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.

A GROUP of soldiers has launched a coup in the west African state of Guinea, hours after the death of 74-year-old strongman President Lansana Conte.

BALLOT counting was under way in Sierra Leone last night, a day after presidential and legislative elections seen as a test of whether the African nation has emerged from its bloody past.

President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, credited with helping to end Sierra Leone’s ruthless 10-year-old war, won re-election today in a landmark vote in the conflict-scarred West African nation.