Official Visits

Over lamb chops and cuts of beef, President Bush chatted amiably Saturday at this presidential retreat with a former leader of a legendary band of leftist guerrillas known as the Tupamaros. "I respect you and I'm proud to be in your country," Bush told Jose "Pepe" Mujica, who is now Uruguay's minister of agriculture and livestock, according to a White House aide. Mujica, the aide said, was pleased to give Bush an expansive overview of this tiny nation's agricultural needs.

Only Sheriff Lee Baca, it seems, is enjoying the ride up the mountain. The dirt road, barely wide enough for the bus carrying Baca's entourage, drops off hundreds if not thousands of feet. It's getting dark, rain is on the horizon and the driver doesn't speak English. A scout jumps out every so often to make sure the wheels are still on the road. The Pakistani escort warns of the price on American heads, and road signs declare: "Foreigners Prohibited.

In a striking example of how communism is crumbling in Eastern Europe, President Bush went before an enthusiastic audience at Karl Marx University of Economics here Wednesday and outlined a seven-point program to aid Hungary in its efforts to develop free enterprise and a more open political system.

The White House's choice of Ghana as President Obama's only port of call in sub-Saharan Africa this week has triggered envy across the continent. The visit, his first to Africa since becoming president, is also being interpreted as a snub to those African governments with particularly poor records of corruption, administration and tainted elections. "It makes sense that Obama would want to go to Ghana.

So far on her trip to Europe, Michelle Obama has hugged the queen of England, double cheek-kissed the glamorous first lady of France and electrified the celebrity-obsessed tabloids. When she talked to students at a school for underprivileged girls in London, though, her message was about her working-class childhood and her success gained through strong values and hard work in school.

Launching his first papal pilgrimage to the Americas, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday issued a strong condemnation of abortion and immediately touched off a firestorm by suggesting Catholic politicians who legalize it have excommunicated themselves from the church. The flap began hours before his plane even touched down here, when he spoke to reporters in flight from Rome during his first full-fledged news conference as pontiff.

Barack Obama entered the Oval Office for the first time Monday, meeting with President Bush to plan the transfer of power while his wife, Michelle, was escorted by the first lady through the Obama family's next home. Obama's visit to the White House, six days after his victory, was rich in symbolism as the incoming and outgoing presidents strode side by side along the colonnade. When they reached the Oval Office, Bush held the door for the man who will succeed him Jan. 20.

Nelson Mandela, standing on a storied street corner in Harlem, pleaded the cause of his African National Congress in an emotional, tumultuous twilight rally Thursday, evoking memories of such powerful street speakers as Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. "Brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, victory is in sight," Mandela said to 100,000 cheering supporters, some of whom were leaning out of windows or perched on fire escapes for a glimpse of South Africa's premier black leader.

After 34 years, Col. Moammar Kadafi, formerly among the most ostracized men in the world, returned to the heart of Western civilization for a five-day visit to the French capital, including dinner Monday night at the presidential palace. The leader of oil-rich Libya came with his own Bedouin tent for entertaining and an open checkbook to buy billions of euros in French goods -- including 21 Airbus planes, fighter jets and a nuclear-powered desalination plant for making drinkable water.

When she was a child, she liked to turn cartwheels and be called Sandra. Her ambition was to be a circus bareback rider. She did become an accomplished horsewoman, but these days, don't call her anything but "your royal highness." Because Alexandra Helen Olga Christabel, Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra, Hon. Lady Ogilvy, GCVO, has a richer royal pedigree than the Queen of England.