STANDOFF

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo Almost Out

Negotiates concessions from sieged bunker.

By most accounts, Laurent Gbagbo is on his last legs. The embattled Ivory Coast strongman is reportedly negotiating an end to a brutal succession conflict, cornered by forces from the U.N., France, and Alassane Ouattra, the democratically elected opposition leader eager to succeed him. Still, Gbagbo defiantly insisted Tuesday that he is legitimately the president and he will not step down. “I won the election and I am not negotiating my departure,” he said. Showboating aside, though, the United Nations reports that Gbagbo's generals have ordered his troops to stop fighting and that he is simply holding out for as many concessions as he can get.