The president of Guinea-Bissau reassured residents of the West African nation by news conference from his bullet-scarred home after mutinous soldiers fought their way into the residence in a three-hour gunbattle with his guards.

MUTINOUS soldiers fought their way into the fortified residence of Guinea-Bissau’s president yesterday, launching a three-hour gunbattle with his guards, as the leader and his family hid elsewhere in the building, a top official said.

A blaze tore through a Paris apartment building housing African immigrant families, killing at least 17 people, at least half of them children, police said today.