Ivory Coast Elections Could be Delayed Again
Courtesy: VOA
09 February, 2010
Controversy over the voter list in Ivory Coast is threatening to once again push back long-delayed presidential elections. Election-related protests erupted around Ivory Coast this past week.
Ivorian investigators have confirmed evidence of "fraud" in the voter list for the country's upcoming presidential elections.President Laurent Gbagbo accused the Independent Electoral Commission in January of approving a voter list that contained the names of almost a half million foreigners. The accusations were followed by calls for electoral commission head, Robert Mambé, to resign. Read detail
Three Samuel Does
By: Nvasekie N. Konneh
06 February, 2010
Was he on the Upper Layer of the 3rd or the 7th Sky? Where on this vast planet earth was him? Was he in the inner circle of the lower region of the milky moon watching us with cold frozen eyes? Was he in his hidden corner consulting the occult science teachers as how to lighten his way with his ambitious plan of upsetting the traditional order of things in our sleeping world? Whatever might have been the case, we were unaware of his existence and we could care less who he was and what he planned to do. He was not one of those firebrand revolutionaries whose revolutionary rhetoric was sounding like sweet music in our ears. Read detail
Nimba Land Dispute As Political Capital?
By: Mohamed M. Komara
05 February, 2010
One of the aggrieved Mandingoes of Nimba, , walked into the offices of the Public Agenda newspaper yesterday and expressed dismay over what he termed “the inexcusable official attitude of delaying the resolution of the unjustifiable Nimba Land crisis and the lukewarm attitude of government to restore to the ethnic Mandingoes their rights and entitlements that are forcibly and illegally taken away from them.” He maintained that “when the senseless civil war was brought and imposed on the people of Liberia in the name of revolution for justice and equality, little did Liberians know that their compatriots, the ethnic Mandingoes would be targeted for selective extermination by the planners, financers, and prosecutors of the bloody and senseless war.” Read detail
Liberian President Wants International Support for Guinea
Courtesy: VOA
03 February, 2010
Liberia's president says the transitional government in neighboring Guinea needs international support to hold elections in June that are meant to end more than a year of military rule.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says the Economic Community of West African States will help Guinea return to constitutional rule through a transitional government led jointly by the country's acting military leader and its new civilian prime minister. Read detail
Gadhafi Blasts AU as He Steps Down as Chairman
Courtesy: VOA
01 February, 2010
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has stepped down as chairman of the 53-nation African Union, but not without firing a few verbal broadsides at the organization. Mr. Gadhafi chastised his fellow heads of state for refusing to go along with his plan for a "United States of Africa."All was calm on the surface. Africa's heads of state went into a conference room and emerged 20 minutes later to say Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutarika would assume the rotating African Union chairmanship for the coming year. Read detail
Liberia Losing Revenue from Diamonds Sold In Sierra Leone
Courtesy: VOA
30 January, 2010
Liberian diamonds are being sold in Sierra Leone in violation of the Kimberley Process that is intended to track the origin of conflict minerals. Liberia's government is trying to stop that trade and regain lost tax revenue.
Diamond profits fueled much of the violence in the long-running civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is on trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity for supporting Sierra Leone's main rebel group. Prosecutors argue those rebels paid Mr. Taylor with diamonds mined along their common border in the Mano River basin. Read detail
The Poem: “They are the anti-peace elements and must unclench their fists”
By: Jesefu Morris Keita, Jr.
29 January, 2010
PART I
They whisper their words of viper in dark closet
Enflaming young minds with words of hatred and division Setting the stage for future conflagration
They are the anti-peace elements and must unclench their fists!
They transform themselves into objects of sex
To be exploited by journey men of no direction
Seen in every entertainment center and areas of drinks They waste their beauty while time quietly slipped away They are the anti-peace elements and must unclench their fists! Read detail
Liberian President's Re-election Bid Draws Mixed Reactions
Courtesy: VOA
29 January, 2010
In Liberia, there are mixed reactions to this week's announcement by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that she will run for re-election next year. A draft report by the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said President Sirleaf should be barred from seeking further political office for 30 years. President Sirleaf ended the speculation this week by announcing that she intends to be a "formidable" candidate in Liberia's 2011 election. Read detail
MMA 6th INAUGURAL EVENTS:
27 January, 2010

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Liberia's President Sirleaf Announces She Will Seek a Second Term in 2011
Courtesy: VOA News
26 January, 2010
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected woman president, has announced she will run for a second term, despite promising during her first campaign to limit herself to one term. President Sirleaf made the announcement Monday in an annual speech to the national legislature. Press Secretary Cyrus Badio said the president cited her successes in governing the country as reasons for her decision to seek re-election. Read detail
Bility Challenges Wesley for LFA Presidency
Courtesy: Liberian Observer
25 January, 2010
MONROVIA – The president of the Liberia Football Association (LFA), Cllr. Izetta Sombo Wesley, according to a source close to her office, has reportedly laughed off the recent statement made by a member of the Executive Committee, Musa Bility.The source quoted Wesley as saying that a 28-day event of sports hostility at the country level ‘can never be compared’ to the running of a national federation for four years. Read detail
African Experts Expected More from Obama Administration
Courtesy: VOA
21 January, 2010
As President Barack Obama completes his first year in office, Africa experts in the United States say they were expecting more from the country's first African-American leader.
Many so-called Africanists in the United States had high hopes when President Obama took office one year ago. Nigerian American political science professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome is among those now confronting reality. "I like President Obama, so maybe I am cutting him some slack, more slack, but I think he represents his country, and as the representative of America, Read detail
Former Liberian Information Minister Says His Resignation is Not an Admission of Guilt
Courtesy:VOA
January 19, 2010
Former Liberian Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh said his resignation late last week does not mean he is guilty of embezzling over $200,000 as suggested in an audit report by the country’s General Auditing Commission.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf suspended Bropleh last October pending the outcome of two investigations into allegations that the minister might have defrauded the government of more than $300,000. Read detail
Guinea's Military Leader Agrees to Leave of Absence
Courtesy: VOA
16 January, 2010
Guinea's military leader has agreed to a transitional government leading to elections within six months.
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara has agreed to remain outside the country, continuing his recovery from being shot more than one month ago while a transitional government takes charge in Guinea to organize new elections. Captain Camara and interim leader Defense Minister Sekouba Konate agreed to the deal during talks in the Burkinabe capital with regional mediator. Read detail
Ivorian tax-free rebel city flourishes
14 January, 2010

An itinerant salesman in a baseball cap wanders the streets of Ivory Coast's second city, Bouake, touting counterfeit perfumes. "Here no-one can say to you: 'No, that's pirated' or 'You can't sell that here,'" he tells me when I ask if he ever has any trouble from the authorities. "If we were in the south of the country, you could complain that no customs tax has been paid for.  Read detail