1.  Any playoff aspirations could largely depend on how well they do on their home court, thus making a good showing in this home stand critical.

2.  Deputy mayors wield considerable power on the local scene, and thus they make good targets for mafia bribery.

3.  Dennis, who started 13 games for the Chiefs last season, sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in a preseason game thus summer against Jacksonville.

4.  Definitive adoption of the plan -- and thus any Serbian withdrawal from the land they hold -- would be contingent on those talks.

5.  DeLay is a chief advocate for impeachment and thus a likely opponent of censure.

6.  Despite criticism from sources including this page, he continued his high-profile, politically tinged private law practice, thus shaking confidence in his dedication.

7.  Demand for the seven-year bonds, and thus their price, have risen approaching the December delivery's expiry, traders said.

8.  Despite his poor communication skills, Arafat continues to give the Palestinian public a sense of stability, thus preventing large-scale breakdown of law and order.

9.  Customers whose "buy" orders were executed by Knight thus had to pay more for the stock than they would have if their orders were postponed.

10.  Cute gimmick: Play about starving artists lures hundreds of the real thing to a mass audition, thus hyping the product.