41.   Chernomyrdin is thought to be at odds with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who was pushed aside when Yeltsin named his special envoy.

42.   Christopher Hill, the US special envoy to Kosovo, acknowledged as much moments before he went behind the wrought-iron gates to mediate the negotiations.

43.   Carrol Faubert, a special envoy of the U.N. high commissioner on refugees, said it was too early to tell if the strategy would work.

44.   Clinton, along with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.S. special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, will be available to enter the discussions at any time.

45.   Colombians credit United Nations special envoy James LeMoyne, a former journalist who covered guerrilla wars in Central America, with helping restore the negotiations.

46.   Clinton spoke a day after his special envoy on Korea, Ambassador Charles Kartman, left Pyongyang after failing to gain access to the suspicious underground construction site.

47.   Contingency planning intensified at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Allied diplomats said, as special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke met with Albanian leaders in Kosovo.

48.   Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with a special Russian envoy, but no concrete results were reported.

49.   Despite the accord forged in October by a special American envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, the two sides clash almost daily.

50.   Earlier this week, the Bush administration appointed a special envoy to work with the Afghan opposition group as well as governments in the region.