41.   Since then, contacts have stalled over rebel demands that the government free their jailed comrades and the two sides have been exchanging messages through intermediaries.

42.   The British government freed six convicted IRA and pro-British militants Friday, the first paramilitary inmates to win parole under terms of the Northern Ireland peace accord.

43.   The Bosnian government freed a senior Serb military officer who was arrested in January and sent to the Hague tribunal as a suspect.

44.   The government freed the Speaker of the House on Monday and lifted a limited state of emergency imposed to help oust her from office.

45.   The group has repeatedly threatened to kill the hostages if the government does not free other jailed militants.

46.   The government later freed the two.

47.   The government might free up other sectors, too, such as the wireless industry.

48.   The government should free a jailed adviser to Communist peace negotiators to demonstrate it can be trusted to keep its word on any agreement, the rebels said Tuesday.

49.   The government will free five IRA convicts from Irish jails on Friday, raising the prisoner issue again as the Northern Ireland peace process comes under threat.

50.   The government freed hundreds of prisoners Friday as the widespread amnesty began.