The News Review:

- Scientists from China, Sierra Leone Win World Food Prize
- Italy donates rice to needy Sierra Leoneans.
- Slave descendants sue for $1 billion – Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com
- Conflict diamonds ‘still on sale’

Scientists from China, Sierra Leone Win World Food Prize
epochtimes.com – Mar 30, 2004
The awards were announced Monday at a ceremony at the U. State Department led by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The co-winners, China's Yuan Longping and Monty Jones of Sierra Leone, worked on separate but complementary research projects that produced new strains of hybrid rice that have improved crop yields in developing countries.

Italy donates rice to needy Sierra Leoneans.
Free with registration – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Mar 30, 2004
Italy donates rice to needy Sierra Leoneans. | Asia Africa Intelligence Wire (March, 2004).

Slave descendants sue for $1 billion – Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com
MSNBC – Mar 30, 2004
Reynolds of âaiding and abetting the commission of genocideâ by allegedly financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco plantations in the United States. DNA testing has made a âdirect connectionâ between Farmer-Paellmann and the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, whose people âwere kidnapped, tortured and shipped in chains to the United States,â the suit said. Scientific evidence also has linked the other plaintiffs to tribes in Niger and Gambia, the suit said. Ellen Matthews, a spokeswoman for R. Reynolds, said the company had not received a copy of the suit.

Conflict diamonds ‘still on sale’
BBC News – Mar 30, 2004
A system of self-regulation, known as the Kimberley Protocol, is currently in place. But Global Witness has argued that governments which have signed up to the agreement should abandon self-regulation and directly regulate the diamond trade. Conflict diamonds, also known as “blood diamonds”, have been linked to armed struggles in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Investigators have also alleged that underground militant organisations such as al-Qaeda have used the diamond trade to transfer finances outside the gaze of the international banking system.