ABIDJAN/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his Abidjan residence, have retaken ground from rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara, the United Nations said on Friday.

France said Gbagbo’s forces had fired at the residence of the French ambassador in Abidjan, prompting counter-strikes by French helicopters.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. investigators probing allegations that hundreds of people were massacred in an Ivory Coast town have found a mass grave with nearly 200 bodies, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Monday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday at least 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in Duekoue last week. The country has been plunged into violence as forces of presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have sought to topple incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council slapped travel bans and asset freezes on Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo and his closest associates on Wednesday in a bid to force the West African nation’s incumbent leader to quit.

All 15 council members voted for a resolution that echoes earlier U.N. calls for Gbagbo to step down and seeks to prevent use of heavy weapons in the main city Abidjan as the world’s leading cocoa producer teeters on the brink of civil war.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The wealth gap between the least developed and other countries has widened in recent decades and will go on doing so unless their basic weaknesses are tackled, a report for the United Nations said on Tuesday.

“In short, the ‘least developed’ condition has tended to generate ‘less’ development,” even though most of the countries concerned had registered some economic growth, said the report by a group of nine “eminent persons.”

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – France and Nigeria circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on Friday that would impose sanctions on strife-torn Ivory Coast’s incumbent leaders and ban heavy weapons from the Abidjan area.

French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters the 15-nation council was expected to discuss the draft resolution in detail next week. It was not immediately clear when the text could be put to a vote.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Monday turned down a Libyan request for a special meeting to discuss Western air strikes on the country following the council’s imposition of a no-fly zone, diplomats said.

The council decided instead simply to hold a briefing already planned for Thursday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on how the resolution that set up the zone to protect civilians in Libya’s internal conflict is being implemented.

TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s government said it was declaring a unilateral ceasefire in its offensive to crush Libya’s revolt, as Western warplanes prepared to attack his forces.

“We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations,” Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters in Tripoli on Friday, after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorising military action.

TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Reuters) – The United
Nations authorised military strikes to curb Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm
the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing “no mercy, no
pity”.

“We will come. House by house, room by room,” Gaddafi said
in a radio address to the eastern city.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to authorize a no-fly zone over Libya and “all necessary measures” — code for military action — to protect civilians against leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

Ten of the council’s 15 member states voted in favor of the resolution, with Russia, China, Germany, India and Brazil abstaining. The resolution was co-sponsored by France, Britain, Lebanon and the United States.

TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s troops closed on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Thursday, bombing its outskirts as international support grew for air strikes to halt their advance and protect civilians.

Gaddafi told Benghazi residents in a radio address they had nothing to fear if they lay down their weapons. “We are coming tonight… There won’t be any mercy.”