Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has announced in China that his country was ready to promote bilateral ties with Sierra Leone. In a meeting with foreign affairs minister Zainab Bangura, Jinping said China would assist Sierra Leone in the area of trade, education and health, adding that diplomatic ties between the two countries started 37 years ago.

A new health data system has been introduced to rural parts of Sierra Leone, where lack of electricity and widespread illiteracy has prevented authorities and UN agencies from collecting reliable data about infant mortality and other health indicators. The method: Counting stones

Mariatu Kamara is 22, pays close attention to fashion, makeup and hairstyles, and, like many young women in Canada, is starting college. But, unlike others at her downtown campus, Kamara is doing it all without hands. Hers were hacked off in a machete attack in her native Sierra Leone a decade ago.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up in 2002 to investigate the causes of Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, a brutal conflict during which all factions were accused of committing gross human rights violations. The TRC specifically recognised the effects of violence on women and the family structure.

Saio Marah, nine months pregnant and two days into labor, lay on a hospital bed and groaned loudly with each contraction. She had arrived at the rural hospital earlier on the back of a motorcycle, about the only public transport available in this muddy little town in the distant back-country bush of one of Africa's poorest nations. Now, in a dark and hot labor ward with rain blowing in the open windows and puddling on the floor, Marah grimaced as James Konteh slapped on rubber gloves and examined her.

The director and a staff member of the Society for Democratic Initiatives (SDI), a Sierra Leone media advocacy group, say they are receiving death threats after publishing a report on press conditions late last month. Director Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai told CPJ that he and Information Officer John Baimba Sesay have received threatening phone calls nearly every day this month.

Magnus Kamara is a school inspector with a difference. He has been hired to find schools that don't exist."It has been a shocking experience. In some of the towns and villages we visited, there were neither school structures nor genuine teachers, but the government was always paying salaries and subsidies to them, on monthly basis."

A group of 16 refugee families have moved into rehabilitated houses in the Liberian town of Bensonville as part of a process to locally integrate some 3,500 Sierra Leoneans who cannot go home or are unwilling to repatriate.

Sierra Leone is reviewing its mining policy while two foreign firms fight over the rights to a potentially lucrative iron ore project, the government of the West African state said on Tuesday. The Marampa iron ore deposit at the centre of a legal battle between London Mining (LOND.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and African Minerals (AMIq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is estimated to be worth at least half a billion dollars, according to one London Mining executive.

The UNICEF Goodwill ambassador Angelique Kidjo in collaboration with Children Associated with the War [CAW] at George Street in Freetown said that the practice of forcing girls into prostitution must stop, and the girls must be given a chance to rebuild their lives.

This book has been written to lay the foundations of a single curriculum framework for citizenship education in Sierra Leone. It is a direct result of a consultative process aimed at complementing and consolidating a number of citizenship-related initiatives within and outside government circles in Sierra Leone. The framework it presents looks at some significant and critical themes, and goes on to set parameters and suggest guidelines to ensure its successful implementation.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Sierra Leonean government to conduct an investigation into the assault by police on reporters by security personnel attached to the State House. “This is unacceptable police behavior that cannot be ignored,” said Gabriel Baglo, the Director of the IFJ Africa office. “We condemn this brutal and deliberate assault and call on the government to conduct an investigation to bring those responsible to justice and to make sure such an incident does not happen again.”

Final arguments in the lengthy trial of three former commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) have ended in Freetown, making way for judgment which is expected by the end of this year. The three -- Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao -- have been on trial since July 2004, following their arrest and indictment by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on an 18-count charge of war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian laws.

Sierra Leone's Transport and Aviation Minister Mr. Kemoh Sesay has been sacked yesterday following the landing of an unauthorized antonov plane which forcefully landed at the Lungi international airport with 700kg cocaine, arms and ammunitions on July 12th this year.

Joseph F Kamara Appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the Special Court Prosecutor Stephen Rapp announced today the appointment of Sierra Leonean lawyer Joseph F Kamara as Deputy Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Mr. Kamara is the first Sierra Leonean to occupy the post. He succeeds Dr. Christopher Staker who has held the position since July 2005.

Over the past week the UNHCR operation in Guinea embarked on a campaign informing Sierra Leonean refugees on the upcoming cessation of their refugee status and its implications. The UN refugee agency announced last month that as of the end of the year, Siera Leoneons who fled their country during civil war in the early 1990's will no longer be considered refugees since the root causes of the refugee problem in Sierra Leone no longer exist.

Sierra Leonean police have adopted new policy guidelines on sexual abuse and exploitation that have been drafted by United Nations officials as part of their efforts to reduce the widespread levels of violence against women and girls in the West African country.

Sierra Leone’s women’s advocacy group "50/50" has expressed disappointment at the poor showing of women in the July 5 local council elections. "We expected more women to contest for mayorship in the municipalities and ward councillors across the country but this did not happen," says Harriet Turay, the group’s president.

As a gender activist and secondly, as a Parliamentarian, I will provide an understanding of the Sierra Leone Parliament by highlighting its work thus far in relation to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). I will give a situational analysis of the prevalence and incidence of sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone before, during and after the war and its consequences on women, girls and society at large. This will be followed by responses of government bodies at ending sexual and gender-based violence. I will then give an insight into the laws of Sierra Leone as far as they relate to sexual and gender-based violence. The role of the Sierra Leone Parliament in addressing sexual and gender-based violence will be next described, followed by a discussion on how Parliament partnered with CSO in this regard and end by making suggestions for the way forward for effective strategies to address impunity in Africa.

PREVALENCE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SIERRA LEONE

Domestic and gender-based violence, we all know, has social, economic, psychological, physical and emotional cost both to the individual and society. Yet such cost have been largely under-estimated and ignored, and it is not generally seen as a security issue.

In Africa, in particular, SGBV has been surrounded by a culture of silence and impunity. The range and complexity of the underlying causes make it a difficult issue to address. SGBV not only manifests itself as physical violence such as sexual abuse of women and children, but also includes forms of structural violence such as discriminatory laws and practices that prevent women from owning property or holding positions of authority within their communities.

In short, SGBV has been viewed as a security issue because it is a human rights violation and therefore impacts negatively on the ability of men and women to secure and enjoy their basic rights. It can also feed into broader societal violence and can consequently compromise the country’s development strides.

Computer literacy is a prerequisite for many jobs today, but students in Sierra Leone often have to seek out computer schools to gain the necessary skills. There are many issues that can inhibit the opening of a computer center in a school here, not the least of which is funding.