Liberian government troops on Tuesday recaptured the town of Tubmanburg, northwest of the capital, Monrovia, from rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the government has reported.

In response to an outflow of refugees from Liberia into neighbouring countries, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asked donors on Friday for US $10.4 million to fund its emergency relief operations in the region. The bid for funds "comes amid increasing concern over the condition of tens of thousands of displaced Liberians and Sierra Leonean refugees caught up in the conflict", UNHCR spokesman Rod Redmond said in Geneva. "It also follows the arrival of more than 76,000 fresh Liberian refugees in neighbouring countries since the beginning of this year - an exodus continuing."

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that escalating fighting in Liberia threatened peace in neighboring countries, especially Sierra Leone, and hindered aid groups trying to help thousands of refugees in the region.

RSF has expressed serious concern after the arrest of Hassan Bility, editor-in-chief of the private weekly "The Analyst". "The newspaper is well known for its highly critical attitude towards President Charles Taylor, and we hope that the accusation of 'plotting against the President' is not a pretext for silencing a journalist who is very critical of those in power," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Liberian Information Minister Reginald Goodridge. "We are concerned that this may be a witch hunt against journalists who criticise government policies," he added.

It is often said that the development of a nation does not solely rely on infrastructure and basic social services, but also it depends on the education of the citizens and their ability to understand the significance of a literate society. This belief might be incomplete in the absence of better communication for the development and education of a nation state because communication is a catalyst in this direction.

Four people, including a journalist, were arrested on Monday and were being held incommunicado by security authorities in Liberia on suspicion of associating with the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Amnesty International (AI) reported.

The plundering of forests is pervasive in Africa and is causing enormous damage to the environment and the economy, as well as hurting the poor the most, say NGOs from five African countries.

Liberian rebels Tuesday raided a town close to the country's capital Monrovia and killed some civilians, according to reports reaching here. The reports said the fighting cropped up in the market town of Gba, some 40 kilometers northwest of the capital, when rebel fighters from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) encountered the government troops there.

A military team from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Wednesday met Liberian President Charles Taylor to discuss plans for peace talks to stop the ongoing civil war, a diplomatic source told IRIN.

Cyril Allen has been suspended as chairman of the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) following claims about corruption in government involving the misappropriation of funds by officials.

Sinje camps, near Liberia's border with Sierra Leone, are still inaccessible to humanitarian agencies, sources in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, told IRIN. The officer in charge of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Liberia, Felix Gomez, said that hopes of accessing Sinje were further dashed by recent reports of skirmishes in the surrounding areas.

Liberian President Charles Taylor said on Monday his forces had captured a northern rebel stronghold, but a rebel spokesman denied the claim. Rebels have stepped up their campaign against Taylor in recent months with attacks near the coastal capital Monrovia.

Government forces in Liberia have launched a new offensive against a three-year-old insurgency, attempting to dislodge rebels from their northern stronghold on the border with Guinea, military officials said Wednesday. The troops on Tuesday attacked the town of Voinjama, about 160 miles northeast of the capital, Monrovia, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The government met stiff resistance, and sporadic gunfire continued around the town on Wednesday, they said.

As fighting persists in Liberia, the exodus to neighbouring countries has been continuing, with 3,400 Liberian refugees arriving in Sierra Leone's camps over the last week and 13,000 arriving in Guinea's camps since the beginning of the year.

To better address the deteriorating situation in the Mano River region that threatens the fragile peace process, leaders of the "Mano River Women's Peace Network" (MARWOPNET) will come together for a Training Workshop from 7-10 June in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Network is comprised of a cross-section of women from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea who are dedicated to engendering the peace process in the sub-region. In the past, the Network has succeeded in encouraging the leaders of the Mano River Union to initiate dialogue within and between the three countries. Both the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and the UN Security Council have publicly recognised the contributions of the Women's Peace Network.

Liberian opposition parties have called on the government to heed a recent call by the West African states economic community (ECOWAS) for an immediate ceasefire saying that Liberians preferred "ballots not bullets" as a way of attaining state power.

Fighting has been going in northwestern Liberia over the past few days, a diplomatic source in the capital Monrovia told IRIN on Friday. "There were reports today [Friday] that fighting was [still] going on in Suehn-Mecca, which is 70 km from Monrovia," the source said. "The situation is rather hard to ascertain. Most certainly there has been displacement but it is very difficult to know how many or where they could be," he added.

The U.N. refugee agency has said Liberians continue to flee to neighboring Guinea to escape fighting in their country. The agency also said it is concerned about displaced people inside Liberia where the conflict makes access extremely difficult.

West African countries are considering creating a peacekeeping force under the auspices of their economic community (ECOWAS) to intervene in Liberia if negotiations between the government and rebels fail, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said on Friday.

Panic gripped Liberia's capital, Monrovia, this week as the sound of approaching gunfire sparked fears that fighting between rebels and President Charles Taylor's forces was drawing near.