Abidjan

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - A United Nations helicopter fired at strongman Laurent Gbagbo's forces yesterday as France authorized its military to take out his heavy weapons, an unprecedented escalation in the international community's efforts to oust the entrenched leader. The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had requested France's military participation. Gbagbo lost presidential elections in November but has refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Fighters trying to install Ivory Coast's democratically elected president months after the disputed vote descended Thursday on the country's largest city, aiming to unseat the nation's entrenched ruler as gunfire broke out across Abidjan. The regular army put up almost no resistance during an offensive that began Monday, allowing the forces backing internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara to take over about 80 percent of the country in a matter of days.

Along Abidjan's six-lane boulevards, women balancing bundles on their heads walk along, babies trussed to their backs. Mercedes taxis cruise by, navigating circles full of sheep and passing billboards advertising computers. The cabs deposit business executives before skyscrapers that dwarf sidewalk stands where herbalists sell folk remedies advertised with hand-painted signs. Perhaps more visibly than most cities, Abidjan straddles two worlds - the traditional African and the Western.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - An armed group trying to install Ivory Coast's internationally recognized president has surrounded a bunker the country's strongman refuses to leave, saying they will wait for him to come out. Entrenched incumbent Laurent Gbagbo remained defiant Thursday, even after air strikes hammered his military bases and his residence, where he is holed up with his wife inside a subterranean tunnel. Via a spokesman in Europe, the ruler continued to insist he had won November's election and stressed he would never leave the country he has ruled for the last 10 years.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara took the oath of office Friday, five months after the election that nearly ripped the African nation in two and left hundreds dead when its strongman refused to concede defeat. Ouattara spent much of that time barricaded inside a hotel, surrounded by troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who used the army to terrorize the population. Gbagbo was removed militarily last month and is under house arrest in a remote town 420 miles north of Abidjan.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Renegade warlord Ibrahim "IB" Coulibaly was badly beaten and then shot in the heart by former allies turned enemy, his top aide said late Thursday to deny a claim that the two-time coup plotter had committed suicide. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, whom Coulibaly had said he considered "a father," earlier Thursday expressed his regrets at the death of his wife's onetime bodyguard, who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan that put Ouattara in power.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - More than 500 BM-21 missiles were found Thursday stacked in green wooden crates in the basement of Ivory Coast's presidential palace, where foreign leaders had gone only weeks ago to mediate a peaceful end to the country's political crisis. The extent of strongman Laurent Gbagbo's arsenal is coming into focus as it is discovered in caches around the city, enough military might to wage an extended civil war, had Gbagbo not been captured Monday. "We have here significant stocks of heavy arms, which shows clearly that the U.N. Security Council resolution was appropriate and that the opportunity was taken to get rid of these weapons," said Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the country's secretary-general, referring to the resolution that authorized U.N. and French helicopters to attack and destroy heavy arms last week.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's president tried to establish order two days after the country's strongman was arrested, moving him to a secure location and assuring the public Wednesday that looting and gunfire will cease and that life will soon return to normal. President Alassane Ouattara said Laurent Gbagbo had been moved out of the Golf Hotel, where he was taken after his capture Monday. He said that Gbagbo would be kept in a villa and that his rights as a former head of state would be respected.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - The nation's former strongman, who nearly dragged his country into civil war in a bid to retain power, is being extradited to the International Criminal Court after the issuance of a warrant for his arrest, his spokesman said Tuesday. Former President Laurent Gbagbo had been under house arrest in the village of Korhogo more than 300 miles north of Abidjan since being ousted by internationally backed forces seven months ago. A plane believed to be carrying Gbagbo landed in the early-morning hours Wednesday in the Netherlands ahead of his transfer to the court in the Hague.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Shooting erupted Saturday in a sprawling Abidjan neighborhood where fighters loyal to Ivory Coast's arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo have sought refuge, residents of the area said. The shooting appeared to be between residual forces of a pro-Gbagbo militia and forces that fought to install democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara, said two residents of Yopougon suburb that includes several ghettos of shacks as well as middle-class homes. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year's fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast's main city, killing 61 people - many of them children and teenagers - and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said. Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan's Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the second New Year's Eve fireworks display since peace returned to this West African nation after a bloody upheaval over presidential elections put the nation on the brink of civil war and turned this city into a battle zone.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - The victims were rounded up at their homes, at work or while out having drinks. Taken without explanation to military camps overflowing with prisoners, they were deprived of food and beaten routinely with belts, clubs and guns and released only after their families paid substantial sums of money. A report issued Monday by New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses Ivory Coast's military of undertaking a swift, brutal, and illegal campaign of arbitrary arrest and detention in response to some of the most significant violence since last year's election crisis.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - The nation's former strongman, who nearly dragged his country into civil war in a bid to retain power, is being extradited to the International Criminal Court after the issuance of a warrant for his arrest, his spokesman said Tuesday. Former President Laurent Gbagbo had been under house arrest in the village of Korhogo more than 300 miles north of Abidjan since being ousted by internationally backed forces seven months ago. A plane believed to be carrying Gbagbo landed in the early-morning hours Wednesday in the Netherlands ahead of his transfer to the court in the Hague.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Looters stormed Ivory Coast's national museum during the bloody political crisis earlier this year, plundering nearly $8.5 million worth of art, including the institution's entire gold collection. Five months later, the museum's gates still open and close at the posted hours, but empty display cases gather dust. A lone set of elephant tusks sits in the dark in the main exposition room. Staffer Oumar Gbane now spends his days making a handwritten inventory of what was stolen, since his computer was among the items taken.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara took the oath of office Friday, five months after the election that nearly ripped the African nation in two and left hundreds dead when its strongman refused to concede defeat. Ouattara spent much of that time barricaded inside a hotel, surrounded by troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who used the army to terrorize the population. Gbagbo was removed militarily last month and is under house arrest in a remote town 420 miles north of Abidjan.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Renegade warlord Ibrahim "IB" Coulibaly was badly beaten and then shot in the heart by former allies turned enemy, his top aide said late Thursday to deny a claim that the two-time coup plotter had committed suicide. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, whom Coulibaly had said he considered "a father," earlier Thursday expressed his regrets at the death of his wife's onetime bodyguard, who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan that put Ouattara in power.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Nine days after forces loyal to the internationally recognized new leader ended former President Laurent Gbagbo's defiant hold on power, the country's commercial capital was rocked by new fighting, trapping civilians. In the Abidjan suburb of Yopougon, Gbagbo diehards battled the forces of new President Alassane Ouattara. In suburban Abobo, clashes broke out between the forces of two warlords, both pledging loyalty to Ouattara. The violence Wednesday was a major setback as the country was beginning to return to normal.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Shooting erupted Saturday in a sprawling Abidjan neighborhood where fighters loyal to Ivory Coast's arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo have sought refuge, residents of the area said. The shooting appeared to be between residual forces of a pro-Gbagbo militia and forces that fought to install democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara, said two residents of Yopougon suburb that includes several ghettos of shacks as well as middle-class homes. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - More than 500 BM-21 missiles were found Thursday stacked in green wooden crates in the basement of Ivory Coast's presidential palace, where foreign leaders had gone only weeks ago to mediate a peaceful end to the country's political crisis. The extent of strongman Laurent Gbagbo's arsenal is coming into focus as it is discovered in caches around the city, enough military might to wage an extended civil war, had Gbagbo not been captured Monday. "We have here significant stocks of heavy arms, which shows clearly that the U.N. Security Council resolution was appropriate and that the opportunity was taken to get rid of these weapons," said Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the country's secretary-general, referring to the resolution that authorized U.N. and French helicopters to attack and destroy heavy arms last week.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's president tried to establish order two days after the country's strongman was arrested, moving him to a secure location and assuring the public Wednesday that looting and gunfire will cease and that life will soon return to normal. President Alassane Ouattara said Laurent Gbagbo had been moved out of the Golf Hotel, where he was taken after his capture Monday. He said that Gbagbo would be kept in a villa and that his rights as a former head of state would be respected.