31.   They were the only indication of the tense standoff that has been dragging on all week and preventing villagers from coming home.

32.   Tortorici and police were in the midst of a tense standoff when McEnaney made his move.

33.   Two factors make this crisis in South Asia far more dangerous than previous tense standoffs between the two countries.

34.   Two tense armed standoffs have been resolved in the past two weeks, even as bombs keep exploding and tanks roll toward expected reprisals.

35.   With the agreement, Newt and Marianne Gingrich end a tense legal standoff and avoid a potentially embarrassing public divorce trial.

36.   With Powell as their acknowledged leader, the peddlers shut down commerce on during a tense standoff that saw store windows smashed and a few merchants threatened.

37.   President Bush, in a conciliatory gesture, expressed regret over the in-flight collision that triggered the tense standoff.

38.   Participants also sought to end a tense standoff in Myanmar.

39.   Police surrounded the office building and the home and a tense standoff ensued, the reports added.

40.   A central bridge connecting the two halves of the town has been the point of many tense standoffs between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians.