Todd Pitman
Todd Pitman works from [email protected]. Regional Public Information Officer, UN Human Rights (OHCHR), based in Bangkok. Ex-AP foreign correspondent in Africa and Asia-Pacific. Todd Pitman has over 2342 followers on Twitter.
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/ 9 November 2005

Vote counting under way in Liberia

Liberians crowded around radios on Wednesday awaiting results from the presidential run-off between a millionaire soccer star and the war-ravaged West African nation’s top female politician. Final results in the race between George Weah and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will not be announced for two weeks.

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/ 9 November 2005

Liberians vote, pray for peace

War-ravaged Liberia voted to choose its first post-war president in a heated run-off pitting an international soccer star who dropped out of high school against the country’s Harvard-educated top female politician. With United Nations helicopters buzzing over the bombed-out capital, many prayed the vote on Tuesday would herald an era of peace.

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/ 8 November 2005

Liberia’s election: Brains or brawn?

A soccer star vying to become Liberia’s first post-war president vowed to work for peace as he voted on Tuesday in a presidential run-off that many hope will herald a new era after a quarter-century of coups and conflict. George Weah and former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf finished first and second, respectively, in the October 11 first round, which weeded out 20 other presidential candidates.

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/ 4 November 2005

Obasanjo on peace mission to Côte d’Ivoire

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was expected in Côte d’Ivoire on Friday on a mission to help resolve this war-divided West African nation’s latest crisis. On Monday, Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo began a United Nations-backed extended year in office that has been opposed by opposition leaders and rebels.

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/ 14 July 2005

Who is Ivorian?

Two years after Ibrahim Kone applied to renew his national identity card, he found it by chance — floating down a river in Bouake, a rebel-held Côte d’Ivoire town. Kone believes the laminated document was dumped there with a box full of others by authorities who doubted he was Ivorian, and ”never had any intention of issuing it”.

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/ 3 March 2005

US toll in Iraq tops 1 500 as govt talks falter

The number of United States troops killed in Iraq has topped 1 500, an Associated Press count showed on Thursday after the military announced the deaths of three Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks. Meanwhile, talks aimed at forging a new coalition government faltered on Wednesday.

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/ 17 June 2004

DRC dinner can be hard to swallow

Crocodile, boa constrictor, tortoise and antelope top the menu, served up in banana-leaf sacks with potato chips on the side. And for the willing, there’s one dish that would make most carnivores squirm: monkey meat. At Mama Ekila’s Inzia restaurant, African bushmeat is flown in — and fried up — for discerning diners looking to put a bit of adventure on their plate.