The News Review:

- Sierra Leone: Zain Bags African Telecoms Awards Holds Weekly Draw
- For Sierra Leone diamond mine kids school is worth a gem
- Starting up: New Boise-based charity targets ‘starting up’ for …
- Guinea Coup : Sierra Leone Government releases statement
- Sanctions threat to Guinea junta
- Poor Marks High Fees Keep Students Away in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone couple facing deportation released from lockup

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.

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 Thebreakpage: Shutesbury students drum dance with local artist

Starting up: New Boise-based charity targets ‘starting up’ for …
IdahoStatesman.com ID 
Each time the camera flash fired they cheered more loudly and edged closer to the camera. By the third picture the cheers were deafening. ur group Village Hope Inc. a public charity based in Boise and started this past January went to Sierra Leone to work on “social entrepreneurship” – helping people in poor communities achieve sustainable improvements in health education and economic security. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world but is rich in natural resources including good soils and more than 9 feet of rain per year. After a terrible 10-year civil war that ended in 2002 it now has a new government praised for both honesty and competence and respectable economic growth of 6-7 percent a year. The problems in Sierra Leone however are difficult for many of us to appreciate.

Guinea Coup : Sierra Leone Government releases statement
Cocorioko Sierra Leone 
The Government is using this opportunity to express heartfelt condolences to the people of the sister Republic of Guinea on the loss of their fatherly figure who had always stood by Sierra Leone during periods of crises in this country. The government wants to register its acknowledgement of the fact the late President Lansana had played the unique brotherly role to host three former heads of Sierra Leone during periods of political crises in this country. It should be recalled that when Sierra Leone was engulfed by a rebel war Guinea was one of the countries under the leadership of President Lansana Conte to contribute troops to help Sierra Leone. During the political interregnum in the country President Conteh and other Guineas opened their arms and played host to thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees.

Sanctions threat to Guinea junta
The Age Australia 
The US threatened to suspend its aid to Guinea $A22 million this year if coup leaders do not take steps to return to civilian rule. The coup leaders allege that troops loyal to the Conte regime had been seeking intervention by mercenaries from neighbouring countries. The fear is that any unrest might destabilise Guinea’s fragile west African neighbours — notably former war-torn Liberia and Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast still gripped by political crises. Sierra Leone has heightened its security to deal with a possible influx of Guinean refugees. The measures include 24-hour air and land surveillance of the country’s borders along with stepped-up patrols of the country’s territorial waters police said. Tellingly extra security measures are also in place in the disputed diamond-rich area of Yenga on Sierra Leone’s border with Guinea. The political uncertainty and fears of violence brought the capital to a standstill with markets petrol stations and main shops closed.

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.