Monrovia – The Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville was a scene of attraction on Thursday, April 26, 2018, as hundreds of elderly people gathered to benefit from the First Lady’s initiative to feed them.

Monrovia – Beena Gopinadh, Principal of the Aware International School on the GSA Road, Paynesville has assured parents of the institution’s commitment to providing quality education but called on parents to support their children education for a better future.

Monrovia – The Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) in collaboration with the Liberia Media Democratic Initiative (LMDI) has intensified a Tax Education Roadshow to reach several potential taxpayers in rural Liberia.

Buchanan, Grand Bassa – The Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Hon. Henry O. Williams says Liberia will succeed when the country’s disaster management program is successful.

Tubmanburg, Bomi – A World Bank Senior Financial Specialist, Cari Votava, has called for a concerted effort in the fight against corruption, which continues to be a stumbling block for national development in Liberia.

Monrovia – Associate Dean of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, Atty. Jamal C. Dehtho, Jr. said the school is making immense progress to improve its students’ learning environment.

Monrovia – Police investigation into the murder of Journalist Tyron Browne reveals that former police chief, Col. Chris Massaquoi, was deeply in the know of the murder, contrary to his initial claims.

Monrovia - Internet Technology is important in the advancement of modern education around the world, but Liberia’s education sector seems far from driving education through technology with several institutions still lacking access to internet service.

Monrovia - Aggrieved Citizens of Bomi and the Sime Darby Plantation on Tuesday petitioned the Legislature, requesting the body to intervene in “the mysterious death” of one Mr. Okinstine M. Kollie, former grievance chairman of the Sime Darby plantation.

Monrovia - Legal practitioners representing two companies involved in the sale of petroleum products in the country have questioned the collection of storage fees by the Liberian Government under the National Reform Act.

Monrovia – As many Liberians celebrate President George Weah’s proposed coastal highway to connect counties in the Southeast of the country, the Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate claims it would be almost impossible construct the coastal highway, taking into consideration the cost attached.

Abuja, Nigeria – In   consistent with her campaign for the girl child, Liberia’s Vice president Chief/ Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has received a prestigious award from the Coalition of Wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents in Africa-COWAP.

Monrovia - Human rights activist Leroy Archie Ponpon has accused some supporters of the ruling establishment — Coalition for Democratic Change — and some officials of government of threatening his life.

Monrovia - Plan International Liberia in partnership with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) of Ministry of Health (MOH) in Liberia is expected to kick off a mass distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets (LLINs) throughout the country. Plan and its partners in the last few months have completed a nationwide household assessment and distribution of vouchers which will be used to exchange for the nets. This year’s distribution will be done at fixed sites which have been identified by Plan, partners and County Health Teams (CHTs). Mass distribution of LLINs takes place once every three years.

Monrovia – At least six of the seven suspects linked to the death of Super FM/TV journalist Tyron Browne are behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison pending court trial.

