The News Review:

- Early results show lead for opposition in Sierra Leone
- … of the NDI International Observer Delegation to Sierra…
- Jon Silverman on a landmark case for justice in Africa | Media | The…
- Karl Rove to Leave White House; Search Continues For Missing Utah…

Early results show lead for opposition in Sierra Leone
International Herald Tribune – Aug 13, 2007
The vote, which was held Saturday, was billed as a test of the West African country's stability after United Nations peacekeepers withdrew two years ago following a brutal 11-year civil war. Unofficial results from 10 percent of the votes reported by the local media showed Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition All People's Congress, or APC, leading Vice President Solomon Berewathe, the candidate from the governing Sierra Leone People's Party, or SLPP. “The APC has so far about 45 percent of the presidential vote, with SLPP trailing with 35 percent,” said Ransford Wright, coordinator of the Independent Radio Network. “It looks like we will definitely get into a runoff,” he added.

… of the NDI International Observer Delegation to Sierra…
AllAfrica.com – Aug 13, 2007
org Language: en Category: Sierra Leone, Sustainable Development, Conflict, Peace and Security, Conflict, Peace and Security. Leading the delegation are: Nora Owen, former Minister for Justice and former Member of Parliament (Ireland); Ken Nnamani, former Senate President (Nigeria); Audrey McLaughlin, former Member of Parliament and former leader of the New Democratic Party (Canada); Carol Lancaster, former Deputy Administrator of the US Agency for International Development and Director of the Mortara Center at Georgetown University (United States); and Christopher Fomunyoh, Senior Associate for Africa, NDI (Cameroon).

Jon Silverman on a landmark case for justice in Africa | Media | The…
Guardian Unlimited – Aug 13, 2007
The experience of the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia shows that if a court sits well away from the region where the crimes were committed, its impact is likely to be severely diluted where it matters most. The answer, in the Taylor case, was to bring Africa to the trial. Six radio journalists, three from Sierra Leone and three from Liberia, have been recruited and trained by the BBC World Service Trust and are reporting from The Hague in pairs for three months at a time. Regular dispatchesJennifer Bakody, who manages media development in Africa for the Trust, explains: “The international media have the resources to cover the trial but would not provide the sort of in-depth reporting relevant to the needs of a West African audience. Meanwhile, the local media in Sierra Leone don’t have the capacity to provide regular dispatches from Europe. By launching this project, we hope to contribute to peace and the rule of law in the region and the perception of justice. “My role in the project is to provide the court reporting skills necessary to cover a trial where virtually every one of 150 witnesses will have their identities concealed for fear of reprisals…
Six radio journalists, three from Sierra Leone and three from Liberia, have been recruited and trained by the BBC World Service Trust and are reporting from The Hague in pairs for three months at a time. Regular dispatchesJennifer Bakody, who manages media development in Africa for the Trust, explains: “The international media have the resources to cover the trial but would not provide the sort of in-depth reporting relevant to the needs of a West African audience. Meanwhile, the local media in Sierra Leone don’t have the capacity to provide regular dispatches from Europe. By launching this project, we hope to contribute to peace and the rule of law in the region and the perception of justice. “My role in the project is to provide the court reporting skills necessary to cover a trial where virtually every one of 150 witnesses will have their identities concealed for fear of reprisals. When a defendant in another case being heard by the Special Court for Sierra Leone died before the completion of his trial, false rumours circulated within hours that he had been poisoned and the political temperature rose several notches. The former chief prosecutor Sir Desmond de Silva QC was responsible for the arrest of Charles Taylor and recalls the word on the street that day in 2006: “It was rumoured that Taylor was going to be killed just like Milosevic was supposedly killed in The Hague.

Karl Rove to Leave White House; Search Continues For Missing Utah…
CNN International – Aug 13, 2007
HOLMES: Searching for a way out of poverty. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Reporter: Many say this diamond-rich soil is what funded Sierra Leone’s civil war, but today efforts are being made to take the blood out of the diamonds found here, so that they’re never used to fund future conflicts. (END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Obsession with diamonds in Africa’s Sierra Leone, that’s ahead in the NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BUSINESS REPORT) PHILLIPS: Well, NASA has got a dilemma. And we have got Miles O’Brien. MILES O’BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: The dilemma is whether they should fix the space shuttle Endeavour. There’s a big divot in it, and the engineers are trying to go through that right now, while a couple of spacewalkers do their best to keep the space station flying straight and true — details after a break.