Midfielder Yaya Toure’s future at Manchester City appears to be drawing to a close as Inter Milan vice-president Javier Zanetti claimed the Italian giants are close to completing a move for the Ivory Coast star.

Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo must stay in custody ahead of his trial on charges of orchestrating post-election violence in 2010, appeal judges at the International Criminal Court have said.

Former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo has appeared at the International Criminal Court, the first former head of state to face judges at the permanent war crimes court.

The International Criminal Court charged former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo with murder, rape, persecution and inhuman acts today, crimes allegedly committed as his backers fought to keep him in power last year.

Chelsea football star Didier Drogba is taking a leading role in a bid to bring peace to his native Ivory Coast, torn apart by post-election violence.

At least 68 bodies were spread out across 10 burial mounds in a mass grave discovered on a football field in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan, the United Nations said.

The head of Ivory Coast’s highest court has proclaimed Alassane Ouattara president.

Renegade warlord Ibrahim “IB” Coulibaly, a two-time coup plotter who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan, was killed fighting his one-time allies, Ivory Coast state television said.

The Ivory Coast’s new army turned its guns on a former ally who helped liberate Abidjan and install the democratically elected president, military sources said of a major setback as the country was beginning to return to normal.

Artillery hit the residence of France’s ambassador to Ivory Coast for the second time in two days, the French embassy said, a possible show of defiance from the country’s strongman who has resisted international pressure to emerge from a bunker and cede power.

The UN has said that more than 100 bodies had been found in Ivory Coast in the past 24 hours, some of them burned alive.

Ivory Coast’s democratically elected leader says his forces will not capture the entrenched incumbent who has been holed up for days in an underground bunker at the presidential residence, and instead will wait for him to run out of food and water.

An armed group trying to install Ivory Coast’s internationally recognised president has surrounded a bunker the country’s strongman refuses to leave, saying they will wait for him to come out.

French forces in Ivory Coast have rescued the Japanese ambassador Okamura Yoshifumi and seven other diplomats from the violence-torn capital Abidjan, France’s foreign minister said.

Heavy arms fire rang out today near Ivory Coast’s presidential residence as the country’s embattled leader remained holed up in a bunker there despite mediation efforts to force his surrender.

Forces backing Ivory Coast’s democratically elected leader have seized the presidential home where the entrenched incumbent is in a bunker, a senior diplomat said.

Laurent Gbagbo is thought to be negotiating his surrender after United Nations and French forces closed in on Ivory Coast's presidential palace early today.

The army chief for Ivory Coast’s entrenched president has rejoined the military days after deserting and seeking refuge at a foreign diplomat’s residence.

Residents barricaded themselves inside their homes, blanketing windows and pushing furniture against doors as Abidjan awaited the final battle between the two men who claim Ivory Coast’s presidency.

More than 800 civilians have been killed in a western Ivory Coast town where hundreds of UN peacekeepers are based, the International Federation of the Red Cross said today.

Rebels fighting to install Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president began besieging the main city of Abidjan today after seizing a key seaport.

Rebel forces supporting the internationally recognised leader of Ivory Coast have seized the strategic cocoa-exporting port of San Pedro, residents said.

The United Nations Security Council has demanded an immediate end to the escalating violence in Ivory Coast and imposed sanctions on Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to relinquish the presidency, and his inner circle.

Rebels backing Ivory Coast’s internationally-recognised leader Alassane Ouattara extended their gains by capturing a strategic crossroads and advanced towards the capital Abidjan after four months of political chaos following the disputed election.

A rebel army allied with Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president has taken control of a fourth town in the country’s far West, a military spokesman said.

Soldiers backing Ivory Coast’s rogue leader fired on civilians again today killing at least four people after hundreds took to the streets to protest the deaths of seven women gunned down at a march last week.

Hundreds of women today marched to the spot in Ivory Coast’s capital where soldiers shot dead seven unarmed female protesters last week in an attack that brought a wave of criticism from around the world.

Heavy fighting broke out near the border with Liberia between forces backing the political rivals who both claim to be Ivory Coast’s president, panicking tens of thousands of refugees who already had fled the violence.

Six women protesters have been machine gunned to death by security forces loyal to the leader clinging to power in the Ivory Coast.

Security forces fired on protesters for the second consecutive day in Ivory Coast’s biggest city, following a call for an “Egypt-style” uprising to depose sitting president Laurent Gbagbo.

The African Union has named a panel of six African presidents to mediate Ivory Coast’s political crisis.

Ivory Coast's incumbent leader has seized the nation's electric company and its distribution centre.

The man internationally recognised as the winner of Ivory Coast’s presidential election today called for a ban on cocoa exports to hit the finances of the country’s former leader, who refuses to quit.

The man most of the world says is Ivory Coast’s new president today called for special forces from West African nations to remove incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

A leading ally of the man widely recognised as Ivory Coast’s new president said today that incumbent Laurent Gbagbo is using stalling tactics to stay in power and urged the international community to intervene with “legitimate force” to remove him.

Allies of the man who the world says won Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election called for a immediate general strike from today until his defiant rival conceded defeat and left office.

The man who refuses to leave Ivory Coast's presidency faced new threats to his grasp on power after regional leaders threatened to remove him by force if necessary.

Ivory Coast state television disappeared from the airwaves outside the nation's largest city, in a blow to the incumbent president's attempts to cling to power in the bloody aftermath of an election most of the world says he lost.

At least 173 people have been killed and dozens of others have gone missing following Ivory Coast’s disputed presidential election, the UN said today.

The man who refuses to step down from the presidency ordered thousands of UN peacekeepers to leave Ivory Coast immediately today.

The United Nations' top envoy in Ivory Coast told the world body there was "only one winner" of the recent presidential election - and it was not the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

The two candidates in Ivory Coast’s disputed presidential election both took oaths of office today after each claimed victory as the political crisis spiralled out of control.

An Irishman is among a group of Europeans who have been evacuated from the Ivory Coast to escape increasing violence in the region.

Airliners are shuttling hundreds of trapped foreigners out of the Ivory Coast this morning, as South Africa convened urgent peace talks on a crisis that it said threatened to destabilise West Africa.