Charles Taylor Found Guilty of War Crimes in Sierra Leone
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
This week, an international court found former Liberian president Charles Taylor guilty of war crimes in Sierra Leone.
Charles Taylor stood silently as Presiding Judge Richard Lussick read the judgment by a special United Nations court in The Hague.
RICHARD LUSSICK: “The trial chamber unanimously finds you guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of the following crimes pursuant to article 6.1 of the statute; planning the commission of the following crimes in the attacks on Kono and Makeni in December 1998, and in the invasion of and retreat from Freetown between December 1998 and February 1999 …”
The reading of the judgment — which included details of terrible crimes — lasted two hours.
The judges found the sixty-four-year-old former president guilty of helping rebels from the Revolutionary United Front. The rebels killed tens of thousands of people and terrorized civilians during Sierra Leone’s civil war. The war lasted from nineteen ninety-one to two thousand two. Crimes by the RUF included murder, rape, drafting of child soldiers and sexual slavery.
Judge Lussick said Charles Taylor was publicly involved in peace efforts while secretly financing the hostilities. The court said he received what are called blood diamonds, mined in eastern Sierra Leone. In return, he provided arms, ammunition, communications equipment and planning help to the rebels. But there was not enough proof that his influence amounted to effective command and control of the rebels.
Human Rights Watch spokeswoman Geraldine Mattioli-Zeitner said she was pleased with the ruling.
GERALDINE MATTIOLI-ZEITNER: “We think this is an historic moment. It’s the first time a former head of state is prosecuted and judged for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed while he was in office.”
The former Liberian leader has denied the charges and can appeal the judgment. Sentencing is set for May thirtieth. He faces a possible life sentence. He is expected to serve any prison term in Britain.
Charles Taylor was arrested in two thousand six — three years after he was charged and resigned as president. The trial opened in two thousand seven. It was moved from Freetown, in Sierra Leone, to the Netherlands to avoid unrest.
The court heard evidence from ninety-four witnesses for the prosecution and twenty-one witnesses for the defense, including Taylor himself.
The case is expected to be the last major trial for the special court. It was established to try the most serious cases of war crimes during the conflict in Sierra Leone.
People in Sierra Leone welcomed the conviction of Charles Taylor. There were mixed emotions in his native Liberia, where he still has some support. Tamba Cole was among Liberians who welcomed the guilty verdict. He said Taylor has now set an example to other leaders in Africa and around the world. Such crimes will no longer be accepted by the international community, he said.
Charles Taylor is the first head of state to be found guilty by an international court in almost seventy years. The last time was in ninety forty-six, in the trials in Nuremberg, Germany, for war crimes during World War Two. Karl Doenitz — who briefly led Nazi Germany after Adolf Hitler killed himself — was found guilty of crimes against peace and war crimes. He spent ten years in prison.
And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
___
Contributing: Lisa Bryant and Kate Thomas
What You Can Do About Headaches
BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about headaches, the pain that strikes almost everyone at some time.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Have you had a headache recently? If your answer is yes, you are like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the head. The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple painkiller like aspirin. Or, it can be severe.
The National Headache Foundation says more than forty-five million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches. Such a headache causes severe pain that goes away but returns later.
Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat. But many experts today are working toward cures or major help for chronic headaches.
STEVE EMBER: The U.S. Headache Consortium is a group with seven member organizations. They are working to improve treatment of one kind of headache — the migraine. Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. The National Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine sufferers are women.
Traditional health workers in Indian-controlled Kashmir use blood-sucking leeches to treat skin diseases and ailments such as arthritis, gout, chronic headaches and sinusitis. The leech therapy follows the traditional unani system of medicine that originated in ancient Greece and is recognized by Indian health officials. 
AP
BARBARA KLEIN: One migraine sufferer is Curtis Croley of Ellicott City in Maryland. He had head pain as a child. Mr. Croley says he does not know what kind of headaches they were. But when he suffered severe headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine.
Today, Mr. Croley produces and directs films and videos. He says months can pass without a headache. But then he will have three migraines within a month. If he takes the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls the pain in his head. If not, the pain becomes extremely bad. Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in a hospital.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine headaches. Others use medicine to control pain already developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans.
Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. And most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects. Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches. Interestingly, caffeine can also cause some migraines.
BARBARA KLEIN: Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of being “triggers” that start migraines. They include cheese and alcoholic drinks. Food additives like salt and monosodium glutamate also may be triggers.
