JAILED FILM CREW REFUSED BAIL IN LIBERIA

THE Channel 4 film crew who have been accused of spying in Liberia have been refused bail and are back in the main prison in the capital Monrovia.
They were held overnight at the National Security Agency; reports that they were threatened with physical and physiological abuse have arisen.
Britain's Ambassador to the Ivory Coast the nearest country with a British Embassy has arrived in the Liberian capital as fears have mounted to deliver a personal message from the UK Government to the Liberian authorities expressing concern at the arrests.
In London, the case is due to be raised with visiting South African president Thabo Mbeki.
Lawyers for the men two Britons, a South African and a Sierra Leonean, who were making a documentary about Liberia for Channel 4 have launched an appeal against a decision to refuse the men bail.
Lawyers in Libya said the charges the men faced were capital offences punishable by death.
Channel 4 said it was concerned the men had been either physically or psychologically tortured in the headquarters of the National Security Agency, a criminal investigation unit under the personal control of Liberian President Charles Taylor.
The Foreign Office said that it was extremely worried about the reports and was seeking urgent confirmation.
The detained men, all working for London-based independent production company Insight News, are British director David Barrie, from London, Zimbabwe-born cameraman Tim Lambon, who has dual South African and British nationality, South African soundman Gugulakhe Radebe and award-winning Sierra Leonean film-maker Sorious Samura.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has already issued a plea to President Taylor to release the journalists.
Liberian soccer star George Weah is the latest high-profile figure to attempt international intervention on behalf of four television journalists charged with spying in his home country.
Manchester City chief executive Chris Bird said: "The meeting has not been confirmed yet, but he knows the president and is obviously a very well-known character in Liberia, as well as being an ambassador for Unicef. He wants to try his best to do what he can. He wants to help the families in what he realises is an awful situation for them."
Weah, 33, is said to be on good terms with President Taylor and hopes to persuade him to release the four men.
The arrest has also attracted the criticism of Nelson Mandela and US President Bill Clinton's special envoy to Africa, Jesse Jackson. Britain is also expected to raise it with South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is visiting the UK.
The men were formally charged on Monday after authorities reviewed their videotapes and found material that was "damaging" to the Liberian Government and the security of the state.
The indictment against them says the West African state's Government believes the documentary they were making would try to support British and American allegations of Liberian Government involvement in diamond smuggling and gun-running for Sierra Leone's rebel army.
Channel 4 insists they were valid journalists with official permission to work in Liberia and had already recorded an interview with the country's defence minister.
New voices have been added to those of Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson, calling for the men's release.
The former US President, Jimmy Carter, has written to the Liberian President, with whom he has long standing contacts.
The European Union's External Affairs Commissioner, Chris Patten has also appealled to the Liberian authorities to release the crew.