World in Brief

Ivory Coast standoff ends

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - A bloody, four-month political standoff ended Monday when troops loyal to Ivory Coast's elected president - backed by French ground and air forces - captured the West African country's longtime leader who had refused to give up power.

Video of former President Laurent Gbagbo being led into a room in a white undershirt was broadcast on television as proof of his detention. He would not sign a statement formally ceding power after losing a Nov. 28 election to economist Alassane Ouattara.

More than 1 million civilians fled their homes and untold numbers were killed in the power struggle between the two rivals that threatened to re-ignite a civil war in the world's largest cocoa producer.

Libyan rebels reject cease-fire

BENGHAZI, Libya -

Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it did not insist that Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power.

A day after an announcement that the Libyan leader had accepted the truce, a doctor in rebel-held Misrata said Gadhafi's forces battered that western city and its Mediterranean port with artillery fire that killed six people.

- The Associated Press