1.   It has taken Fraud Squad officers months just to obtain clearance from the Egyptian authorities for an evidence-gathering trip.

2.   American officials stressed that Egyptian authorities were being included in the crash probe, and Egyptian officials appeared to want to avoid a diplomatic row.

3.   An account pieced together from witnesses and the Egyptian authorities suggests that the attack began when gunmen fired automatic weapons at the bus.

4.   And even then, the Egyptian authorities dispatched hundreds of armed troops to scour the hills and the surrounding desert in search of possible accomplices to the attack.

5.   A CIA spokesman declined Tuesday night to discuss the assertion that Albanian returnees were tortured by Egyptian authorities.

6.   Clearly, no one among Egyptian authorities wants be on the receiving end of another such tirade.

7.   Conservationists say there is lax enforcement of environmental laws by Egyptian authorities.

8.   Egyptian authorities have denied that he was recently in their country.

9.   Egyptian authorities portrayed the slayings as an act of desperation by Islamic militants hit hard by a security crackdown.

10.   Egyptian authorities have consistently refused to comment on his case, even to say whether he is dead or alive.