List names most dangerous stops 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 considered last year to be the most dangerous business-travel destinations in the world.

The company's listing of travel dangers 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.

That country is cited as the one 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 ("carjackings, 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.