COLOMBIA MOST DANGEROUS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS

Air Security International, a 10-year-old Houston company that
provides security services for traveling executives, has issued a list
of what it considers the most dangerous business-travel destinations
in the world last year.

Air Security's list is largely based on the detailed reports of paid
agents -- including employees of airports and international
corporations, and owners of overseas businesses -- working in the field.

The dangerous destinations are divided into four risk categories:
crime, kidnapping, political violence, and wars or insurgencies. The
only destination to appear in all four categories is Colombia, cited
as the country with the most kidnappings, as home to "the longest
insurgency in the Western Hemisphere," and for its high crime rate
exacerbated by the cocaine trade, as well as bombings, assassinations,
guerrilla insurgencies and power struggles among drug lords,
politicians, judges and the military.

The 10 places cited for their dangerously high crime rate are
Johannesburg ("car jackings, robberies and assaults continue
unabated"), Mexico City (corrupt police and "taxi-related crime"),
Tijuana ("getting a reputation as the next Medellin"), Sao Paulo, Rio
de Janeiro, Papua New Guinea (gangs armed with high-powered rifles,
machetes, even grenade launchers), Kazakhstan ("corrupt officials and
police impostors continue to target foreigners"), Lagos (pickpocketing
to armed robbery and murder), Moscow and Colombia.

The company found a heightened threat of kidnapping in five places.
Besides Colombia, they were the Caucasus region of Russia ("extremely
common"), Mexico ("rings operate throughout the country"), the
Philippines (where it's on the decline, but still prevalent) and Yemen
(tribesmen seeking government concessions use foreigners as bargaining
chips).

The political-violence category cites Bangladesh, where labor strife
has been known to turn violent; Indonesia, where violence between
security forces and demonstrators still flares on occasion; Pakistan,
where "more than 4,000 people have died in ethnic, sectarian and
political violence in Karachi since 1995" and, yes, Colombia.