61.   Factories and schools closed as World Cup frenzy gripped the country with red shirts being worn in a sign of patriotism by housewives and office workers.

62.   Few think that will bring him back to power, given the rare political excitement that is gripping the country and rekindling old tribal rivalries.

63.   The UN refugee agency announced Tuesday it would airlift emergency relief items to Ethiopia to help victims of the drought gripping the country.

64.   With Italy facing a tide of Albanian refugees, Prime Minister Romano Prodi urged Albanians Sunday to stop their flight and face the anarchy gripping their country.

65.   It is largely due to the austerity measures pursued by the authorities to tackle a financial crisis gripping the country.

66.   Metreological department officials said a severe cold wave had gripped the country, particularly the southern and southwestern region where the minimum temperature dropped to below the freezing point.

67.   Many Italians present at the embassy said they failed to understand the furore which has gripped their country about the nuclear tests.

68.   News of his death triggered bursts of firing in several Tutsi districts around Bujumbura in an ominous sign of a possible escalation of the ethnic viopence gripping the country.

69.   Not all the reasons are football related as the country has been gripped by a civil war between government and Islamic fundamentalist force that spared no sector of society.

70.   News of his death triggered burst of firing in several Tutsi districts around Bujumbura in an ominous sign of a possible escalation of the ethnic viopence gripping the country.