They began their journey in 1992 in Guatemala, a Central American country battered by a 36-year-long guerrilla war that resulted in the exodus of a million refugees and the deaths of more than 100,000 people.

With much of the country battered by a fierce winter storm, yesterday was probably not the most propitious moment to focus the country's attention on another potential crisis: a shortage of water.

The persistent smog has begun to take a political toll here in a country already battered by an economic downturn.

It was a rare moment of hope in a country long battered by civil war.

His first year as President has brought a psychological lift to a country battered by corruption, internal warfare and repeated natural disasters.

To the Editor: It was good news for a country battered by a faltering economy when the Presidential candidates began debating job training (Aug. 25, front page).

Their movement could open a third ethnic front in a country already battered by Tamil and Sinhalese insurgencies.

Even though I am from Germany, a country battered by transit traffic, with lorries crossing it from north to south and west to east, I nonetheless take the view that we need European regulation.

Mr. Toledo, a onetime shoeshine boy, began his presidency as a reformer who many Peruvians believed would clean up a country battered by the 10-year, graft-ridden rule of Alberto K. Fujimori.

Nine years ago he took power in a country battered by decades of civil war and killings that eclipse even the Rwandan massacres.