1.   How Yeltsin will react to the disasters and other problems that are accumulating in his last year in office is unclear.

2.   Sometimes a spectacular start fizzles as problems accumulate and are mishandled.

3.   The problems have accumulated steadily.

4.   The problems accumulate inexorably, but the family survives, sometimes just barely but still with its heart registering a beat.

5.   Political and economic problems are accumulating for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his centre-left coalition of Social Democrats and Greens eight months away from general elections in Germany.