It was the first such release since Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, fell ill in late July and ceded power to his brother, Raúl.

Whether hard-line indigenous leaders - who say free-market reforms and Bolivia's ruling classes have ensured the country's long misery - will now cede space to the president is not clear.

The groups were set up after the July 31 announcement that the ailing Cuban leader had temporarily ceded power to a collective leadership headed by his brother Raúl.

But the anti-abortion leaders are ceding little, saying that their goal now is not to close the clinics down literally, but "to save even one life."

The disclosure that the leader in the video game business had ceded the rights to profits from the compact disk games shocked industry executives.

On Mr. Arafat's status, Mr. Sharon stuck to his position that the Palestinian leader should cede real power to a new and freely elected prime minister.

On March 25, 1851, the leaders of Kagnout permanently ceded the island of Carabane to France.

Representative David M. McIntosh, Republican of Indiana and a leader of House conservatives, said he believed Republican leaders were ceding too quickly to the White House.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership, or at least those leaders without significant high-technology constituencies, largely ceded the territory to Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore.

Since no Mexican leader could cede half his country and still stay in power, Polk's envoy was not received.