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.

AFRICAN mediators have offered Ivory Coast’s embattled leader Laurent Gbagbo incentives to stand down after disputed polls, using the threat of military action as the only alternative.

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

THE UN’s Ivory Coast mission says three mass graves containing at least 99 bodies have been found near the northern rebel-held town of Korhogo.