Rumours swirl about a military coup in the offing, police are bracing for protests, well-heeled Ivorians have booked flights out of the country, and there is a story doing the rounds about the birth of a talking baby who warned of violence within days. The nervousness is the end-product of the collapse of a peace plan that provided for elections to be held on Sunday 30 October when President Laurent Gbagbo’s five-year mandate runs out.