21.   Thousands of students gathered at the site Thursday, hugging and crying, and wondering why and how something as innocent as spirit could become so tragic.

22.   Thousands gathered at the ferry dock there after rumors spread that another ferry had been hijacked.

23.   Thousands gathered near the Church of the Nativity, to hear speakers call for holy war and martyrdom in the struggle against Israel.

24.   Thousands of mourners gathered in Brooklyn to say goodbye to Halberstam, who led the Bobov sect out of Europe after World War II and oversaw its rebirth.

25.   Thousands of people gathered to watch the executions, in Friendship Square in Grozny, the capital.

26.   Two months later, thousands gathered for ceremonies that installed him as regent.

27.   United in loss and grief, thousands gathered to bury King Hussein who died on Sunday from cancer.

28.   Wearing faded jungle fatigues and floppy bush hats, thousands of them gathered at the memorial that has become the enduring symbol of their war and era.

29.   Yet each week, thousands gather in this port in southern Albania, carried westward from homelands as distant as China.

30.   Only a few thousand gathered in Novi Sad, Nis and Belgrade.