[SeMissourian.com] Fair ~ 23°F   River stage: 7.31 ft. Rising
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013  France sends reinforcements to Ivory
Coast after failed coup  Monday, September 23, 2002  ABIDJAN,
Ivory Coast -- France sent reinforcements and helicopters to the
Ivory Coast on Sunday to protect Westerners in the former French
colony after a coup attempt threatened to split apart West
Africa's one-time economic power house.  While the government
readied a counterattack against rebels behind the country's
bloodiest military uprising, thousands of people in Bouake, a
central city controlled by coup forces, marched to declare their
allegiance to the insurgents.  Shooting was heard late Sunday in
Bouake, but whether it signaled the start of a government
assault on the rebels was uncertain. The government said the
uprising has left at least 270 dead, including a Cabinet
minister and a former military ruler.  Since Ivory Coast's first
coup shattered the peace in 1999, ethnic, political and
religious tensions have regularly exp