Embassies

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy here just hours after he pulled out of the presidential runoff election scheduled for Friday, citing rising violence by supporters of longtime President Robert Mugabe. Despite the opposition's withdrawal, the Zimbabwe ruling party's crackdown continued unabated Monday, with 60 opposition activists arrested by riot police in a lunchtime raid at the opposition headquarters.

President Bush dedicated a massive $434-million U.S. Embassy today in Beijing, calling it a symbol of deepening ties between the two trading partners and sometime political rivals. The eight-story American Embassy is the second-largest in the world, after the heavily fortified U.S. mission compound in Baghdad. The 500,000-square-foot structure, situated on 10 acres in a new diplomatic zone, is wrapped in free-standing transparent and opaque glass.

John Adams slept here. As ambassador to the Court of St. James's from the newly born United States of America, the future president took up residence on Grosvenor Square in London's fashionable Mayfair district, an easy walk to the bespoke tailors on Savile Row and the royal residence at Buckingham Palace. The move launched an American presence on the square, north of the River Thames, that has lasted more than 200 years. Not for much longer. Last month, the U.S.

A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy here early today but no one was hurt, officials said. Dozens of police cars surrounded the embassy and officers cordoned off all roads in the area, including a major boulevard in front of the mission. Greek antiterrorism officers rushed to the compound. Investigators found the device used to fire the rocket at a construction site nearby. "This was a rocket attack launched from a building across the street.

Islamic extremists involved in a deadly Jan. 3 gun battle with police in Tunisia had blueprints of foreign embassies and documents naming foreign envoys, Interior Minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem said. He did not identify the embassies or diplomats. At least 14 people, including two members of the security forces, were killed in the shootout in Soliman, 25 miles south of the capital, Tunis. Fifteen people were arrested.

Greek authorities blamed domestic militant groups for the rocket-propelled grenade that hit the U.S. Embassy in Athens. Police are examining the authenticity of two calls from the group Revolutionary Struggle, which has carried out six bombings since 2003. The group has criticized the U.S. in the past, citing treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Gunmen hijacked a U.S. Embassy vehicle Saturday on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital and killed the wife and mother-in-law of an embassy employee. "The thugs ordered the two women out, but they hesitated," said Isaiah Osugo, a criminal investigator. "Then they were shot." The attackers escaped with the embassy vehicle but soon abandoned it, said Francis Munyambu, Nairobi's deputy provisional police officer. Police later killed two of the carjackers, police spokesman Gideon Kibunja said.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that they were working with the Iraqi government to determine whether a member of parliament was a convicted terrorist who had been sentenced to death in Kuwait for involvement in bombing the U.S. and French embassies there in 1983. The legislator, Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, was elected in December 2005 as a representative from Babil, a province south of Baghdad.

Eritrea dismissed allegations that its forces crossed into neighboring Ethiopia and kidnapped five Britons affiliated with their country's embassy and 13 Ethiopians who were touring a remote border region. The tour group went missing Thursday while traveling in Ethiopia's Afar region, a barren expanse of salt mines and volcanoes 300 miles northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.

The location of the new U.S. embassy in Iraq is no secret. It's pretty difficult to camouflage 104 acres in the middle of Baghdad -- particularly 104 acres over which canary-yellow construction cranes have been hovering for months. And thanks to reports from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and various news outlets, we know the embassy compound on the west bank of the Tigris River will cost $592 million and include 27 buildings behind a series of protective walls.