John Daniszewski's story "Scavengers in the Rubble" in today's Los Angeles Times reports the following about Grozny, the capital of Chechnya: There is no electricity, running water or garbage collection. Other commonplaces of modern life, such as telephones, anesthetics and television, are almost nonexistent. News--often false--is spread by word of mouth. A rumor that it was time to move the clocks back put this whole city out of sync with the rest of Russia for two weeks--even soldiers stationed here began enforcing curfew at the wrong time. See: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates2/lat_grozny010207.htm Warning: Daniszewski's story is strong stuff. The quote above is one of the rare cheerful moments in it. The 100,000 citizens of Grozny have a terrible existence. I could not finish his story with dry eyes.