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In the last 3 days, more than 1000 people have been massacred in Ivory Coast. Far less were killed in Libya and we joined with other nations to do air strikes, no fly zones etc. in Libya. We have not done that in Ivory Coast. President Obama said we went into Libya for humanitarian reasons. (1000 massacred in 3 days is a humanitarian crisis.) How do we reconcile the inactivity in Ivory Coast? And I am not suggesting we should go in (I don't have the answer.) I am trying to figure out how the Administration justifies the disparate treatment...

The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast began evacuating some 200 employees after frequent attacks on its headquarters by forces loyal to the country's strongman. A UN employee said they were told Sunday that they were leaving. They were taken by helicopter from their downtown base to the airport. Another helicopter will take them to the northern city of Bouake. The person asked not to be named because employees are not authorized to speak to the press.

GENEVA — At least 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in one town in Ivory Coast this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday, as rival forces continued to battle for power in the country. "We have information that at least 800 persons were killed on March 29 (Tuesday) in Duekoue in intercommunal violence," ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas told Reuters. "Our colleagues saw hundreds of bodies ... We strongly suspect that was the result of intercommunal violence." Fierce fighting spread across Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan Friday as troops loyal to Ivory Coast's Laurent...

It is ever so obvious that Barack Obama's heart is not in Libya, but like every President since Jefferson he has come to recognize the harsh contradictions as the nation's chief executive and campaigning for the office. His predicament is nothing new. Principle meets the real world. In the midst of the BP oil spill, I wrote that the President seemed "detached". This entire administration can now aptly described as "detached", but more importantly it can now be held accountable for gross contradiction in selectively determining "humanitarian" intervention. Obama dithered for three weeks on Libya, missing a window of opportunity...

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Heavy fighting raged Friday in the neighborhoods where the presidential palace is located as well as near the presidential residence and state TV broadcaster as armed forces loyal to the elected president tried to install him to power and oust the country's strongman. Residents locked up in their homes reported barrages of heavy arms fire punctuated by detonations throughout the night. On the peninsula where the presidential palace is situated, building were shaking with each explosion, witnesses said. Patrick Achi, a spokesman for the country's internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara said the fighters had breached the...

Obama’s inhuman “humanitarian” doctrine Obama is active in Libya, spending Billions of dollars, he said it's a "humanitarian" mission to "protect civilians." * When protesters against the oppressive totalitarian Islamic-apartheid regime of Iran were slaughtered in the streets. Obama said: "We don't intervene." At a time when the Islamic Republic pushes bloodshed (directly or via its Hezbollah arm) in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc. * In the Ivory Coast people are dying. "Moral" Obama couldn’t find oil there, apparently. * In the Sudan, 2,500,000 already died in previous years by the racist Arab and militant Islamic North /...

Intense fighting has erupted in western Ivory Coast, where fighters loyal to two rival presidents are battling for control of Duekoue, a strategic town. Residents of Duekoue reported hearing explosions and heavy weapons being fired on Monday. Witnesses say fighters backing internationally-recognized president Alassane Ouattara launched an attack to capture the town from forces of incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo. Pro-Ouattara rebels have been making gains in western Ivory Coast, seizing at least five towns from pro-Gbagbo troops in recent weeks.

Washington, DC - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday condemned Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his forces for violence in the African nation and for a "callous disregard" for life, AFP reported. "The United States calls for an immediate end to the violence," Clinton said in a statement that took aim at Gbagbo, who is resisting calls from the world community to hand the presidency to recognized November election winner Alassane Ouattara. She said the "United States strongly condemns" attacks by Gbagbo's forces on his own people, including one Thursday on unarmed women demonstrators that left seven...

Four Israeli embassies and consulates have been temporarily shut down due to a mounting terror threat, according to foreign press. Turkish newspaper Hurriet reported that the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul are among the diplomatic missions that have shut their doors. The Counter-Terror Bureau has cited, in recent days, a growing threat of the imminent execution of terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, with emphases on Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Venezuela. The Bureau urges Israelis traveling to these countries to avoid places where there are concentrations of Israelis, and...

"Ivory Coast's farmers provide a third of the world's supply of cocoa" Long queues have formed at banks in Ivory Coast amid fears of a banking collapse as the Standard Chartered bank said it was suspending operations. It is the fourth bank to close this week because of turmoil following November's disputed presidential polls. Earlier it was reported that West Africa's BRVM stock exchange, based in Abidjan, had suspended its operations. BRVM staff told the BBC they were working, but it was not clear if they were actually able to do transactions.

