In The News

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization’s pandemic review panel co-chair Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Tuesday expressed disappointment in COVID-19 vaccine roll-out plans which she said means shots will not be widely available in Africa until 2022 or 2023.
“The panel is discouraged and frankly disappointed by the unequal plans for vaccine rollout,” the former Liberian president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate told an Executive Board meeting of the WHO. Read more...
MONROVIA, Jan. 17 (LINA) – The Ministry of Information has said the government will leave no stone unturned in the scrupulous implementation of the laws of Liberia, with sensitivity to protecting the rights and obligations of free speech.
“Everyone, including broadcasters, has to be held accountable for what they communicate, the Ministry said in a statement signed by Minister Ledgerhood J. Rennie on Sunday
It reminded all that Article 15 of the Liberian Constitution states that “every person shall have the right to freedom of speech, being responsible for the abuse thereof.” Read more...

AU chairman Cyril Ramaphosa said vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would be available this year.
Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses secured by the African Union (AU) will be allocated according to countries’ populations, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa, who is the current AU chairman, said on Wednesday that vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would be available this year, but he did not specify how much each African country would get.
No African countries have begun large-scale vaccination campaigns and the AU’s 270 million shots, if administered so there are two per person, would still only cover around 10 percent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people. Read more...
Senator Varney Sherman has opined that the US government’s imposed sanctions against him based on allegation and “unfounded theory,” has damaged his livelihood and business.
Sen. Sherman, whose reaction comes amid a report of the Financial Intelligence Unit requesting banks to temporarily freeze his financial assets, lamented that said financial and economic sanctions against him have virtually destroyed his law practice; as most of his clients now have terminated attorney-client relationships.
“Some of the clients started with me when I established the law firm in July 1989, and have continued with me through thick and thin until the imposition of these sanctions,” Sen. Sherman said. “Accordingly, I have relieved my partners, staff lawyers and ordinary staffers from their obligations to Sherman and Sherman, and to me personally.” Read more...

A provisional 270 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been secured by the African Union (AU) for distribution across the continent.
All of the doses will be used this year, promises current AU head South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. This is on top of 600 million doses already secured but is still not enough to vaccinate the whole region.
There are fears that poorer countries globally will wait far longer than richer nations to be inoculated. Although infection numbers and death rates are comparatively lower across most of Africa, cases are spiking again in some areas.
A new variant of Covid-19 in South Africa is causing particular alarm and makes up most of the new cases. Read more...
Grand Kru County, District #2 Representative J. Fonati Koffa has won the post of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, replacing Bong County Representative Prince Moye who is now inducted as senator of Bong County.
His win on Tuesday, 12 January is a slap in the face of the main opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) which had mandated its lawmakers at the House of Representatives to vote for its candidate Representative Clarence Massaquoi of Lofa County for the deputy speaker post. Read more...
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