61.   Hundreds of Chechen fighters held their positions around the palace and other key locations, while Russian forces pressed from three sides with artillery and tank fire.

62.   Hundreds of police later took up positions around the American Embassy downtown.

63.   In Hebron, Israeli troops reinforced positions around Jewish settler enclaves with bulletproof watch towers and dozens of soldiers patrolled the downtown Arab market area.

64.   In Kabul Wednesday, Taliban troops made significant territorial gains against heavily guarded government positions around the city limits.

65.   It said the Chechen rebels were fortifying their positions around Shali and Gudermes, two key towns southeast and east of Grozny that remain in rebel hands.

66.   Late Saturday night Israeli tanks and bulldozers took up positions around Palestinian villages north of the West Bank city of Nablus with little resistance, Palestinians said.

67.   Later, peacekeepers strung barbed wire in front of the apartment houses and took up guard positions around the area.

68.   London shop owners boarded up their stores and thousands of police took up positions around the capital on Wednesday to guard against threatened May Day violence by anti-capitalist protesters.

69.   NATO air strikes against Bosnia Serb positions around Sarajevo must continue until the city is safe from attack, Defense Secretary Michael Portillo said Wednesday.

70.   NATO airstrikes on their positions around Bihac now would carry too great a risk of civilian casualties.