Liberian Defense Minister Daniel Chea has announced that government forces have retaken the central provincial town of Gbarnga. Mr Chea said that between 13 and 15 government soldiers and more than 100 rebels were killed in the counter-attack which, according to him, has put the rebels on the run.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Michael Francis says the culture of corruption in society exists from the top to bottom - and that nobody cares enough to take corrective measures. He was speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop organized by the Liberia Watch for Human Rights at the YMCA in Monrovia.

Continuing displacement of people from central Liberia due to fighting between government and rebels could quickly overburden the scarce resources of humanitarian agencies, the UN office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in New York on Tuesday.

Clustered around radios, thousands of hungry Liberians in a refugee camp devour war news from Iraq, many hoping the world will turn its attention to their plight. A civil war in this West African nation with historic ties to the United States has killed thousands and uprooted nearly a third of the country's 3 million people with no end in sight.