Africans battling to contain the spread of ebola will have to wait for months until a potentially life-saving experimental drug used on two Americans infected with the dreaded disease would be manufactured, officials said.

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

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee used different tactics to confront thugs and killers in war-ravaged Liberia.

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

Ivory Coast risks returning to civil war unless former president Laurent Gbagbo accepts his election defeat, UN head Ban Ki-moon warned today.

The United Nation’s first all-female peacekeeping force – made up of 105 Indian policewomen – is set to deploy to the troubled west African country of Liberia, an official said today.

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.

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.

The loser in Liberia’s first post-war presidential elections today dropped his legal challenge agains the results, saying he would accept the outcome in the interest of national reconciliation.

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.

Liberian voters waited in snaking queues at churches, schools and empty, long-shuttered bank buildings, hoping presidential balloting would mark an end to a quarter century of coups, despotic rule and fighting that killed tens of thousands.

LIBERIAN voters waited in snaking queues, hoping yesterday’s presidential balloting would mark an end to a quarter century of coups, despotic rule and fighting that killed tens of thousands.

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

LIBERIAN refugee Yatta Holmes bears a scar along her left eye where rebels slashed her face with a machete during an attack on her town several years ago.

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.

Former world player of the year George Weah returned home to Liberia today to launch a presidential bid.

RAMPAGES by ex-government fighters left at least nine people dead in Liberia’s capital yesterday and police and residents said all but one of the deaths came in fighting between UN troops and the ex-militiamen.

At least nine people died in violent clashes in Liberia’s capital Monrovia today and police and residents said all but one of the deaths came in fighting between UN troops and ex-militiamen.

Businessman Gyude Bryant took office today as leader of Liberia’s interim post-war government, taking up a two-year term meant to guide the devastated country into peace after 14 years of bloodletting by ousted warlord Charles Taylor.

Internally displaced Liberians wait for a meal of corn, sugar and supplement mix, issued by the World Food Programme, at the Masonic Temple in Monrovia AT least two people were reported dead after gunmen opened fire near a motorcade carrying Liberia’s rebel leader into the capital Monrovia for the first time yesterday.

US military planes and helicopters carried the last few American ground forces out of war-ruined Liberia – leaving Liberians thankful for their help, but dismayed at their silent withdrawal.

Liberian authorities have agreed to pull government forces from a main road connecting the newly calm capital Monrovia with the country’s volatile interior, paving the way for African peacekeepers’ first countryside deployment a day later, the defence minister said today.

AFTER walking for two days, Siatta Golafale gave birth by the roadside helped by a nurse who like her was fleeing the sound of gunfire in Liberia’s lawless countryside.

DONWEH BAR props up her skeletal frame, wizened beyond her 48 years, with spindly arms wrapped around a twisted cane. Nearby a toddler with protruding belly and ribs eats a few grains of corn meal from her mother's hand.

Liberian rebels locked in peace talks have said a power-sharing deal could be signed as early as today.

DESPERATE for food, tens of thousands of civilians broke through barricades on Monrovia’s front-line bridges yesterday, reuniting Liberia’s war-divided capital after 10 weeks of rebel siege.

Tens of thousands of hungry Liberians broke though barricades on Monrovia’s frontline bridges today in a desperate search for food, reuniting the capital after 10 weeks of rebel siege.

REBELS lifted their siege of Liberia’s war-torn capital Monrovia yesterday after scores of US troops were flown into the battered city.

US troops in jungle camouflage landed at Liberia’s main airport today on a mission to help bring aid to civilians battered by a brutal civil war.

PRESIDENT Charles Taylor, the former warlord blamed for nearly 14 years of bloodshed in Liberia and indicted for war crimes, finally surrendered power to his deputy yesterday.

IN a farewell address to his wartorn nation, President Charles Taylor declared yesterday he would "sacrifice my presidency" to stop bloodshed in Liberia.

LONG-AWAITED West African peacekeeping forces arrived in Liberia’s rebel-besieged, famished capital yesterday to deafening cheers from the city’s desperate people.

A long-heralded peacekeeping force rolled into Liberia’s rebel-besieged capital to deafening welcome by the Monrovia’s desperate people today.

THE vanguard of a West African force aiming at stopping Liberia’s brutal civil war landed yesterday at an airport on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

Frightened residents of Liberia’s besieged capital Monrovia were preparing to welcome the first troops from a regional peacekeeping force today.

WEST AFRICAN military officers searched for camp sites and made other preparations yesterday for the long-promised deployment of peacekeepers to Liberia’s rebel-besieged capital.

Pushed by the United States and the United Nations, West Africa’s leaders have broken a deadlock and announced that a long-promised peace force will be sent to Liberia’s war-torn capital within days.

US troops were today moving toward the coast of Liberia to support the arrival of a West African peacekeeping force after 26 Liberians were killed in mortar fire in the besieged capital, Monrovia.

WEST AFRICAN leaders promised to send peacekeepers to Liberia despite new rebel attacks that shattered a short-lived ceasefire considered crucial to restoring peace in the troubled country.

Liberian rebels shattered a day-old pledge to cease-fire, lobbing mortars at neighbourhoods crowded with refugees and briefly capturing a key bridge in the war-ruined capital desperately short of food and water.

LIBERIAN rebels engaged in an all-out battle for the country’s war-torn capital said yesterday they have ordered their troops to stop fighting.

A thundering barrage of mortars shook Liberia’s capital, hitting two US Embassy compounds and residential neighbourhoods and killing more than 90 people, as government and rebel forces fought over President Charles Taylor’s last stronghold.

SOME 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia after at least 70 people were killed when heavy fighting engulfed the capital Monrovia yesterday.

HEAVY fighting engulfed the Liberian capital yesterday, killing at least 70 people as mortars pounded the city in an all-out battle between rebels and forces of President Charles Taylor.