Presidential Palace

Firing warning shots and tear gas, police stopped mourners from approaching the presidential palace with the coffin of a man killed last week in a protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. At least six people suffered minor injuries in the violence that followed. Most were hurt by hurled rocks or shots fired by Aristide supporters, witnesses said.

United Nations and French helicopters in Ivory Coast on Sunday attacked the home and presidential palace of the country's longtime leader, who has refused to step down since an election in November in which the U.N. says he was defeated. The attacks on Laurent Gbagbo's residence and the presidential palace mark the United Nations' second military intervention, after similar assaults a week earlier. The U.N. said Friday that forces loyal to Gbagbo used a cease-fire Tuesday as a ploy to consolidate and gain ground in Abidjan.

President Corazon Aquino's chief housekeeper died of cancer today with a weeping president at her bedside, the presidential palace announced. Aquino stayed by 55-year-old Priscilla Ruiz (Fritz) Aragon's side for two hours until she died at the suburban Makati Medical Center, an aide said. The president, her eyes swollen from crying, refused to talk to reporters as she left the hospital.

Laurent Gbagbo, who has clung to power in Ivory Coast despite his defeat last fall in U.N.-certified elections, called for a cease-fire Tuesday after weeks of intense fighting and was negotiating the terms of his surrender, French and United Nations officials said. A U.N. statement confirmed that Gbagbo had retreated to a bunker under his residence and had called for a cease-fire between his troops and forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, who was widely viewed as the winner of November's election.

Syrian gunners blasted Lebanon's presidential palace, army headquarters and the U.S. ambassador's residence Wednesday, and gunmen stormed the central prison in Muslim West Beirut, freeing 189 convicts. A special squad of Beirut police recaptured 95 of the escapees despite shellfire across the divided city, authorities said. Police said 10 people were killed and 89 wounded in Wednesday's duels between Christian army units and their Syrian and Druze militia foes. That raised the overall toll to 337 people killed and 1,323 wounded since the latest round of fighting, believed to be the most destructive of Lebanon's 14-year-old civil war, erupted March 14. One salvo crashed into the building housing the state-run Channel 7 television station in West Beirut during the 8:30 p.m. newscast.

Afghans took cover Saturday as guerrilla factions battled in the streets and rockets slammed into the shattered capital, killing at least 35 people, according to rebel sources. Government sources said one rocket alone hit the presidential palace, killing eight people and injuring 12. The fighting appeared to be the fiercest in the capital since President Najibullah was toppled in April. Dozens of rockets rattled the city throughout the day as tanks dueled in the rutted streets.

Christian army commander Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun rejected an ultimatum to leave the presidential palace and said Monday that he would die fighting. Aoun told a news conference in his bunker beneath the shell-battered palace east of Beirut that he is recruiting volunteers to meet a possible assault by the 40,000 Syrian soldiers stationed in Lebanon.

President Corazon Aquino today ordered at least three radio stations closed for airing right-wing propaganda. Hundreds of troops deployed around the presidential palace as the government warned of a new plot--code-named RAMBO--to topple her. Presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno accused right-wing politicians of plotting with Aquino's cousin and allies of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos to attempt a coup this month. Brig. Gen.

A mighty earthquake rocked the small, impoverished island nation of Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital, the presidential palace and other buildings, triggering massive panic and claiming an as-yet uncounted number of lives -- perhaps thousands. Screams for help emanated from felled buildings, and chaos reigned. One diplomat called the quake a "catastrophe" in one of the countries least equipped to handle it. As night fell on the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, reports emerged of extensive destruction; homes and buildings a shambles; trapped, seriously injured victims; and residents sleeping in streets.

Rebel planes bombed President Corazon Aquino's presidential palace in Manila today in support of a coup attempt by troops who took over at least two military camps and closed the international airport. At least 10 people were killed and 64 wounded in fighting between the rebels and loyalist troops. Early today, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater announced that President Bush has authorized U.S. military aid to help the Aquino government. The extent of the U.S.

