Motorcade

A police officer participating in President Obama's motorcade Sunday died from injuries sustained in an accident along I-95 near West Palm Beach, Fla., according to police and White House officials. The officer, identified as Bruce St. Laurent from Jupiter, Fla., was near the front of the motorcade when his motorcycle collided with a pickup. White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that no other vehicles taking part in the motorcade were involved in the crash. The identity of the truck's driver has yet to be disclosed.

A police officer participating in President Obama's motorcade Sunday died from injuries sustained in an accident along I-95 near West Palm Beach, Fla., according to police and White House officials. The officer, identified as Bruce St. Laurent from Jupiter, Fla., was near the front of the motorcade when his motorcycle collided with a pickup. White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that no other vehicles taking part in the motorcade were involved in the crash. The identity of the truck's driver has yet to be disclosed.

Covering the hoopla surrounding these Games is a little weird -- the chance encounters, the odd conversations. To talk to real people, I ride the public buses -- all elbows and wet umbrellas. To talk to CEOs, I hang out at hotel bars, where they congregate like gulls on the thick velvety carpets. Swear to God, it's just good reporting. So I am standing at the oyster bar at the Hotel Vancouver, watching the chef prepare a rather decadent seafood platter for the vice president's wife, Mrs. Biden.

WASHINGTON -- On the Sunday morning TV news shows, surrogates for President Obama and Mitt Romney were duking it out over healthcare, Medicare and whether their ads are getting too nasty. Both candidates, meanwhile, were at worship with their families. The Obamas walked from the White House and across Lafayette Park on Sunday morning to attend a service at St. John's Episcopal Church, where they heard a message about working together despite political division. Delivering the sermon was Rev. Michael Angell, who mentioned the shooting at the Family Research Council building in Washington.

Iran denied media reports Wednesday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's motorcade was attacked while traveling in the western city of Hamedan. Discounting speculation that swept the country, Iran's Press TV said that "an informed source in Iran's presidential office has rejected as false the reports of grenade attack on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some foreign news sources published reports that a grenade exploded near the motorcade of President Ahmadinejad." Reuters had reported that the president's convoy was traveling from the airport to a sports stadium in Hamedan when a homemade bomb exploded, injuring several people.

In an extraordinary outpouring of public emotion, thousands of people solemnly lined state highways and city streets Thursday to pay their last respects to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the legendary scion of America's most storied political dynasty. They came from Argentina and Ireland, from New York and New Hampshire. But mostly they came from across Massachusetts -- the state Kennedy dominated for nearly five decades -- many to weep or pray as his flag-draped casket was transported in a poignant procession from the family compound in Hyannis Port to his fallen brother's presidential library in Boston.

A Maori man known to be an anti-royalist tried to ram a car into Queen Elizabeth II's motorcade today, but was intercepted by police, officials said. Chief Inspector Bob Mitchell said Dun Mihaka was prevented from driving into the motorcade while the queen was on her way to Porirua Police College to open festivities marking the centenary of the New Zealand police.

A motorcade driving Gov. Gray Davis to Los Angeles was clocked going 94 mph by a California Highway Patrol officer who pursued the cars for five miles until members of the governor's security detail identified themselves, sources said Friday. The chase occurred Aug. 2 on a two-lane portion of California 46 in San Luis Obispo County known as "Blood Alley," because at least 29 people have died after traffic accidents there since 1998. Movie actor James Dean was killed on the same stretch in 1955.

Attackers armed with a grenade launcher and machine guns ambushed President Eduard A. Shevardnadze's motorcade in a 10-minute battle that killed one attacker and one bodyguard. The president escaped unharmed, aides said. State television showed the 70-year-old leader talking by phone later with Azerbaijan's president, assuring him, "I am OK." The attack took place in the capital, Tbilisi, as Shevardnadze's four-car motorcade was returning home.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's car was involved in a minor traffic accident Tuesday as he rode to nearby Andrews Air Force Base in a motorcade, a spokesman for the Defense Department said. A vehicle that was not in the motorcade apparently spun out of control and bumped the front end of Rumsfeld's official car, according to spokesman Glenn Flood.

