1.   By using his superior financial resources Duke Guy-Geoffrey of Aquitaine had outfought and outwitted all other rival claimants to Gascony.

2.   The dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea threatens to embroil Indonesia, which has traditionally acted as a broker between rival claimants.

3.   Trademark law is of little help when Internet domains cross both industrial and national boundaries, and so rival claimants have tended to slog it out expensively in court.

4.   With pairs of U.S. warplanes keeping station high above, rival claimants to the control of Paktia province battled inconclusively for more than a dozen hours.

5.   In recent years there has been a rush by rival claimants to build structures in the Spratlys to buttress their claims.

6.   Local officials expressed concern about the reports because of the political sensitivity of using nationals of a rival claimant to build fortifications on the island.

7.   Mahathir, visiting Beijing this week, said he will press Chinese leaders to back a proposed set of rules governing conduct by rival claimants in the Spratlys.

8.   Malaysia wants rival claimants to the Spratly Islands to avoid any words or deeds that could aggravate tensions, Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday.

9.   Rival claimants to the Spratly Islands supported efforts Wednesday to reduce tensions in the area but failed to reach agreement on concrete measures.

10.   Rival claimants to all or part of the archipelago include China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.