COTE D'IVOIRE: Alassane Ouattara allied forces take control of Yamoussoukro

AFP - Ivorian President forces acknowledged by the international community Wednesday Alassane Ouattara have accentuated their pressure on the regime of outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo in taking the political capital Yamoussoukro, as tensions rose in Abidjan.

On the third day of the offensive, this highly symbolic victory comes four months after the beginning of a post-election crisis which has, according to UN figures, at least 460 people and displaced nearly a million people.

It is a major setback for incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, whose regime is isolated diplomatically and economically strangled, and whose forces seem to fall back on the economic capital Abidjan, the heart of a power that has never been so threatened.

"Mr.Gbagbo has a few more hours to go, otherwise it will march on Abidjan. And it will be much more complicated for him, "warned France 24 Guillaume Soro, Prime Minister Ouattara.

In the metropolis of Abidjan, many residents have returned home hurriedly in the afternoon, reporters found the AFP. Shots were heard in several northern districts. The Plateau, where the presidential palace, the traffic was very limited.

Mr. Republican ForcesOuattara, composed mainly ex-rebels holding the north since 2002, continued their advance Wednesday and taking Soubré Yamoussoukro, 130 km north of San Pedro (south-west), the largest export port in the world cocoa .

They had already won important victories on Tuesday in entering Duekoue, Daloa (center-west) and Bondoukou (east), but also Abengourou (southeast), just 220 km from the economic capital Abidjan.

The Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire in France named by Alassane Ouattara, Ally Coulibaly, assured that his forces controlled camp "three quarters" of the country.

Yamoussoukro, the birthplace of the "Father of the Nation" Felix Houphouet-Boigny (1960-93) became the political capital of the world's leading exporter of cocoa, has fallen into the hands of fighters pro-Ouattara, virtually without a fight, only a few shots with Kalashnikov were heard, residents said.

"Yamoussoukro is under control of Republican Forces, the jubilant crowd cheering, they parade in town," said a resident of the capital.

On board the pick-ups with machine guns or motorcycles, they roam the city by launching shouting, witnesses said.

According to several testimonies, the pro-Ouattara continued their way south, leaving a small detachment in the political capital.

A resident of Toumodi (50 km south of Yamoussoukro) ensured to have heard gunfire in the afternoon in this village, located about 200 km from Abidjan.

On the eastern front, the forces are advancing rapidly pro-Ouattara, without meeting strong resistance, approaching a little closer to Abidjan, where new recruits began Wednesday to enlist in the army of the president.

On the western front, they are now the cocoa port of San Pedro.

More than 400,000 tons of cocoa are blocked from calling the camp Ouattara to stop exports. This measure has been further strengthened by Western sanctions.Ouattara government warned Wednesday, "an exporter" of cocoa "collaborate" with the president.

Gbagbo's camp had called Tuesday night to a "cease-fire immediately," declaring himself ready for negotiations with the rival camp under the auspices of the African Union in Addis Ababa in early April.

But Anne Ouloto, spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, responded by asking supporters of Mr Gbagbo to "disarm," saying that the call for a cease-fire was a "diversion".

Pope Benedict XVI on his side announced its decision to send an envoy to Côte d'Ivoire to promote "reconciliation and peace" and called for "a process of constructive dialogue."

JAPAN: Black smoke escapes from a reactor at the Fukushima plant

Black smoke escaped Wednesday afternoon from the building housing the reactor 3 in the central hilly Fukushima, forcing the evacuation of staff, said the site operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

"We do not know if the smoke comes from the building housing the turbine or the reactor containment," said a spokesman.

"Employees were evacuated from the control room of reactor 3," he added, unable to specify the number of people who were there.

The control room of reactor 3 is the first to be partially turned on again Tuesday night with an external power supply which has restarted its lighting.

The central one Fukushima (Fukushima Daiichi) has six reactors, whose power has been interrupted by the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 11 March, which led to the decommissioning of cooling fuel.

Unit 3 has been badly damaged by an explosion. It is loaded with MOX fuel, a mixture of oxides of uranium and plutonium which are particularly harmful discharges.

AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents stormed the police headquarters in Kandahar

AFP - Three people were killed Saturday, including two policemen, and 26 others wounded in an attack claimed by the Taliban from the police headquarters in Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, said the spokesman provincial governor.

Nine children were among the wounded, "said Zalman Ayubi.

The police headquarters of the provincial capital is under attack since mid-day by insurgents holed up in a large six-storey building, located 50 m across, where they shoot with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and machine guns, said a correspondent for AFP.

Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that six of their militants had taken control of the hotel.

The police, who replies with automatic weapons and rocket launchers, stormed the building early in the afternoon.

The correspondent of AFP, two explosions, one in the lobby, another powerful front of the building were heading directly when police began investing the hotel.

A police chief, who requested anonymity, told AFP that six explosions had been recorded since the fighting started, "five of them around the police headquarters, and about one km zone "near a shopping center, he added.

The AFP correspondent has heard from a seventh blast near police headquarters.

The fighting is still ongoing, have gained in intensity, found the AFP correspondent who saw the police take position on the roof of the hotel.

Of automatic weapons fire echoed also in several districts of Kandahar, deserted by its inhabitants, ordered by police not to leave their homes, according to this correspondent.

The streets are blocked by Afghan police and U.S. soldiers, while U.S. helicopter gunships turn in the sky.

Since they were toppled by an international coalition led by the United States in late 2001, the Taliban waging a deadly insurgency in Afghanistan against the Kabul government and the international force of 140,000 strong men, who supports it.

Violence has intensified in recent months in Kandahar province, recently hit by several deadly suicide bombings claimed by the Taliban, while NATO troops are conducting several months of offensives aimed at driving the rebels from their strongholds.

MIDDLE EAST: Hillary Clinton suggests a risk of "chaos" and "storm" in the region

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Saturday that the movement towards democracy in the Middle East, she continued, had nevertheless "risks of chaos," holding that the situation there was "perfect" for a hurricane ".

"Without progress towards open and accountable systems, the gap between peoples and their governments will increase instability and worse," she said at the 47th Security Conference in Munich (Southern Germany).

"Throughout the region," Middle East "there must be a clear and substantial progress towards systems transparent, honest and responsible," she pleaded.

"Currently, in some countries the transition is advancing rapidly, in others it will take more time," she said in a clear reference to different contexts of contestation in Tunisia, which ousted President Ben Ali and Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak refused to leave immediately.

"Of course there are risks, risks caused by the transition to democracy," noted the U.S. Secretary of State.

"This may cause chaos and instability in the short term, or worse, and we observed that in the past, the transition can cause a regression to a different regime as authoritarian," as citizens of a country tried to kill, stressed Ms. Clinton.

In the Middle East, the situation is "perfect" for a hurricane, she said, marking the high stakes.