When the soldiers left their battle positions and the guns fell silent Tuesday morning in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan around Ivory Coast's presidential palace, terrified residents didn't feel safe enough to go outside. Bands of uniformed soldiers and militias in civvies roamed the city, the nation's commercial capital. It was anyone's guess whose side they were on and how dangerous they might be. The uniforms of the rival forces in the fierce fight for power are identical — and the allegiances of ragtag armed youth militias rampaging and looting shops and houses are equally unclear.

Ivory Coast's defeated president, Laurent Gbagbo, staged a last stand in the commercial capital of Abidjan on Friday as his rival's forces attacked his home, the presidential palace and two military bases. With most of the top military commanders having deserted him, many observers said it was a matter of hours — days at most — before Gbagbo fell. His whereabouts were unknown. Witnesses reported heavy fighting in Gbagbo's upscale residential neighborhood of Cocody as the Republican Guard and loyal fighters battled to repel his rival's forces.

Tanks shadowed street corners and rival soldiers kept watch in Yemen's capital, Sana, where protesters Wednesday plotted a possible march on the palace of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has refused to step down after weeks of demonstrations and defections by generals and government officials. Sana has become at once eerie and intoxicating because of an anticipated showdown Friday, when tens of thousands of protesters may rally in front of the embattled president's home. The prospect for violence is high as troops supporting demonstrators share the narrow streets of an ancient capital with soldiers loyal to Saleh.

HBO is taking a walk on "The Dark Side. " A spokesman for the company confirmed Monday that a miniseries about former Vice President Dick Cheney is in the works. The project will be based on the "Frontline" documentary about Cheney, "The Dark Side," as well as the book "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency" by Barton Gellman. The miniseries will trace Cheney's career from being Donald Rumsfeld's protégé in the Nixon administration to his time as chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, which led to posts serving as secretary of Defense in George H.W. Bush's administration and later vice president under President George W. Bush.

President Obama said Monday that the United States has sometimes taken Latin America for granted, but that he sees the region as an increasingly important player on the world stage. Obama, in Chile at the midpoint of a five-day, three-country Latin American trip, sought to dispel views of the U.S. as an overbearing neighbor dictating terms to countries in the region. He called Latin America "a region on the move, proud of its progress, and ready to assume a greater role in world affairs," and he described the U.S. economy as deeply entwined with that of Latin America.

As the wild celebrations of a new beginning continued Saturday in Tahrir Square, the atmosphere was decidedly more subdued seven miles away near the Heliopolis Sporting Club and President Hosni Mubarak's former official residence. To be sure, there were some in this wealthy Cairo suburb who were ecstatic. A few who waved large Egyptian flags from their car windows as they passed through the wide tree-lined boulevards planned by a Belgian baron a century ago. But there was none of the horn-thumping taking place in the central square that had been the heart of the revolt against Mubarak.

After almost six weeks of savage fighting, the Russian flag now flies triumphant over the captured presidential palace in Grozny. But if history is any guide, the Kremlin's problems with the proud, embittered and vengeful Chechen people are far from over. For at least seven centuries, this tiny, fierce and often persecuted people have defined themselves by the struggle against one foreign invader after another.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to step down Thursday, saying in a nationally televised speech that he would hand authority to his vice president in a move that enraged and bewildered hundreds of thousands of protesters packed into Cairo's Tahrir Square. The country was anticipating an address that would mark the end of Mubarak's 30 years in power but instead was told that he was going nowhere. Protesters shouted, "Leave! Leave!" and chants of disapproval echoed across the Nile at the prospect that the 17-day standoff with the government was not over.

The push to topple Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak veered toward a pivotal confrontation as organizers appealed for a million compatriots to flood the streets of Cairo on Tuesday and brushed aside the appointment of new government ministers as meaningless. The rallying call for a massive protest march was issued as the largest crowds yet thronged iconic Tahrir, or Liberation, Square in the heart of the capital. The action could force Egypt's powerful army to choose sides: Either take violent measures to quell the unrest, or acknowledge through inaction that anti-Mubarak passions have become too great to contain.