In the World
Liberian panel asks prosecution
MONROVIA, Liberia - Liberia's truth and reconciliation commission recommended yesterday that former President Charles Taylor and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in the West African country's civil war.The commission now will submit its recommendations to the country's legislature for consideration. It is not clear when it would start dealing with recommendations contained in the report.
Among those recommended for prosecution was Prince Johnson, a former rebel leader who is now a sitting senator. He is best known for the torture of former Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, who died in 1990.
Liberia's back-to-back wars, which lasted from 1989 to 2003, sparked vicious factional fighting that killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced millions. Taylor, who launched a 1989 invasion, is on trial at the Hague, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in neighboring Sierra Leone.
- AP
Michelangelo's face in picture?
VATICAN CITY - The restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel may have produced a special prize - a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist.Chief Vatican restorer Maurizio De Luca said yesterday that the face of a man on horseback in the artist's The Crucifixion of St. Peter could well be the artist, though he added that nobody would ever know "with absolute certainty that the face is Michelangelo's."
The chapel, generally known by its Italian name, Cappella Paolina, is used by the pope and is not open to the general public. It contains two Michelangelo frescoes, the other of which depicts the conversion of St. Paul. Pope Benedict XVI will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer service tomorrow.
- AP
Nuclear agency picks new leader
VIENNA, Austria - The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency chose a veteran Japanese diplomat as the agency's next head yesterday, in a tight vote reflecting stubborn North-South divisions of the U.N. nuclear monitoring organization.Yukiya Amano collected 23 votes, compared with 11 for Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, with one abstention, barely giving him the two-thirds majority needed for victory. Amano will replace Mohamed ElBaradei, who is stepping down in November after three four-year terms.
While Amano, 62, was born after the U.S. nuclear strikes that ravaged the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he alluded to those events, suggesting that as a "national coming from Japan" he would extend particular efforts to reduce the threat from atomic arms.
- AP
Elsewhere:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said ahead of his trip today to Myanmar that he plans to lobby the country's top leader for the release of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. Ban was due to arrive for meetings with leaders on the same day that Suu Kyi's trial resumes.
