Daily News Channel
If any man pursued a life of value without valuing his own life, it was Tim Hetherington. Wars in Liberia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Libya — the world’s open wounds — were vocation destinations for this English photojournalist, whose pictures had the impact of stark truth stripped of political attitudinizing
A few years ago, the hour-long drive between Liberia’s main airport and the center of the capital Monrovia was both dangerous and terrifying.
With four Phoenix, Arizona, boys ages 9 to 14 charged with sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl, a prosecutor vowed Thursday his office will "seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation." “This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community,” said Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas. According to Phoenix police, the girl was lured to a storage shed at an apartment complex on July 16.
Pulling the microphone toward him, the dapper 61-year-old man in sunglasses creased his forehead, cleared his throat emphatically and introduced himself to the war-crimes court in the Hague: “My name is Dakpenah Dr. Charles Ghankay Taylor, the 21st President of the Republic of Liberia.” Thus began the testimony of Charles Taylor, the reviled warlord and ousted Liberian President, at his landmark trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Six years on from the end of Liberia’s long and bloody civil war, the country is finally on the mend.
On a dusty pitch in the middle of the capital of Monrovia limbless young men play football as though their lives depended on it. They are members of the Liberian National Amputee Football Team and for the most part, victims of the war. Some participated in cruel acts against civilians during the fighting and face a daily struggle to live with both their disability and the past.