31.   The employer mandate has drawn intense opposition, especially from small businesses.

32.   The gas sale agreement has also confronted widespread disapproval in Egypt, where there is intense popular opposition to trade and cultural ties with Israel.

33.   The need to put friends in high places is even more critical, they say, when the governor is newly elected and encountering intense opposition to his policies.

34.   The plan was shelved after intense public opposition.

35.   The reductions announced Thursday were proposed long ago but faltered under intense opposition from armed forces outside the defense ministry, which have considerable influence.

36.   The Village Council first approved the ban more than four years ago, but faced with intense opposition, pulled it from the County Council before a vote.

37.   Training exercises were transferred from Culebra to Vieques, despite intense opposition from the governor of Puerto Rico and the island community.

38.   What sets Tennessee apart from other states with an income tax is the combination of intense opposition with peculiar vulnerability to dips in sales tax revenues.

39.   While Ms. MacLaine dropped her plan after intense opposition, the community has become highly sensitive about trophy homes being built on hillsides over the city.

40.   Chubais was appointed to the post on Friday, despite intense opposition by the Communist-led Duma.