Speaking at a fundraising event in Philadelphia on Thursday, President Obama maintained the antagonistic tone he has taken this week toward Republicans and the ongoing debt-limit talks. “I’m prepared to bring the deficit down by trillions of dollars,’’ he said. “But I will not reduce our deficit by sacrificing our kids’ education.’’ That drew applause from the crowd packed into the Hyatt hotel ballroom. Obama then drew a distinction between his vision for the country and that of his opponents.

  Courting the Latino vote, President Obama made a quick stop in Puerto Rico to pick up some campaign cash and lavish attention on a territory that hasn't had an official visit from a sitting U.S. president since John F. Kennedy was in the White House. Obama got a raucous welcome Tuesday after Air Force One touched down in Puerto Rico, with thousands of flag-waving residents packing the streets for a glimpse of his motorcade as he rode to the governor's mansion. Signs posted on street lamps showed side-by-side photos of Obama and JFK. "We are proud to be part of history," the signs read.

It was first reported as a grenade, then a bomb and finally a harmless firecracker. But whatever was tossed toward Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's motorcade Wednesday, news of the incident went viral across the Internet as his government quickly denied it was an assassination attempt. Discounting speculation that swept the country, Iran's state-run Press TV said that a source in the president's office "rejected as false the reports of a grenade attack" on Ahmadinejad.

Iran denied media reports Wednesday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's motorcade was attacked while traveling in the western city of Hamedan. Discounting speculation that swept the country, Iran's Press TV said that "an informed source in Iran's presidential office has rejected as false the reports of grenade attack on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some foreign news sources published reports that a grenade exploded near the motorcade of President Ahmadinejad." Reuters had reported that the president's convoy was traveling from the airport to a sports stadium in Hamedan when a homemade bomb exploded, injuring several people.

The attempted assassination of the British ambassador to Yemen on Monday indicated that Al Qaeda remains capable of striking Western targets despite the arrests of some of its leaders and raids against its mountainous strongholds in the Arabian Peninsula. A lone suicide bomber exploded alongside the armored car carrying Ambassador Timothy Torlot on his morning drive to the British Embassy in the capital, Sana. The ambassador and other British officials were unharmed. Police initially said the bomber, whose name was not released, was the only casualty.

Covering the hoopla surrounding these Games is a little weird -- the chance encounters, the odd conversations. To talk to real people, I ride the public buses -- all elbows and wet umbrellas. To talk to CEOs, I hang out at hotel bars, where they congregate like gulls on the thick velvety carpets. Swear to God, it's just good reporting. So I am standing at the oyster bar at the Hotel Vancouver, watching the chef prepare a rather decadent seafood platter for the vice president's wife, Mrs. Biden.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Friday that a visa had been granted to an Armenian emigrant who halted his motorcade at the State Department to appeal for permission to visit his ailing mother. Ambarsum Khlgatian, 61, had stationed himself across the street from the building's diplomatic entrance Thursday carrying a placard that read, "Gorbachev, Let Me Visit My Dying Mother."

A day after protesters pelted her with eggs, a well-built native Maori today bared his tattooed buttocks at Queen Elizabeth II's motorcade in an ancient warrior insult over a 146-year-old treaty. But police said the queen probably did not see the protest because her Rolls-Royce had passed by the man moments before he lifted his grass skirt in the provincial city of Napier.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas inaugurated the most ambitious Palestinian housing construction project in the West Bank, which aims to build 30,000 homes in the next five to 10 years. A newly tarred road led Abbas' motorcade to a site among hills of olive groves near the city of Jenin where housing for 5,000 people will be built. Large-scale organized housing projects are new to the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in unplanned towns lacking proper infrastructure.

In an extraordinary outpouring of public emotion, thousands of people solemnly lined state highways and city streets Thursday to pay their last respects to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the legendary scion of America's most storied political dynasty. They came from Argentina and Ireland, from New York and New Hampshire. But mostly they came from across Massachusetts -- the state Kennedy dominated for nearly five decades -- many to weep or pray as his flag-draped casket was transported in a poignant procession from the family compound in Hyannis Port to his fallen brother's presidential library in Boston.