1.   After an agonizing week of contradictory signals, the Bush administration stepped forward to do just that on Thursday with a pointed and powerful speech by the president.

2.   After three agonizing weeks on the transplant list, doctors at Egleston gently told the couple they were out of time.

3.   He admitted Tuesday that for one agonizing week in January, when he finally went public with his demand to be traded, he lost his focus.

4.   In the Red River valley, residents who were flooded from their homes had an agonizing week waiting for the high waters to retreat.

5.   Joan spent an agonizing week trying fruitlessly to get the British Embassy to help her find her husband.

6.   The judge wrote that Plunkett spent agonizing weeks in the hospital and was left with a shortened leg that has curtailed his previously athletic way of life.

7.   As the standoff dragged into its second agonizing week, Bush repeated the message delivered by his national security team on interview shows yesterday.

8.   As the standoff dragged into its second agonizing week, Bush repeated the message delivered by his national security team on Sunday interview shows.