The Government of Liberia, with support from United Nations agencies, will launch a week-long measles vaccination campaign on Wednesday targeting all children in Nimba County, which hosts over 30,000 refugees who fled the political turmoil in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire. As of the end of January, five Liberian children between one and five years old had died of measles, two cases had been confirmed by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), and just over 100 suspected cases had been reported.

Judges at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor have admitted into evidence two Wikileaks documents that appear to question the impartiality of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The decision comes just days before prosecutors and defense attorneys present their closing arguments in Mr. Taylor's war crimes trial.

The phenomenon of regional warriors in West Africa is rearing its head again today, as Cote d’Ivoire hovers on the brink of civil war. Thousands of combatants roam this fragile region from conflict to conflict, fighting as a means to survive in some of the poorest nations on earth, where peace without proper reintegration has brought not happiness but rather a life of idle deprivation for some former fighters, many of whom were coerced to take up arms as children.

Christiana Garpeh listened attentively with her headphones as she put together her first radio piece of the day. She ignored the Beyonce song playing in the newsroom to focus on transcribing an interview. The interview was with a woman from Pagos Island, a part of Monrovia cut off from the rest of the city by swamps. She was seeking donors for women's literacy classes and classes in soap making and tailoring. Each working day Garpeh produces about two such stories on the needs of women for broadcast by Liberia Women Democracy Radio, housed in a two-story building in Congo Town on the outskirts of Monrovia, the nation's capital.

Voter registration begins this week in Liberia where a little over a million eligible voters are expected to go to to polls to choose a new president come October. Incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - who is vying for a second five-year mandate - won the last polls in a runoff against George Weah, who is this year expected to run as an opposition coalition joint candidate.

The latest UNESCO figures show just five out of ten Liberian women over the age of 15 can read or write. For men it is six out of ten. The West African country now has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, ranked in the bottom fifteen according to UNESCO. 'Standing before you, my name is Erica. I am nine years old. I go to the Christian Ministry Fellowship international school,' says Erica proudly. Erica is among a new generation of students in Liberia who are being taught to read using new techniques not seen in West Africa before.

Liberia is the first country in Africa to establish a national action plan to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. The document, which was adopted by all member states unanimously in 2000, calls on states to include women in the peace-building process. Article 11 of the resolution emphasises the responsibility of all parties to put an end to impunity and to persecute those responsible for sexual gender-based violence.

With close to 25 years surveying land and helping resolve land disputes, J. Patrick Vanie has unrivalled expertise on the nuances of land ownership in Nimba County. 'I know this county right down to my fingertips,' says Vanie. But Nimba’s land commissioner admits to feeling swamped by an overwhelming caseload. 'The land business here is tough, it is no joke,' Vanie concedes. 'The demand for land here has become very, very high.'

The Liberian president has dismissed her cabinet in a move officials say will provide a 'fresh slate' for the government. No other reason was given for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's announcement on Wednesday but it comes amid a crackdown on corruption in the West African state that has led to investigations of some public officials a year ahead of presidential elections.

Using the example of apartheid South Africa, Khadija Sharife reveals the history of how huge oil companies have used flags of convenience in the shipping industry to secure corporate capitalism.

'Voice for the voiceless' is the slogan adorning the walls of Liberia’s first and Africa’s second radio station for women. Situated down a bumpy, dirt track on the edge of the capital, Monrovia, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio (LWDR), claims it wants to advance women and promote change. In a country trying to rebuild itself after 14 years of civil war in which women bore the brunt of the violence, they remain the most vulnerable group in society.

Liberia holds its second post-war presidential and legislative elections in October 2011. The first, held in 2005, was a landmark: it was the first free and fair elections in the country’s long history. Since then Liberia, previously wracked by bloody petty wars, has been largely stable, though very fragile. The 2011 elections will probably be just as important as the one in 2005 as their successful conduct will determine when the UN, which still maintains about 8 000 troops in the country, will finally withdraw, says this situation report from the Institute for Security Studies.

'We want you to bring a strong voice to the women', says President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as she launches Liberia’s first and only radio station for women. Standing in a room full of ministers, officials, journalists and community women, Africa’s first democratically elected female President knows only too well what it’s like being a lone female voice in a male dominated world.

Liberia's government says the decision by a group of creditor nations to write off its debt will allow the country to write a "new Liberian story". The 19-nation Paris Club pardoned $1.2bn (£764m) worth of debt owed by the West African country. Liberia's Finance Minister, Augustine Ngafuan, told the BBC's Network Africa that debt servicing took up large amounts of its national budget.

Offering a bold example for the possibilities for press freedom, the Liberian government has passed a freedom of information law, report the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The House of Representatives of Liberia unanimously voted to pass the Liberia Freedom of Information Law on 22 July, thereby making information accessible to all Liberians. The law has been forwarded to the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf by the end of August.

United Nations officials in Liberia have welcomed the launch of a new national strategy to combat HIV/AIDS, stressing the importance of tackling the disease before infection rates become high in the West African country. Liberia’s National AIDS Commission yesterday launched a strategic framework for 2010 to 2014 in the capital, Monrovia, with the target of containing the spread of HIV at its current rate of 1.5 per cent among the general population.

In a small office tucked behind the stairwell in Liberia’s Ministry of Education, the once-proud staff of the Girls’ Education Unit appear defeated. The workers in this fourth floor office, entrusted with charting a new course for the education of the country's girls and women, have no salaries, no budget, and few projects under way.

Since the civil war ended in 2003, the combination of returning refugees, population growth, and ongoing land tenure tensions dating back 25 years has led to at least 250 land dispute deaths in Liberia, according to NGOs. Leading reformists are worried the right mechanisms to address land rights are still not in place. The latest significant clashes over land took place in 2008 on the border between Grand Bassa and Margibi counties in which 15 people were killed. Since then people have continued to be killed in smaller-scale disputes.

Following a new agreement to enable China Union to mine in Liberia's central region, many Liberians are hopeful that the revitalisation of the country's mining sector will lead to new employment opportunities. This may well be the case, writes Patrick Wrokpoh, provided the Johnson-Sirleaf government shows the same willingness to pursue favourable terms that it has shown in dealing with another mining company, ArcelorMittal.

The Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP) has launched the 3rd edition of its account of threats to freedom of expression with calls for the government and authorities to recognize and support the inalienable rights of others to dissent.