Gbarqueta, Gbarpolu/Lofa Bridge, Grand Cape Mount – In Lofa Bridge an almond tree stands by a mosque and a shop. Its leaves are already orange and yellow – unusual at this time of year when the rains have arrived in this old mining town located along the banks of the Lofa River in the Gola Konneh District.  The mosque is painted radiant blue and white but the shop’s black and white colors have faded. The coming and going of customers is a reminder of Lofa Bridge’s long-running history of trade and commerce.  But back in the 1990s, this shop was home to the fearful Mohammed Jabbateh, alias “Jungle Jabbah”, the former cannibal rebel commander who on Thursday became the first Liberian sentenced to jail for his role in the civil war. Jabbateh received a sentence of 30 years for lying to US immigration officials about his role in the war, the maximum sentence available.  It has been almost 30 years since Jabbateh and his marauding, dreadful ULIMO Zebra Battalion ravaged towns and villages from the North to the West of Liberia. The court in Philadelphia found they killed, tortured, enlisted child soldiers, committed cannibalism, slavery and mass rape. The memories of some of the worst crimes the world has even seen remain fresh on the minds of survivors here, as if they were yesterday. “He had a big dryer where he used to dry human beings after he finished eating their hearts,” recalls 60-year-old Town Chief Momo Fen-Seh, pointing to the shop. “Whenever soldiers under his command complained of hunger he would ask for all the prisoners to get out. He liked the fair skin people. Whether you are a woman or man as long as your skin is fair he referred to you is hog meat.” “Here in Lofa Bridge, when they kill somebody he takes of their heart to cook pepper soup and eats it,” adds John Wanner, 49. Jabbateh and his men also had an eye on money and business.  While in Lofa Bridge, he traded diamonds and gold, locals say, and he looted anything. In Philadelphia he showed his entrepreneurial streak by starting a successful shipping business before he was indicted in 2016.  A visitor here may be confused as to Jabbateh’s character when arriving at the “Jungle Jabbah” Bridge here. But the naming of this improvised bridge made of logs in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County is not meant to honor Jabbah (as the famous “Gabriel Tucker” bridge on Bushrod Island honors the work of the architect of so much of Liberia’s infrastructure works). This bridge is named so the people here never forget the horrors Jabbateh inflicted on them. In 1993 Jabateh and his men loaded a truck with scraps from earthmovers and other equipment that they were stealing from a logging company in a place called Gaingbai and headed towards Bopolu for Monrovia, its final destination. Junior Mulbah of Yeama Town in Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County Jabbateh and his men came across a bridge but could not cross it with their truckload of scraps. So they rounded up men and boys from nearby towns and villages to repair the broken bridge so that he and his men could cross. “We went into the bush, hauled logs and tied the bridge,” explains Junior Mulbah, 53, elder of a village called Yeama not far from the bridge. When we tied the bridge, he brought his truck.” But the bridge collapsed. “It was the driver’s own negligence made him to make accident,” Mulbah adds. Two of Jabateh’s men died that day in the accident, including one of his strongest men identified only as Cece. “He said he wanted to kill someone because we were the ones who tied the bridge and the truck made an accident,” Mulbah recalls. “He had power and he had arm, so we jumped in the bush. He said the fault was from the civilians, and we said the fault was not from us.” In those days the route between Belefasama to Bopolu and to Duala was the major route linking that part of Western Liberia to the capital. “When they used to come, we would not stay in town,” recalls 78-year-old Joseph Ballah of Gbarqueta, the largest town around the bridge. “He was not taking time with us. We were making farm for him. He used to force us. We brushed a lot, it was a large farm. We planted rice there.”  Jabbateh is the first Liberian to be convicted in connection to war crimes committed in Liberia. Former President Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence for aiding and abetting war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone. His son, Charles Taylor Jr., is serving a staggering 97-year sentence in Liberia but as an American citizen. “Yes, he supposed to go to jail,” exclaims Wanner of Lofa Bridge. “Thirty years is even small.” Liberia has not set up a war crimes court though the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended back nearly a decade ago. Some of its former warlords hold key positions in the government, including Senator Prince Johnson of Nimba County and Representative George Boley of Grand Gedeh County. That is not a trend that Jabbateh, 51, can follow, at least for a good while. A father of ten, he will stay in prison in America until he is 80. The length of Jabbateh’s sentence came in large part because of the testimony of 17 witnesses flown in from Liberia who bravely testified against him in court. They did so knowing there was a chance he may be sent home as George Boley was after he was arrested in the US in 2012. He has never faced trial. “I really feel happy because those are the people who tortured our people here,” says George Massaquoi, a 51-year-old resident of Gbarqueta. “I was very surprised to hear that he told the [court] that he did not fight war in Liberia, that he did not do anything.” “The things that he did in Liberia here, especially Gbarqueta in Gbarpolu, let him bear the penalty,” says Ballah. “He ran away from here to America, taking himself to be a good person. Let him bear the penalty.” Report by James Harding Giahyue in Gbarpolu and Tecee Boley in Grand Cape Mount County This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives. Funding was provided by Civitas Maxima. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

Abuja, Nigeria – The Vice President of Liberia, Her Excellency Madam Jewel Howard-Taylor has held closed-door talks with the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Monrovia – President George Manneh Weah has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to ensuring quality and improved learning for Liberian students.

