FOR A BREAK FROM THE WAR: COLOMBIA.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

WHILE THE REST of the world is obsessed with the Middle East, Robert Young Pelton, author of the best-selling ``World's Most Dangerous Places'' book and TV series, may have bitten off more than he could snort - he headed to Colombia, producer of 80 percent of the world's cocaine supply.

In an hourlong report offering even more gunfire than a CNN live report from Iraq, Pelton grimly explores yet another global hot spot, where one radio station communicates solely with kidnappers and their families' victims, where the No. 1 cause of death is murder and where assassinations of government officials is practically a given (dozens of local mayors have been murdered).

Pelton was reportedly kidnapped when he visited Colombia a few months ago, though in this program he insists he escaped his captors moments after they drunkenly suggested grabbing him. Pelton, who prides himself on not being a true journalist, nonetheless endeavors to suss out the differences between the government and the two groups of rebels blasting one another in the country - even though the drugs in the country sell here for a mere 1 percent of what they go for in America.

Pelton discovers Colombia's cocaine recipe, which includes, yummily enough, cement, filthy water and gasoline, all trod in by filthy drug runner boots, prepared while DEA helicopters hover overhead. He visits a cheerfully nihilistic town in which 33 people are murdered in five days by drug lords. Pelton's report may not answer many questions, but the questions it raises are most provocative.

WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS PLACES: COLOMBIA - Three and one half stars

What: Adventurer Robert Young Pelton ventures to visit with drug lords.

Where: Travel Channel.

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: As troubling - and as contemporary - as a story on our war on terrorism.