Maputo

Businessman Armando Guebuza was sworn in as Mozambique's president in Maputo's Independence Square, taking over from Joaquim Chissano, who retired after 18 years. The 61-year-old millionaire is the African nation's third president since independence from Portugal in 1975.

A Boeing 737 operated by the Mozambican airline LAM overshot a runway after landing in bad weather, and five of 108 people aboard were injured, it was reported Friday. The accident occurred Thursday in the northern town of Lichinga during a regularly scheduled flight between Maputo and three other cities, the news agency AIM said.

The collision of a crowded bus and two other vehicles in a Maputo suburb killed 21 people and injured 121 on Monday, the official Mozambican news agency reported. Official sources said 14 of those injured are in critical condition.

Anti-government rebels armed with axes, machetes and clubs massacred 54 civilians near the southern coastal town of Xai-Xai, the official Mozambican news agency AIM said Wednesday. The report said most of the victims were kidnaped by guerrillas of the Mozambique National Resistance in Gaza province and marched to Fidel Castro village, just outside Xai-Xai and 90 miles northeast of Maputo, the capital, where they were killed Monday.

Several thousand youths ransacked Malawi's embassy and stoned South Africa's trade mission today to protest the death of President Samora Machel, witnesses said. Reporters at the scene said police used tear gas and fired warning shots to disperse the first violent demonstration reported in Maputo since Machel led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975. He was killed in a plane crash Oct. 19 just across the border in South Africa.

Mozambican right-wing rebels said Monday they have killed about 100 soldiers in an offensive aimed at forcing the government to hold direct peace talks. In a statement released in Lisbon, the Mozambique National Resistance said that nearly all the government soldiers were killed last Thursday in a battle at the Magude barracks, about 65 miles north of Maputo, the capital.

Explosions and a fire at Mozambique's national weapons depot in the capital, Maputo, killed at least nine people and sent thousands fleeing in panic. Windows were shattered and buildings shook in the impoverished neighborhood. Police sealed off the area as ambulances rushed from the scene. President Armando Guebuza appealed for calm on national TV as firefighters and military officials tried to control the blaze. He said the military was investigating the cause.