If you think Iraq is a problem....

....how about these lovely vacation spots?

Columbia

Colombia faces a hard road in its fight against leftist rebels, President Alvaro Uribe said Monday after deadly attacks blacked out towns, shut down a highway, blew up a hotel and shattered notions that the nation's main insurgent group was on its knees.

The weekend violence left nine people dead, and a rebel commander in this Andean nation warned: "This is only the beginning."

Peru

Maoist Shining Path insurgents ambushed and killed three Peruvian policemen in a remote jungle area known for guerrilla activity, officials said Monday.

The officers were driving Sunday evening in the Huallaga Valley about 205 miles northwest of Lima when more than 70 rebels sprayed their SUV with semiautomatic weapons fire, police said.

The officers were shot to death as they fled the vehicle, which was then looted and set ablaze, police said.

Sunday's attack was the first on police in the former guerrilla stronghold since June, when two officers and a marine died in a similar ambush.

Nepal

Communist rebels stepped up their campaign to block highways disrupting food and fuel supplies across Nepal as seven people were killed in clashes between villagers and rebels, officials said Monday.

The insurgents ordered disruptions of the country's transport network to protest King Gyanendra's Feb. 1 decision to dismiss the government and suspend civil liberties.

Rebels attacked passenger convoys, burned trucks and set off land mines late Sunday to stop travel on the Prithvi Highway, the country's lifeline, killing one truck driver and wounding seven passengers, army spokesman Brig. Gen. Dipak Gurung said.

The road's closure was likely to cause food and fuel shortages and send prices soaring across the Himalayan state. Also Sunday, rebels set off homemade bombs when residents tried to clear tree trunks and boulders placed by the rebels on other roads, injuring four people, police said.

Life is rough in a lot of places. Until the world condemns terror with one voice and stops calling murderers "insurgents", violence will never end.