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

If there’s one subject the mainstream media loves to skirt it’s the problems caused by Islamic expansionism in the developing world. If there’s another subject the MSM loves to avoid, it’s the problems caused by massive migrations of people into previously ethnically/religiously homogeneous nations. The volatile political situation currently unfolding in the Ivory Coast highlights the overlap between both problems in an acute way. While many media outlets are depicting the battle between supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo and Alessane Outtara as simply a fight between the southern and northern parts of Cote d’Ivoire, the truth is much more complex....

Currently there is an impasse in the runoff of the Presidential elections in the Ivory Coast. The French-linked and funded electoral commission declared that Alassane Outtara won the election while the Constitutional Court declared incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo as the victor. The 'international community' of Western countries, NGOs, UN appeasers, and a variety of Francafrique cowards and bed-wetters support Ouattara even though massive fraud has been demonstrated at the polls in the rebel-held North. This result should be no surprise to anyone. There has been no effective disarmament of the tin-pot rebel warlords of the North and no unification of...

Israel neutral in crisis facing friendly African state; Ambassador Kessie Raymond Koudou tells 'Post' country is not on verge of civil war. Israel is taking a decidedly neutral stand in the crisis in the Côte d’Ivoire that could hurtle that country down the path toward a new civil war. Israel is “not saying what to do, or preaching to others what to do, hoping that the sides will be able to solve the problems,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Wednesday. Israel knows and has had good relations with both President Laurent Gbagbo and his chief rival, Alassane Ouattara,...

The government of Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo wants $200,000 back out of the $300,000 it paid lobbyist Lanny Davis before he resigned the contract last week, but Davis is negotiating, Mike Allen reports in Playbook. "Lanny says he got $300,000 upfront and spent much of it staffing up for the job, including retaining a French speaker, with his team going 'round the clock' for seven to 10 days," Allen writes. "Davis said the fee is not unusual for him to charge a foreign government, and not unusual when he has to hire a bunch of people for the account."...

Lanny J Davis, a lawyer who used to work for Bill Clinton, has resigned from his job advising Mr Gbagbo, claiming that the president had stopped taking his calls, and refused one from the US president

Ivory Coast's new U.N. ambassador said Wednesday the ongoing dispute over who won last month's presidential election is pushing his country to the brink of genocide. Youssofou Bamba made his comments in New York after presenting his credentials to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Mr. Bamba was appointed by Alassane Ouattara, who the United Nations and the international community recognize as Ivory's Coast's president. Both Mr. Ouattara and incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo say they won the November 28 presidential runoff. Meanwhile, Mr. Gbagbo's minister of youth and employment has urged supporters to seize the Abidjan hotel where Mr. Ouattara has set...

Online newspaper Salon has learned that former special counsel to Bill Clinton, Lanny Davis, has joined the payroll of Laurent Gbagbo, the defeated leader of the Ivory Coast. Davis, who represents a number of controversial corporate and foreign clients, told reporters at a press conference that the West African leader has “renounced violence” and that he “calls on Mr. Ouattara to join him in putting the arms down and sitting down to talk.” In addition to the outvoted leader Gbagbo, Davis was on a million dollar per year retainer for Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the longtime repressive oligarch of oil-rich...

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is facing renewed international pressure to quit or "face force", as thousands of Ivorians flee the chaos of their homeland. In a sign of mounting determination to force Mr Gbagbo out, three leaders of the West African regional bloc Ecowas are due to fly to Ivory Coast on Tuesday. The presidents of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cap Vert will tell Mr Gbagbo "that he must step down as quickly as possible or face legitimate military force". Ecowas president James Victor Gbeho said the group was making "an ultimate gesture" to Mr Gbagbo to urge him...

The United States says it is talking with France and West African states about "augmenting" the U.N. peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast as the political crisis there persists. Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo continues to resist calls to step down in favor of the internationally recognized winner of last month's election, Alassane Ouattara. State Department officials say contacts are under way with France and member states of the West African regional grouping ECOWAS about sending more troops to Ivory Coast, as tensions there mount. A U.N. force of some 10,000 troops has been in Ivory Coast since civil warfare began...