The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Arabic: منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية‎;  Munaẓẓamat at-Taḥrīr al-Filasṭīniyyah (help·info)) is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United Nations since 1974. The PLO was considered by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991. In 1993, PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace, accepted UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and rejected "violence and terrorism"; in response, Israel officially recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Conceived by the Arab states at the first Arab summit meeting, the 1964 Arab League summit (Cairo), its stated goal was the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle. The organization was called Palestinian Liberation Organization. The original PLO Charter (issued on 28 May 1964) stated that "Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British mandate is an integral regional unit" and sought to "prohibit... the existence and activity" of Zionism. It also called for a right of return and self-determination for Palestinians. Palestinian statehood was not mentioned, although in 1974 the PLO called for an independent state in the territory of Mandate Palestine. The group used multi-layered guerrilla tactics to attack Israel from their bases in Jordan (including the West Bank), Lebanon, Egypt (Gaza Strip), and Syria.

Phil Galfond (born January 16 , 1985) is an American professional poker player. Galfond won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Due to his success as a high stakes online player, he appeared on multiple seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Galfond is originally from North Potomac, Maryland and attended Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He used to reside in New York City where he installed a slide as his access between the two penthouse apartments he purchased in 2011.

As of 2010, Galfond's total live tournament winnings exceed $996,000. His six cashes at the WSOP account for $925,936 of those winnings.

Galfond won the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker, earning $817,781. He defeated Adam Hourani during heads-up play. The final table featured a number of well known professional players including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Kirill Gerasimov, Johnny Chan, David Benyamine as well as online players Brian 'tsarrast' Rast and Adam 'houdini' Hourani.

Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi (Arabic: حنان داوود خليل عشراوي ‎, born October 8, 1946) is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégé and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, and has been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ashrawi is a member of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's Third Way party. She is the first woman elected to the Palestinian National Council.

Ashrawi serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.

She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. Ashrawi also has a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia.

Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American print and television journalist, currently the senior White House correspondent for ABC News in Washington, D.C. He was named to that position the day after election day 2008, having covered then-senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

He last interviewed Obama in July 2009 in Moscow, in an interview where the president expressed confidence that his foreign policy approach was starting to work and said regarding the stimulus package, "there's nothing that we would have done differently." That January, Tapper had broken the story of the tax troubles of then-Health and Human Services secretary nominee and former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), troubles that ultimately derailed Daschle's nomination.

From March through July 2010, Tapper was interim anchor of ABC's This Week, hosting the program until Christiane Amanpour became This Week's anchor.

Tapper was born in New York City and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Anne Tapper, retired as a psychiatric nurse at Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center. His father, Theodore S. "Ted" Tapper, a Dartmouth graduate, was a president of South Philadelphia Pediatrics, a group medical practice, and is an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Jefferson Medical College, both in Philadelphia.

Jeff Koinange is a Kenyan journalist and chief reporter at TV station K24. He previously served as the Africa correspondent for CNN and CNN International from 2001 to 2007.

Koinange was born in Kenya and worked with Kenya's first independent television channel KTN Kenya Television Network. He attended Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY between 1987–1989 and graduated with an Associate's degree. He also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from New York University. Prior to joining CNN, Koinange worked for Reuters Television from 1995 to 2001, covering Africa and serving as their chief producer from 1999 to 2001. He also worked as a producer at NBC News in 1994 and also worked for ABC News earlier in his career from 1991 to 1992. Seven months after leaving CNN, Koinange was hired as a news anchor by a new Kenyan TV station, K24, which started doing test runs in Nairobi in December 2007. He is the host of Capital Talk Show.

Included among the more significant stories Koinange has covered for CNN in Africa were the crisis in Darfur, the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and the famine in Niger, for which Koinange won an Emmy award.