Estranged spouses and girlfriends account for a lot of the calls, officials said, but regular citizens often phone in tips, too.

Mr. Siegel said he became involved child advocacy cases in the 1970's, working for parents whose children had been kidnapped by estranged spouses.

But it should be news based on fact, not conjured up disinformation designed to damage estranged spouses or commercial competitors,' he added.

Their relationship was essentially intellectual as neither were able to afford a divorce settlement from their estranged spouses.

Some want to avoid obscene and harassing calls, or the unwanted attention of estranged spouses and others who might pose a threat.

"Now we're looking into the life styles of spouses, estranged spouses, ex-spouses, bisexuals and drug users.

The detectives move to and fro, talking of anything from estranged spouses to a possible cover-up on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

It often stumbles across evidence of wrongdoing in unrelated investigations or gets tips from a spectrum of sources - from disgruntled employees to estranged spouses.

Brooke had not been one hundred per cent sure what she wanted when she accepted Bruce's invitation to come home, but meeting estranged spouses certainly wasn't it. '

At Valencia in 1549 Antonio de Araoz effected a reconciliation between estranged spouses - the duke and duchess of Calabria.

He said that while most clients wanted to hide money from the I.R.S., some also wanted to conceal money from estranged spouses or creditors.

She and Geoffrey Palmer (Lionel) had previously played estranged spouses a decade earlier in Carla Lane's series, The Last Song.

People here supported Mrs. Rich because of the particular circumstances she found herself in: she and her future husband were estranged spouses struggling through divorces that dragged on for four years.

Like estranged spouses who reluctantly realize they have little choice but to live together again, the General Motors Corporation and the United Automobile Workers union have ended their quarrel here but remain trapped in a tattered relationship.

Bending the rules to allow Elian to remain in this country when he has a competent father abroad, they say, would set a dangerous precedent that could affect hundreds of Americans with children held abroad by estranged spouses or other relatives.

And both Burt and Clemma are expecting visits from their estranged spouses: Annie (Kelly Bishop), Josie's mother who has since remarried, and Lewis (Mel Winkler), who walked out on Clemma seven years earlier.

But when the authorities raided the offices of his Touch Tone Information in May, they found a list of more than 1,200 private detective agencies across the country that were buying confidential information about Hollywood celebrities, estranged spouses, debtors and deadbeats.

The case began to turn last May when Sacramento police officers were called in a domestic dispute between Ms. Abdul and Mr. Singh, whom Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick of the Suffolk County Police described as estranged spouses.

They include other lenders who have made loans to the owner that are secured by the property, as well as other people who might have an interest in the property, like estranged spouses, beneficiaries of the owner's estate and tenants who might be living in the building.

Violence - whether inflicted by robbers, co-workers or estranged spouses - is so prevalent that it is now the leading cause of job-related deaths for women, who make up a sizable proportion of the work force at convenience stores and other retail outlets that are favorite targets of criminals.