Been on Vacation

Still living it up in Cape Town. Just surfing Google News on Liberia for the last week or so:

• President Johnson-Sirleaf accepted the International Freedom Award from Laura Bush on Thursday, rang the bell at the NY Stock Exchange on Friday. Also she joined the chorus of world leaders calling for UN reform, saying it now "appears to be undemocratic and hegemonic." I saw her dining with Kofi and Dubya on CNN.
• Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's war crimes trial could begin as early as April 2.
• The Americans appear to have run out of hospitality and they are requesting some 15,000 Liberians currently living in the U.S. to consider regularizing their status by October 2007 or face deportation.
• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Security Council to extend the UN mission in Liberia for another year until 30 September 2007.
• President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says the government will become more aggressive in enforcing tax compliance in Liberia.
• Charles Julu, a former general under the regime of slain Liberian dictator Samuel Kanyon Doe, has confessed his "sins" in a church in Monrovia.
  
• There was a shootout between a couple of UNMIL peacekeepers!?!?