FORMER Liberian president Charles Taylor called charges of war crimes against him “lies” as he took the stand for the first time at his landmark trial in The Hague.

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.

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.

LIBERIAN President Charles Ghankay Taylor — known as “Pappy” to his band of child soldiers — is a wanted man in West Africa.