- published: 13 Jun 2012
- views: 10505429
Coordinates: 6°30′N 9°30′W / 6.500°N 9.500°W / 6.500; -9.500
Liberia i/laɪˈbɪəriə/, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. Liberia means "Land of the Free" in Latin. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and Ivory Coast to its east. It covers an area of 111,369 square kilometres (43,000 sq mi) and is home to 4,503,000 people.English is the official language and over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, representing the numerous tribes who make up more than 95% of the population.
Forests on the coastline are composed mostly of salt-tolerant mangrove trees, while the more sparsely populated inland has forests opening onto a plateau of drier grasslands. The climate is equatorial, with significant rainfall during the May–October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia possesses about forty percent of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. It was an important producer of rubber in the early 20th century.
Robert Young Pelton (born July 25, 1955 in Edmonton, Alberta) is an Canadian-American author, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Pelton's journalistic work usually consists of conflict reporting and interviews with military and political figures in warzones. His career is notable because of the number of conflict zones he has reported from and the breadth of important figures he has interviewed. His reputation is built on his history of entering forbidden, deadly and violent places.
Pelton has been present at conflicts such as the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi in Afghanistan, the Battle of Grozny (1999-2000) in Chechnya, the rebel campaign to take Monrovia in Liberia, the siege on Villa Somalia in Mogadishu and has been with ground forces in approximately 40 other conflicts.
He survived an assassination attempt in Uganda, spent time with the Taliban and the Northern Alliance pre 9/11, the CIA during the hunt for Bin Laden and also with both insurgents and Blackwater security contractors during the war in Iraq
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer and writer. She is married to the 44th and current President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, she is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, and spent the early part of her legal career working at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met Barack. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, Obama helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid. She delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. She and her husband have two daughters together. She has become a fashion icon and role model for women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity, and healthy eating.