Shevardnadze Safe After Ambush

Attackers armed with a grenade launcher and machine guns ambushed President Eduard A. Shevardnadze’s motorcade in a 10-minute battle that killed one attacker and one bodyguard. The president escaped unharmed, aides said. State television showed the 70-year-old leader talking by phone later with Azerbaijan’s president, assuring him, “I am OK.” The attack took place in the capital, Tbilisi, as Shevardnadze’s four-car motorcade was returning home. It was the second assassination attempt in four years on Shevardnadze.