1.   Earlier, the ailing president had failed to back Lebed unequivocally against rivals and critics led by Anatoly Kulikov, the interior minister.

2.   Russian television showed an ailing president, who shuffled along with the help of his aides.

3.   Rybkin was a safe choice for the ailing president.

4.   The ailing former president rarely appears in public these days.

5.   Only the ailing Russian president knows how much effort the trip yesterday cost him.

6.   A top government official met with President Boris Yeltsin in his hospital room on Monday and later insisted that the ailing president was looking fine.

7.   Ailing president goes on vacation, abruptly.

8.   Ailing president faces calls for his ouster.

9.   Ailing Zairian president arrives in France.

10.   An ailing president who tries to rule from a hospital, some Russians quip, is appropriate for a nation that is disintegrating.