1.   After the government sold the sugar refinery to a private business nearly two years ago, residents armed themselves and took over banks and jails, local leaders said.

2.   But the arson and looting spread quickly into Chinese neighborhoods, where residents armed and barricaded themselves in a now-familiar drill.

3.   The Marines were not told that local residents sometimes armed themselves for defensive reasons against intruders and that the heavily camouflaged Marines could appear threatening to those residents.

4.   Urban residents are quietly arming themselves, mainly by purchasing handguns from the black market, since procedures for registering weapons legally are cumbersome.

5.   Residents armed themselves with clubs and machetes.

6.   Residents armed themselves to guard property from roving bands of looters, many of themselves armed.

7.   Residents armed themselves against roving bands of looters, many who were also armed.

8.   Some residents armed themselves with guns to guard their property.

9.   Witnesses said ethnic Chinese residents armed themselves with sticks and knives to protect their homes and stores.