostage.

3.   Israel broke off negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Tuesday night after the militant Islamic group Hamas announced it was holding an Israeli soldier hostage.

4.   The ethnic Albanian guerrillas have killed Serbian police and taken soldiers hostage.

5.   The Serbs, as they have after milder NATO strikes, took hundreds of U.N. soldiers hostage, this time using some as human shields.

6.   The Serbs, who still hold other parts of Croatia that they call the Krajina, would probably take United Nations soldiers hostage if they tried to leave.

7.   They also made the vicious decision to take U.N. soldiers hostage.

8.   Things began to change last summer, when Bosnian Serb forces covered their surge into eastern Bosnia by taking hundreds of U.N. soldiers hostage to ward off NATO warplanes.

9.   When the Bosnian Serbs took United Nations soldiers hostage, the West vowed to be strong.

10.   Peacekeeping efforts have been undermined in recent weeks, with Bosnian Serbs detaining humanitarian convoys and holding U.S. soldiers hostage.