111.   The agreement comes amid a wave of big international mergers by German companies.

112.   The agreement comes amid rising demand for specialty medical care.

113.   The agreement comes as chemicals and pharmaceuticals producers such as Monsanto, Dow Chemical Co. and Novartis AG aggressively push into agricultural biotechnology.

114.   The agreement comes as graduate students at Columbia, Brown and several other major universities are also seeking union representation.

115.   The agreement comes on the heels of two other major Republic purchases of Atlanta-area car dealers.

116.   The agreement comes the week TruVision planned to sell stock to the public for the first time.

117.   The agreement would come at the second of what is becoming an annual summit meeting of leading Pacific Rim economies.

118.   The Clinton-Hashimoto agreement came after the U.S. yesterday reported a smaller-than-expected April trade gap.

119.   The debt agreement comes at a time when the country has showed promising economic performance.

120.   The definitive agreement comes more than a year after the companies first announced their alliance.