After an intense three-year campaign, Africa's first woman head of state, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has won international forgiveness of its crushing $4.9 billion debt, making way for the revitalization of the war-ravaged West African country. 

Late last summer, Africa's "Iron Lady" achieved a sound financial footing making the impoverished country much more attractive to foreign investors, who are pumping life into its economy.

(READ the story in the CS Monitor)