t has gotten very ugly the past 48 hours with protests increasing as well as violence and severe crackdowns on the part of Gbagbo's military. As of yesterday (March 4th) reports of troops opening fire on unarmed women protesters in the Abidjan district of Abodo, killing six and wounding scores have only increased the fears that a civil war in, if not already underway, just about to happen.

At last report, there were indications Nigeria may enter the conflict by forcing the ouster of Gbagbo, but a hastily called meeting of other African leaders signify there are at least attempts at a peaceful solution.

Still, this story like all the others at the moment, is far from over.

So today I'm including two reports - the top player is a report via the BBC Africa Service Africa Today Program from Friday at 2:30 pm GMT and the bottom player, for those of you who speak or understand French, is the latest report (as of 12 noon today March 5th) from the West African Service of RFI.

Hopefully, this story will have a successful ending - but it's been going on for so long it's anyone's guess.

Just to let you know there really IS news of importance going on in the world.