11.   As the meeting began in this humid, oceanside capital, however, Buddhist leaders simply failed to show up and offered no public explanation for their absence.

12.   As the meeting with senators began, Clinton referred to the presidential contest.

13.   Both sides are hoping for a ruling before the winter meetings begin next Friday in Anaheim.

14.   A ministry official said the private meetings could begin as early as Monday.

15.   After Netanyahu and Albright traveled south from Jerusalem by helicopter, the three-way meeting began Wednesday morning on the Israeli side of the Erez checkpoint.

16.   All summit meetings begin with tactical feints and psychological game-playing.

17.   Bush and Lott acknowledged as much in their brief comments to reporters just before the meeting began.

18.   But as soon as the meetings began the Zapatistas fought with the mediators, and the rebels and the government began accusing each other of bad faith.

19.   But before the meeting began, he fell on the sidewalk and broke his leg.

20.   But then the concluding statement of the conference appeared before the meeting even began.