21.   Aptis quickly began negotiations with Clarence Chandran, the Billerica-based chief operating officer for Nortel.

22.   Arafat said he is prepared to begin negotiations immediately.

23.   As of Monday, he said, he had not begun those negotiations with prosecutors.

24.   At the White House, McCurry said that before the talks broke down, the two sides had worked out a schedule for beginning negotiations.

25.   At Tora Bora, tank, rocket and machine-gun fire echoed through the valleys until a cease-fire was called over the radios just after noon to begin surrender negotiations.

26.   Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky and Vice Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel are set to begin negotiations tomorrow over the budget and the shape of a new left-right coalition.

27.   Barak had said earlier that he would not begin negotiations with Shas as long as its leader, Aryeh Deri, stayed on.

28.   Barnes says he has not begun negotiations with any team, because Rice wants to wait until he finishes his visits to decide which team is his top choice.

29.   -- Lonnie Cooper, the agent for restricted free agent second baseman Mark Lemke, has talked to the Braves but has yet to begin serious negotiations.

30.   A caretaker Bulgarian cabinet was put in place this month, authorized to begin negotiations with the IMF.