Liberia’s government is easing up on its order that all ebola victims’ bodies be cremated after authorities purchased a plot of land to bury them.

Liberia’s chief medical officer, who is also a deputy health minister, has put herself in quarantine as a precaution against ebola after one of her assistants died from the disease.

Liberia’s chief medical officer has placed herself in quarantine for 21 days after her office assistant died of Ebola.

The United Nations is establishing an Ebola Crisis Centre with a goal of stopping transmission in affected countries within six to nine months, the UN chief said, as the death toll from the outbreak surpassed 2,000 for the first time.

Authorities in Liberia have opened a new centre to treat Ebola patients in the capital after the existing one became overwhelmed with patients.

The number of Ebola victims in west Africa may "vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak", the World Health Organisation has said.

Liberia is facing an excruciating choice – deciding which handful of Ebola patients will receive an experimental drug that could prove either life-saving or life-threatening.

Liberia said it would treat two infected doctors with the scarce experimental ebola drug ZMapp, the first Africans to receive the treatment, while authorities in Spain said a priest had died of the disease.

Liberia will soon receive doses of an experimental Ebola drug and give it to two sick doctors, making them the first Africans to receive some of the scarce treatment in a spiralling outbreak.

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has apologised for the high death toll among the country’s health workers, who have fought an ebola outbreak which has killed nearly 1,000 people in three countries.

Liberia has announced the quarantine of a number of communities and the closure of schools across the country, the toughest measures yet imposed by a West African government in a bid to halt the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Violence has broken out at opposition headquarters in Liberia, killing at least one person hours before a presidential run-off today.

A top opposition figure urged the international community to use force to oust Laurent Gbagbo from Ivory Coast’s presidency after the disputed election.

Naomi Campbell's former agent was accused today of lying when she claimed the supermodel knowingly received "blood diamonds" from former Liberian president Charles Taylor.

Liberia is to receive $4.6bn (€3.76bn) in debt relief under a plan worked out by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Fulham striker Diomansy Kamara will undergo reconstructive surgery on a knee injury on Friday and is not expected to return until early next year.

AFTER months of frustration and haggling the EU’s military operation in Chad and the Central African Republic will finally be launched, though the operational commander of the Irish contingent Lt Gen Pat Nash has warned there are still gaps.

Emotional scenes are expected tonight as the last Irish soldiers serving in Liberia return home, marking the end of Ireland’s four-year presence in the war-torn African country.

Aid workers and UN peacekeepers are trading food and other goods for sex with children in camps housing Liberians uprooted by fighting during the west African nation’s war, an international charity says.

Denmark will turn down a UN request to accept former Liberian President Charles Taylor after his trial in a UN-backed war crimes court, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said today.

FORMER Liberian President Charles Taylor appeared before an international war crimes court yesterday.

AP Chief of African News Michelle Faul covered both sides of Liberia’s civil war and the war in Sierra Leone from 1990 to 1994, when she was West Africa Correspondent.

Britain circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution yesterday that would move the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands because of the danger he would pose by remaining in the West Africa region.

Liberia’s one-time warlord Charles Taylor was in the hands of Sierra Leone’s tribunal today, where he is set to become the first-ever African head of state tried on war crimes charges by an international court.

ELITE Irish troops with the UN were involved in the capture and detention yesterday of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, while he was trying to flee from Nigeria.

Irish troops are aiding in the transfer of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, to face prosecution before a war crimes court in Sierra Leone, it emerged tonight.

Liberian warlord and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor disappeared from the haven Nigeria had granted him just as he was to have been handed over to face trial, Nigerian officials said today.

Nigeria’s announcement that it is ready to hand over exiled Liberian warlord Charles Taylor – the first former African head of state indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes – is a reluctant gesture that sends a powerful message to other warmongers on the continent.

Nigeria today said it was considering a request from Liberia to the hand over ex-President Charles Taylor.

Newly inaugurated President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf today unveiled her first nominations for Cabinet-level positions in Liberia’s post-war elected government, tapping a female international banker to be her economy minister.

Africa’s first elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has been sworn in as president of war-battered Liberia, promising a clean break with the west African nation’s violent past and pledging to rebuild.

ELLEN Johnson Sirleaf was yesterday sworn in as war-battered Liberia’s new president, carving her name into history as Africa’s first elected female head of state.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf takes office today as Liberia’s new head of state, carving her name into history as Africa’s first elected female president and taking the helm of a ruined nation struggling for peace after a quarter century of coups and war.

Liberia’s president-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said today she’s deliberating on what should be done about Charles Taylor who is in exile in Nigeria but wanted in Sierra Leone on war crimes charges.

African leaders today hailed the election of the continent’s first-ever female president, calling the victory of Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf a watershed for African women.

UN forces fired tear gas and used batons to beat back rock-throwing supporters of a soccer-star candidate who claims his Harvard-educated female rival stole Liberia’s presidential runoff.

The football superstar turned presidential candidate called for a halt today in vote counting that had him heading for defeat in war-ravaged Liberia, but also urged his angry supporters to remain calm.

WAR-RAVAGED Liberia voted yesterday to choose its first post-war president in a heated run-off pitting an international soccer star who dropped out of school against the country’s Harvard-educated top female politician.

Liberians are today choosing between a wealthy international soccer star and a Harvard-educated female politician vying for the country’s top job in a brains-versus-brawn presidential run-off that many hope will herald a new era after a quarter century of coups and war.

A FORMER world soccer star faces off against a Harvard-educated woman in a heated brains-versus-brawn run-off tomorrow to decide Liberia’s first post-war president after a quarter century of coups and war.

A former world soccer star faces off against a Harvard-educated woman in a heated brains-versus-brawn run-off tomorrow to decide Liberia’s first post-war president after a quarter century of coups and war.

Violence from Liberia’s war spilled across borders, and today the west African nation held its first presidential elections since fighting ended.

LIBERIANS are flocking to the presidential campaign of former soccer star George Weah, who has pledged to lead his war-scarred country to peace and development after decades of despots.

Bolton striker El-Hadji Diouf in the squad for Senegal’s World Cup qualifier against Liberia on March 26 – even though he will be in the middle of a three-match domestic suspension.