Liberia’s Ellen Sirleaf: Women’s icon with nerves of steel

MONROVIA, Liberia: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize as a champion of women’s rights, made history in 2005 when she became Africa’s first elected female president in Liberia.

On January 22, she will also preside over the West African country’s first democratic transfer of power since 1944, when former international football star George Weah is sworn in after a prolonged election in which he handily beat Vice President Joseph Boakai in a run-off vote this week.