Effects of Hurricane Dean in the Lesser Antilles

As Hurricane Dean approached the Lesser Antilles the local meteorological services issued watches and warnings, advising residents to prepare for the storm. Hurricane warnings were issued for St. Lucia, Dominica,[37] Martinique and Guadeloupe and its dependencies.[38] Hurricane watches were issued for Saba and St. Eustatius.[39] Tropical storm warnings were issued for Barbados,[40] Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, and St. Maarten[41] St. Vincent and the Grenadines,[41] the U.S. Virgin Islands,[42] and the British Virgin Islands.[43] Tropical storm watches were issued for St. Maarten,[39] St. Vincent, Grenada and its dependencies,[40] Montserrat, and Anguilla.[44]
Local authorities closed airports, set up shelters,[45] and readied emergency service personnel.[46] Authorities in Martinique canceled a memorial to the victims of West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 and began to set up shelters.[45] In Dominica, tourists were evacuated to concrete shelters and the vast majority of foreign medical students from the Ross University School of Medicine evacuated the island.[45] The government of Dominica also canceled leave for emergency service personnel[46] and evacuated Princess Margret Hospital, fearing that its roof might be vulnerable to the storm's winds.[47] Martinique's main airport and both of St. Lucia's commercial airports closed when the last airplanes landed on the night of August 16 and the storm's outer rainbands began to sweep over the island.[48]


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UN backs Alassane Ouattara as Ivory Coast president

Alassane Ouattara has made his headquarters at a hotel in Abidjan, guarded by the UN
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Test case for Africa
Two presidents, one crisis
Q&A: Ivory Coast election crisis
The UN Security Council has issued a statement saying that Ivory Coast opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara won the disputed presidential election.

The statement came after three days of debate at the UN, in which Russia expressed concern that the UN was exceeding its mandate.

Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo is defying international pressure and continuing to cling to power.

His stance led West African regional bloc Ecowas to suspend Ivory Coast.

In its statement, the 15-nation Security Council said it condemned "in the strongest terms any effort to subvert the popular will of the people" in Ivory Coast.

"In view of Ecowas' recognition of Alassane Ouattara as president-elect and representative of the freely expressed voice of the Ivorian people as proclaimed by the Independent Electoral Commission, members of the Security Council call on all stakeholders to respect the outcome of the election," it added.

The BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN in New York says it was perhaps a concession to Moscow that the council spelled out that it was following the lead of Ecowas.

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Rival Presidents


Laurent Gbagbo (left)

Age: 65
Southerner, Christian
Former history teacher, president since 2000
Declared president by Constitutional Council
Backed by security forces
Alassane Ouattara (right)

Age: 68
Northerner, Muslim
Economist and former prime minister
Declared winner by Election Commission
Backed by former rebels, UN, African leaders and the West
African press calls on Gbagbo to go
Country profile: Ivory Coast
According to diplomats, Russia had argued that supporting one candidate in the disputed poll exceeded the UN's mandate.

However, US representative Susan Rice said the UN mission in Ivory Coast was empowered to certify the election under a peace treaty signed after the country's 2002 civil war.

UN envoy to Ivory Coast Choi Young-jin told the council that Mr Ouattara's victory was "irrefutable".

Diplomats said other members of the council had strongly urged Russia to drop its opposition, especially the three African states.

The Security Council's endorsement of Mr Ouattara now leaves Mr Gbagbo with almost no supporters in the outside world, our correspondent says.

But Abdon Bayeto from Mr Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (PFI) told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Mr Gbagbo would not cede power.

He argued that Mr Gbagbo had been declared the winner by Ivory Coast's supreme court, which had overturned the result announced by the electoral commission because of rigging in the north, where Mr Ouattara is popular.

"African leaders are being manipulated by the European community and turned into puppets," Mr Bayeto said.

In Abidjan, both men have named their own Cabinets, heightening tension in the country.

Mr Ouattara is operating from a luxury hotel, guarded by UN peacekeepers.

Earlier, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf warned its former rebel fighters not to get involved in the Ivory Coast crisis.

Liberian fighters were involved in Ivory Coast's 2002 civil war, which left the country divided, while Charles Taylor launched his Liberian rebellion from Ivory Coast in 1989, sparking 14 years of bloodshed.

There are fears that the Ivory Cost stand-off could lead to a renewal of the war, as the New Forces rebels, who still control the north, back Mr Ouattara, while the security forces back Mr Gbagbo.

The UN has some 8,000 peacekeepers in Ivory Coast.








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