World

A Saddam Hussein bodyguard was overpowered and captured by American troops, along with two others loyal to the deposed dictator. The raid on their hideout in Tikrit, Iraq, Hussein's hometown, also yielded documents and other potentially useful information. And, with a reward of $25 million on offer for Hussein's capture, a 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman said Tikrit residents were coming forward in growing numbers to tell what they know about his whereabouts. Meanwhile, the first convoy of Iraqis who escaped to neighboring Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf war was due to return home Tuesday night, the UN said.

Heavy fighting was reported in Liberia's second-largest city, the port of Buchanan, as forces loyal to President Charles Taylor sought to take it back from the rebels who captured it Monday. Another battle was under way in Gbarnga, a northern town that had been Taylor's stronghold but also fell to the rebels. The rebels appeared to be from the Movement for Democracy, the smaller of the nation's two major insurgent forces, which had been observing the cease-fire agreed to in peace talks with Taylor's government. Meanwhile, in Monrovia, the capital, the main rebel movement declared its fourth unilateral truce to allow peacekeepers to deploy. But President Olusegun Obasanjo of neighboring Nigeria, who has promised to send peacekeepers, said only that they could be in Liberia in "a few days."

Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi is not hated, the military junta of Burma (Myanmar) said, but, "She is not fully informed of the reality of [the nation's] politics" and her early release from custody could cause "upheaval." Foreign Minister Win Aung said the junta was protecting her. He spoke as the International Red Cross was permitted its first visit with Suu Kyi since she was jailed two months ago and reported her in good health and spirits. Meanwhile, the junta protested the tough new economic sanctions imposed by the US because of the Suu Kyi case, saying they would only hurt the poor.

At least four people were killed and thousands of others had to be evacuated from the French Riviera as fires of suspicious origin swept across the world-famous vacation region. The dead all were foreign tourists. The fires also destroyed 21,000 acres and 60 homes, and officials called them "an ecological massacre" and "a new form of terrorism." Reports said firefighters found the remains of more than one Molotov cocktail.