so, please, join me in giving a warm welcome to miss helene cooper. [applause] >> hello. thank you for the introduction, i woke up this american to rain and i thought nobody would come so i'm happy to see you managed to make it. youer like myself, book lovers. for me, this book began 12 years ago while i was on a reporting trip in eastern congo. i didn't know it at the time next realized in the moment when significant things are happening, at least i don't. i'd been on assignment for "the new york times" in eastern congo as part of a series of stories i was writing about development in africa. i went to ghana, to ethiopia, to kenya, and i remembered at each place i kept thinking despite the poverty and challenges none of them seemed as bad off as my own home country of liberia which just came out of two decade of civil war, until i got to the congo. oh, finally, now i'm home; i thought, is a crawled out of the small single engine plane. after the semi desert of ethiopia and the savannahs of kenya. conga was other worldly wash. just like my home country of like beera. leaf

helene cooper. [applause] >> hello. thank you so much, carla, for the great introduction. this morning i woke up to the sound of rain. i thought nobody is going to come, so i'm really happy to see all of you managed to make it today. you clearly like myself, book lovers. for me this book began 12 years ago while i was on a reporting trip in eastern congo. i didn't know it at the time. we never realized in the moment when significant things are happening, at least i don't. i've been on assignment for the "new york times" in eastern congo as part of a series of stories that is writing about development in africa. i went to ghana, to ethiopia, to kenya. and remember that with each place i kept thinking that despite the poverty and challenges, none of them seemed as bad off as my own home country of liberia, which are just come out of two decades of civil war. until that is i got to the congo. finally now i'm home, i thought, as i crawled out of the small single-engine plane. after the semidesert of ethiopia and the savannas of kenya, this was otherworldly, just like my home c

. >> helen cooper, i wish we had more time to get into this.three seconds to turn it over to velshi and rhule. thank you for being back. all yours. >> you can always go longer. >> tell that to my executive produce per. >> all right. we'll have that conversation. it's been great to have you here. >> we'll probably talk later. lots of stuff happening. good morning. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie rhule. we got a lot cover this morning. let's get started. >> this morning the death toll is rising but there are glimmers of hope among the devastation. more survivors pulled alive from the rubble. >> there's about 20 kids that we still don't know how they are, if they're even alive.

. >> helen cooper, i wish we had more time to get into this. i have three seconds to turn it over to velshi and rhule. thank you for being back. all yours. >> you can always go longer. >> tell that to my executive produce per. >> all right. we'll have that conversation. it's been great to have you here. >> we'll probably talk later. lots of stuff happening. good morning. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie rhule. we got a lot cover this morning. let's get started. >> this morning the death toll is rising but there are glimmers of hope among the devastation. more survivors pulled alive from the rubble. >> there's about 20 kids that we still don't know how they are, if they're even alive. >> the entire focus of this nation is right here. this is the school where 21 young elementary school-aged children were killed after that earthquake struck. the operation right now is dire. it is a race against time. >> they're asking us to whisper because search teams are actually trying to find a 12-year-old girl named frida inside the school. they're trying to

helen d. cook jeffrey w. coons. john a. cooper julian d cooper. joseph albert corbett gerard j.ppola joseph albert corbett alejandro cordero robert cordice ruben d. correa danny a. correa-gutierrez georgina rose corrigan. james j. corrigan carlos cortes kevin cosgrove dolores marie costa digna alexandra costanza charles gregory costello, jr. michael s. costello conrod k. cottoy martin john coughlan john gerard coughlin timothy j. coughlin james e. cove and my grandfather. even though i've never met you i know you were watching me from heaven. >> and my son darryl mckinney which i lovingly call pat. we miss you. you are forever in our hearts and every day that goes by i think of you and i know you were at their and you are not alone. your beautiful auntie is with you and i have solace for that because you guys are together. thank god. andre cox frederick john cox james raymond coyle michele coyle-eulau anne marie cramer .. patrick joseph. [inaudible] we miss you, love you and thank you for the bravery that you showed up that the. >> even though our time together on this earth was

helen d. cook jeffery w. coombs john a. cooper julian t. cooper joseph john coppo jr. gerard j.j. corcoran iii alejandro cordero robert joseph cordice ruben d. correa george jean rose core began james j. corrigan carlos cortes kevin cosgrove dolores marie costa digna alexandra costanza michael s. costello charles gregory costello jr. martin john coughlan john gerard coughlin timothy j. coughlin james e. cove >> and my grandfather horace pass nav i have, even though i never you met you i know you're watch meg from heaven. >> and my son darryl la ron mckinney, which i lovely called pop. pop, we miss you, you're forever in our hearts and every day that goes by i think of you and i know you're there and you're not alone. you're beautiful angie is with you and i have solace for that because you guys are together. thank god. andre cox frederick john cox james raymond coyle michelle coyle-eulau christopher seton cramer eric a. crabford denise elizabeth crant robert james crawford james leslie crawford jr. tara kathleen creamer joanne mary cregan lucy crifasi john a. crisci daniel hal c