At least 80 percent of Tajiikistan's 7 million citizens lives in poverty, and a third of the children are malnourished.

Suspected Kidnapper MOSCOW (AP) -- A suspect in the murder of three Britons and a New Zealander, whose severed heads were found by a roadside after their 1998 kidnapping, has been arrested in Chechnya, news reports said Wednesday. Hussein Idiyev, born in 1966, was arrested Tuesday and was reputedly chief of staff for a rebel group led by Arbi Barayev, Itar-Tass and Interfax reported. Barayev, a prominent warlord, was reportedly killed last year and has previously been linked to the 1998 murders. The four victims -- Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey and Rudolf Petschi of Britain, and New Zealand's Stanley Shaw -- had been in Chechnya to set up a mobile phone system. Military officials told the news agencies that Idiyev was suspected in those murders and was also accused of torture and murder of Russian troops. Idiyev has admitted he was a member of Barayev's band, the reports said.

After this misadventure, I give the inside of every gypsy cab more than just a cursory glance.

FBI officials under congressional investigation for intelligence failures want to strap members of Congress to lie detectors to ask if they are leaking details of their bungling to the press.

Rule No. 1: So let's say, old sport, that one summer night in a hotel ballroom you gather your favorite fat cats and they all sit on their checkbooks.

A serious discussion is going on in Moscow about whether to go into Pankisi to ""mop up"" Chechen rebels.

As Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill visits the region this week it's clear that Latin America faces a bad case of financial contagion.