The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have seemingly started migraines in the past. Some people react badly to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell.
The clinic’s experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine sufferers. Aerobic exercise increases a person’s heart rate. It can include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle. But a sudden start to hard exercise can cause headaches. So it is a good idea to perform some mild exercises before beginning activities that require more energy.
The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and sleep at the same times each day.
STEVE EMBER: The Mayo Clinic also has advice for women who suffer from migraines. The female body makes estrogen. Drugs like birth control pills contain a version of this chemical. Such drugs may produce headaches or cause them to worsen, the clinic warns. But they can also cause an easing of headache pain. The same is true for estrogen replacement drugs for women. Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement for women who are no longer able to have children.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Mayo Clinic says there are alternative, or nontraditional, ways to treat migraine. Among them is acupuncture, in which thin needles are placed below the skin at defined areas.
The clinic says another method, biofeedback, is especially effective for migraine. In biofeedback, patients use special equipment to learn how to observe and control physical reactions linked to stress. Some people get help from massage, systematic rubbing of the body. Others use herbs, minerals or vitamins.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: More people suffer tension headaches than migraines. But most tension headaches are not as powerful. Events that start tension headaches may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression. Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as feeling tired. Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be responsible.
The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the skin around your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day. Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed emotional tension caused these movements. But that belief has been disputed.
The International Headache Society began organizing a system for identifying differing forms of headaches in nineteen eighty-five. The society says there is no evidence that tense muscles are the only cause of pain. So it suggests that tension headaches be called tension-type headaches.
STEVE EMBER: Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. These changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. The changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain.
Whatever the cause of the headache, people do not enjoy the experience. Treatment can be as simple as aspirin or other painkillers. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor’s advice.
BARBARA KLEIN: A website called familydoctor.org provides information from the American Academy of Family Physicians. It offers suggestions to ease or end a tension headache.
For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed in the shower. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer first.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine.
Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and people who drink alcohol often get such headaches. Men are about six times more likely than women to have them. The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men. Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season.
Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning. The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free periods separate these periods.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches. The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red.
Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help. Many other drugs could be used. For example, doctors say breathing oxygen also can help.
Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our headaches.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Visit us at voaspecialenglish.com, where you can find transcripts and MP3s of our reports. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
World Bank and IMF Meet in Washington
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have gathered in Washington. World Bank President Robert Zoelick spoke to them on Thursday. This is the last time he attends the spring meetings of the two organizations as World Bank president. Earlier this week, Jim Yong Kim was officially chosen as the bank’s twelfth president.
Mr. Zoellick said developing countries are now engines of growth.
“Developing countries have provided two thirds of global growth over the past five years,” he said. But he added that many developing nations still face big problems. He said all members need to work together better “for their common interest.”
The United States traditionally chooses the World Bank head and Europe chooses the IMF chief. But developing nations want more influence.
The World Bank is a development agency. The IMF supports monetary cooperation and provides loans.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde announced Thursday that her group has received promises of over three hundred twenty billion dollars. The money would help nations in trouble. She also said developing nations, what are called the emerging markets, needed to do more.
CHRISTINE LAGARDE: “If you look at, for instance, the emerging markets. They, too, have to address some of their issues. They, too, have to be very attentive to a volatile market situation. And that means, for some of these emerging markets, refocusing on their domestic growth.”
Ms. Lagarde said emerging markets need to work toward growth and building demand. But that requires resources.
Two issues are access to banks and safety nets. The World Bank says three-fourths of the poor have no access to banks. That means no savings in their communities to finance growth. The problem is greater for women. Poor women are twenty-eight percent less likely to have bank accounts than poor men.
Social programs are also needed. Sixty percent of the developing world cannot depend on social programs to protect citizens from hunger or provide services in crises. As a result, experts have called for safety nets.
ROBERT ZOELLICK: “And for the poorest, let’s focus on basic safety nets for every country to deal with the volatility and uncertainty because the other lesson we learned is if you wait until a crisis, it’s too late.”
And rich nations have a lot to learn from developing ones. Mr. Zoellick said programs in Brazil and Mexico are not costly, but help millions.
Finally this week, the World Bank Group welcomed its newest member: South Sudan. The nation received its first grant of nine million dollars. The money is to help create jobs and provide financial services.
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. I’m June Simms.
