Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, checked himself into a hospital after experiencing shortness of breath, an aide said. Cheney, 63, who has had four heart attacks, returned from a hunting trip late this past week with a cold that left him short of breath, spokeswoman Mary Matalin said. She said the vice president felt fine otherwise, but that as a precaution and given his health history, his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, recommended that Cheney go to George Washington University Hospital for tests to make sure it was just a cold.

The Middle East after Yasser Arafat was the main topic today at the White House, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with President Bush. One day after the burial of Arafat in Ramallah, preparations were underway for elections for the top position.
Many Palestinians paid homage to their departed leader, visiting his grave at the Muqata compound on Saturday. To the roars of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and shots in the air fired by tense Palestinian police and masked gunmen, Arafat's flag-draped casket was borne through milling, surging crowds Friday for burial in a plot next to the office to which Israel confined the Palestinian leader for nearly three years. The burial ceremony followed a solemn funeral ceremony earlier in the day in Cairo, attended by world dignitaries. Egyptian helicopters then flew Arafat's body and accompanying PA leaders to a parking lot near the burial site prepared for the Palestinian leader.

Backed by tanks and artillery fire, U.S. troops launched a major attack Saturday against insurgent holdouts in southern Fallujah, hoping to finish off resistance in what had been the major guerrilla bastion of central Iraq. An Iraqi official estimated that about 1,000 insurgents had been killed so far in the weeklong offensive.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi National Guard convoy passed by, witnesses said. In recent days, an armed uprising in sympathy with Fallujah's insurgents has killed 10 Iraqi National Guards and one American soldier, the U.S. military said. The region's governor blamed the uprising on "the betrayal of some police members" and said National Guard units arrived to help quell the violence. Also, a U.S. infantry battalion was diverted from Fallujah and sent back to Mosul. Insurgents appeared to be taking advantage of the lessening of American troop strength around Fallujah as U.S. commanders report an increase in small-scale rebel attacks.