Mr. Steel said it was "an especially troubling indication that the Saudis, OPEC's bedrock," had discarded, at least temporarily, their pledge not to go beyond their quota.

The most troubling indication of things to come, however, is a story told about California by a ragged man huddled with other migrant men around a campfire.

In the crisis, and particularly in the government's initial refusal to identify what turned out to be deadly gas, these critics saw troubling indications that Soviet autocracy and unaccountability lingered in today's Russia.

Since Walter has intestinal cancer, the question is a moot one, and the syringe in his bedside drawer is not the only troubling indication of that.

There are plenty of indications - unproven but troubling - of attempts to buy off or illegally coach witnesses ranging from Webster Hubbell to acquaintances of Mr. Clinton's purported female associates.

These remain troubling indications of a regime determined to crush its opposition and threaten its neighbors.

But a troubling indication of a weakening economy came from the Commerce Department's report that housing construction fell by 2.6 percent in July, the sixth straight month of decline.

One longtime neighborhood resident, Albert Murray, the writer, said the popularity of the Nation of Islam was a troubling indication of the extent of confusion racking much of black America.

This is another troubling indication that Iraq has made no decision to disarm.

Many economists said they found the latter figure to be a troubling indication of incipient inflation, but Mr. Brady said he did not.