21.   Sheik Ali is also an Islamic religious leader whose rising popularity has some clan and faction leaders in Somalia looking over their shoulders and revising their political stances.

22.   Since the faction members normally vote as a block, that gives enormous power to the faction leaders.

23.   Squabbling faction leaders there have turned peace talks into farce, and an African peacekeeping force has grown so frustrated as to consider giving up.

24.   Still, the faction leaders have been left with little if any means of avenging themselves, for fear of upsetting the electorate before the July vote.

25.   The chief suspect in the case is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Islamic faction leader.

26.   The current transition program calls for the faction leaders to resign from these positions next month.

27.   The faction leaders have profited, too.

28.   The younger Aidid was elected president of Somalia by his own supporters, but he and his government have been rejected by the other faction leaders.

29.   There is frequent contact with the faction leaders, in particular with Mohammed Farah Aidid and his main opponent, Ali Mahdi Mohammed.

30.   Those with serious partition overflow forget which names belong to NBA forwards and which to PLO faction leaders.