Liberia: Rebels dig in at rubber plantation

More than 1,000 former fighters of the LURD rebel movement are holed up in Liberia's second largest rubber plantation and are refusing to turn in their guns to UN peacekeepers, a member of Liberia's transitional parliament said on Tuesday. Residents living on and near the Guthrie plantation, about 30 km northwest of the capital Monrovia, have complained of harassment by the fighters and have reported that they are illegally tapping rubber from the plantation, he told IRIN, speaking on behalf of village chiefs in the region.