51.   Interfax said supporters of separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev flatly rejected a demand by village elders that they withdraw.

52.   Many village elders walked several miles up the winding mountain roads to district officials in Chamoli and submitted written requests for tents.

53.   NAZRAN, Russia -- Chechen officials, village elders and Russian military commanders agree Wednesday to an informal truce in southwestern Chechnya, a key area of rebel resistance.

54.   Only new red cloth brandished by selected village elders is allowed for the task, with the cloth then torn into pieces and given away as good luck charms.

55.   Syla comforted him before the village elders, trying to bring order to the sobbing, shoving crowd, found her and shooed her out.

56.   That seems to work in individual locations, with village elders and pro-Moscow police often persuading guerrillas to leave villages to avoid violence.

57.   The photos show Saddam distributing sweets and fruit to Iraqi children and chatting with village elders.

58.   The rebels then awkwardly introduced the Russian area commander, Col. Vyacheslav Miroshnichenko, and his officers to the village elders.

59.   The Taliban enforced the ban by threatening to arrest village elders and mullahs who allowed poppies to be grown.

60.   The troops began moving in on Novogroznensky about a week ago, after which village elders and other leaders concluded an unsuccessful peace pact with the Russians.