The News Review:

- For Sierra Leone diamond mine kids school is worth a gem
- Sierra Leone: Zain Bags African Telecoms Awards Holds Weekly Draw
- Poor Marks High Fees Keep Students Away in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone couple facing deportation released from lockup
- Sierra Leone: Margai May Strike Deal With SLPP
- Sierra Leone: Focus n Community Reconciliation in Kono

For Sierra Leone diamond mine kids school is worth a gem
AFP 
Some children as young as 10 walk several kilometres a day to attend school and work in dilapidated mining pits under scorching heat lured by money from mine owners who keep the gems. “We provide the money and get these boys to work for their living. Is it not a fair deal?” said the Senegalese owner of one mine. Government figures put the number of under-age miners at over 600 but experts here say the real number could be three times higher.
Related from Worlddiamondcongress2008: For Sierra Leone diamond mine kids school is worth a gem

Sierra Leone: Zain Bags African Telecoms Awards Holds Weekly Draw
AllAfrica.com Washington 
GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );The weekly draw have always seen Zain subscribers win millions of leones worth of items including plasma televisions laptop computers DStv satellite and other valuable goods. The company’s brand and communication manager Ann-Marie Ansumana said they decided to take the draw to Bo because they wanted their subscribers to know that Freetown was not Sierra Leone. She said the weekly draw was conducted in a free and fair manner adding that that was why they would always invite auditors from KPMG to witness the draw. Ansumana said her company would continue to do more for the development of the country as they are always ready to response to the needs of Sierra Leoneans.

Poor Marks High Fees Keep Students Away in Sierra Leone
Voice of America 
Check with your administrator. They say having few graduates is not good for the future of a country still struggling to recover from civil war. But in the town of Makeni despite the many challenges there are also inspiring success stories. Mohamed is a high-school dropout who drives a motorcycle taxi known as an okada to get by. Rebels killed his father during the decade long civil war that began in 1991.

Sierra Leone couple facing deportation released from lockup
MiamiHerald.com FL 
comp –> BY CARL MARBIN MILLER. comp –> A Tampa Bay couple that fled their native Sierra Leone after rebels torched their house was released unexpectedly from a Broward immigration lockup Tuesday morning as members of their local church set up a Christmas tree to greet them.

Sierra Leone: Margai May Strike Deal With SLPP
AllAfrica.com Washington 
GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );Charles Francis Margai one time staunch member of the SLPP left in 2005 to form his party that was said to have eventually helped the All Peoples Congress win the run off of the 2007 elections. The lawyer-cum politician had broken the news right in front of his perceived ally President Ernest Bai Koroma who was part of a gathering that was in Gbangbatoke for the burial rites of his late mother Musu Fanny Momoh. “After my mother’s death Alhaji UNS Jah led a SLPP delegation to sympathize with me and we talked tête-à-tête and agreed on the need to start talking” Margai told the large crowd which included the first lady the second lady and senior members of Koroma’s cabinet. High-ranking members of all three political parties were present.

Sierra Leone: Focus n Community Reconciliation in Kono
AllAfrica.com Washington 
Executive director John Caulker explained to the people the origin of his organization. GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );”We all know what happened during the war. We are talking about victims and perpetrators but the truth is that we all belong to the same family long before the conflict. We have an adage in Krio which says ‘bad bush nor dae for throw away bad pikin’.