Gardnerville – A mutilated body of a young man was discovered at the Chicken Soup Factory Junction in the early morning hours by passersby and some community members on Saturday, April 21, 2018.

Monrovia - Since her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Juah Cassell’s qualification for the post of Deputy Minister of Justice for Administration, has been contested by numerous legal luminaries.

Monrovia - When Lt. Col. Moses M.D. Flanzamaton named four opposition politicians -  Gabriel Baccus Matthews of the United People's Party, Counselor Tuan Wreh and Harry A. Greaves of the Liberian Action Party and Dr. Edward B. Kesselly of the Unity Party -  in an April 1985 alleged plot to assassinate late President Samuel Kanyon Doe, it was clear to many political watchers at the time that the confession on national television was a hoax gone terribly wrong.

New York – On a recent visit to Liberia, Ambassador David Straz expressed a long-desire to keep his feet heavily grounded in a nation he has loved and admired from afar but one he always, from time to time found time to drop in on and see as well as marveled at the progression from war to a nurturing democracy.

Rochester, New York – The Liberian Studies Association (LSA) last weekend held its 50th annual conference at the Rochester Institute of New York.

Monrovia – Logging companies and some farmers in Liberia are blame for destroying Liberia’s natural forest reserves, making conservation difficult, despite efforts to management the forest.

Monrovia - The General overseer of the Jesus Inspiration Christian Commission (JICC), Pastor Isaac Samuels II, over the weekend donated assorted materials to the Christian Association of the Blind.

Monrovia - The World Food Program (WFP) says the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires moving beyond saving lives to changing lives, focusing first on the people in greatest needs.

Monrovia – Liberia’s Vice President Chief/ Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has spoken of the need for Africans to   use innovative technology to solve Africa’s development challenges.

Kuala Lumpur - We refer to reports by various news publications on what had transpired during the Liberia House of Representatives hearing on Thursday, April 19, 2018. At the hearing, management representatives from Sime Darby Plantation Liberia (SDPL), a subsidiary of SDP, were summoned to provide clarification on the mistreatment allegedly perpetrated by SDPL’s security officers against a Liberian citizen identified as John Davies, the incident of which was video recorded and spread via social media.

Monrovia - After news of Mohammed Jabbateh, alias ‘Jungle Jabbah’ 30 years sentencing spread across Monrovia, Liberian weigh in with their calls fro the establishment of a war crimes court in the country.

Monrovia – Dr. Malachi Z. York, a Liberian Diplomat, is said to be languishing in solitary confinement in a U.S. prison without any medical care accorded him, even though diagnoses show that he is suffering from complicated diseases, including hereditary angioedema.

Pleebo City, Maryland County – Youths of Maryland County are still savouring the long standing advocacy by Liberia’s current House Speaker against alleged illegal activities by the Cavalla Rubber Corporation.

Monrovia – Atty. Chris Massaquoi, former Inspector General of the Liberia National Police, has been invited by the Police for questioning in connection with the murder of journalist Tyron Brown.

Monrovia – Police in Monrovia have arrested a man in connection with the murder of Tyron Browne, a videographer working with Super FM/TV in Monrovia.

Fendell - Barely few weeks after launching the digital registration process for the upcoming semester, the state-run University of Liberia has taken another step further in enhancing and building the capacity of students.

Monrovia - Senator Steve Zargo of Lofa Count - a ranking member on the Senate Defense and Intelligence Committee has raised concern over the selection of Geraldine George as Deputy Chief of Staff Designate of the Armed Forces of Liberia.