The News Review:

- Sierra Leone’s Telecoms Market Has Experienced Excellent Growth …
- UN integrated peacebuilding office established in Sierra Leone
- Ex-Liberia president, son face UN, US charges
- Sierre Leone FM: Ties with Cuba at special moment
- Training Technical and Agriculturists is Not Enough in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone: Paramount Chief Embraces Gola
- Lebanese National Dupes Foreign Investor US$130000 in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s Telecoms Market Has Experienced Excellent Growth …
MarketWatch 
researchandmarkets. Following more than a decade of civil war, Sierra Leone has enjoyed peace and stability since 2002. The country’s traditional telecommunications infrastructure has suffered damage and neglect, but the mobile sector has experienced excellent growth with now five GSM networks competing for customers and up to three more expected to launch shortly. However, recent government intervention in some regulatory matters has created a degree of uncertainty about market growth in the medium term. At the same time, a rapidly declining ARPU is forcing the operators to improve their services and find new revenue streams, such as Internet access via mobile data services. In this area they are competing with a large number of wireless broadband network operators that have emerged as providers of converged Internet and VoIP telephony services.

UN integrated peacebuilding office established in Sierra Leone
Xinhua, China 
1 (Xinhua) — The UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) was established in the capital city Freetown Wednesday as the latest UN presence in the country after the end of a bloody civil war some 10 years ago. The UNIPSIL office, authorized by UN Security Council resolution 1829, is to ensure the continued support of the UN and the international community for the long-term peace, security and development of the west African country, a UN statement said. The office, with 70 staff, is responsible for coordinating the work of all UN funds, agencies and programs in the country. It will also closely coordinate UN efforts with all regional and international partners. UNIPSIL will work in close coordination with the Peacebuilding Commission, which chose Sierra Leone for one of its first post-conflict countries of focus.

Ex-Liberia president, son face UN, US charges
The Associated Press 
federal court in Miami — are revealing the savagery of the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Miami, a witness displays the scars he says came from burning plastic poured onto his skin in Liberia. In The Hague, a mother recounts how rebels in Sierra Leone ordered her to carry a sack containing the heads of her two children who had just been hacked to death. The cases demonstrate that the days when war crimes suspects could flee and slip into obscurity to avoid prosecution may be drawing to a close. Stephen Rapp, the U. lawyer leading the prosecution of Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, on Wednesday welcomed the trial of Taylor’s son, Charles McArthur Emmanuel, as another step along the road to ending impunity for alleged war criminals.

Sierre Leone FM: Ties with Cuba at special moment
Xinhua, China 
and we expect to strengthen the ties with Cuba,” Bangura said. She also thanked the support given by Cuban doctors to Sierra Leone and expressed her sympathy for the Cuban people that suffered in the recent hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Bangura is scheduled to wrap up her Cuban tour Sunday. Cuba and Sierra Leone established diplomatic relations in 1972. As part of the South-South program, 32 Cuban doctors are working in Sierra Leone to help the local health service and 12 youngsters from the western African country are studying in Cuba. Editor: Jiang Yuxia.

Training Technical and Agriculturists is Not Enough in Sierra Leone
Standard Times Press, Sierra Leone 
The governments have been working with tight budgets in preparation for contemporary challenges of the Sierra Leone food security. But the situation, as unfolded since the beginning of the era of the countrys attainment of independence (April 27, 1961), is that the applied wisdom has not yielded significant dividends. Conditions could have been worse without such investments. Factually, since then a brief period of economic stability was realized in the agricultural sector followed by consistent gradual decline in the capacity for the country to sustain its self-feeding potential.

Sierra Leone: Paramount Chief Embraces Gola
AllAfrica.com, Washington 
We have preferred to move ahead with the protection of the Gola forest in the chiefdom in respect of President Ernest Koroma’s decision that no mining should take place in the reserve. Also we have decided to amicably resolve the conflicts within sections of this community who on different occasions took positions on this very important matter. I here by call on all to cooperate with the Gola forest programme as it is the mandate of the government of Sierra Leone. “Gola forest area protection manager John Moriba commended the Tonkia community for the friendly relationship they demonstrated. Moriba said it would not be in the interest of Sierra Leone and the people of Tunkia if the forest were to be cleared away by mining activities. He said the community would benefit a lot from the Gola forest programme as the scheme would attract tourists to the area adding that packages were now ready to be distributed to the communities. “Currently there is financial assistance for the surrounding communities and land owners.

Lebanese National Dupes Foreign Investor US$130000 in Sierra Leone
Standard Times Press, Sierra Leone 
If he is not involved in fraudulent activity in the first month of business transaction with his overseas partners, he would swindle them the second month and hibernate for few months and emerge again to transact another business with new and innocent business partners. The negative impression he has created to most foreigners in Canada, Holland and Brussel is one of mistrust and dishonesty about Lebanese nationals in the country. While other Lebanese nationals are engaged in doing clean business with their foreign partners; Alie Mohammed Basmas focus has always been how to defraud his partners.