1.  Both U.S. and foreign financial services companies have expressed interest in acquiring Columbia, they said.

2.  Burns, of Wellesley, is a career foreign service officer and former State Department spokesman who was nominated by President Clinton to be ambassador to Greece.

3.  China is already moving to improve the environment for foreign financial service providers, Long said.

4.  Commissions were deregulated last fall, leading to price cuts, and foreign financial services companies and online trading firms have given the Japanese firms stiff competition.

5.  Even so, these steps fall well short of the virtually unrestricted access that the European Union countries are offering foreign financial service companies.

6.  Foreign financial services firms have been anticipating tougher inspections for some time.

7.  Foreign services companies wishing to invest in Korea should be wary that private consumption is slowing because of the slowest economic growth in four years.

8.  Foreign military services from places like Thailand and Argentina shop here.

9.  In November, an appeals court judge ruled that illegal foreign broadcasting services were damaging local industry.

10.  J. Stapleton Roy, a career foreign service officer, is currently ambassador to China.