An Abidjan court freed two generals and six other ranks on bail, who had been held for the last three months in connection with a suspected coup bid. The state prosecutor had originally arrested 11 soldiers and seven civilians suspected of plotting against the president.

As just another example of how wars have a rippling effect beyond the borders of the embattled country, Burkina Faso complained that the Ivory Coast's civil war in Cote d'Ivoire had led to a $146 million shortfall in revenues needed to execute their current budget (or more than 11 percent of planned government spending for 2003). - Adam Geibel