UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expects 11 British soldiers being held hostage by renegade troops in Sierra Leone to be released ”in the near future”. Annan told reporters that officials were making progress in their talks with the rebels, known as the West Side Boys. The British soldiers were part of a contingent of about 400 who are training a new Sierra Leone army, and missing on Friday. The West Side Boys are a group of soldiers from the former Sierra Leone army that claims allegiance to the military junta that ruled the country in 1997-98. They have demanded food, medicine and the release of one of their leaders from prison in return for freeing the Britons and a Sierra Leonean soldier who was captured with them. – Reuters