MALALA YOUSAFZAI WINS THE 2014 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head for speaking out against the Taliban in support of girls' education, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014.

Yousafzai, whose father is a Rotarian, shares the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a native of India who has worked to combat the exploitation of children for financial gain, according to an announcement in October from the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

In announcing the award, the committee praised Yousafzai for demonstrating that "children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations." It noted that "through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."

Malala's Bio

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WORLD POLIO DAY: HEALTH OFFICIALS LAUD POLIO ERADICATION ACHIEVEMENTS, POINT TO DISEASE’S ENDGAME

After a year of shrinking polio cases worldwide, the crippling disease is now on the cusp of being eradicated, said top health officials at Rotary's second annual World Polio Day event on 24 October.

At a special Livestream program -- World Polio Day: Make History Today -- Rotary leaders joined global health experts and celebrity singers to hail the progress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. After nearly 30 years, the GPEI, which includes Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is on the brink of ending polio by 2018, making it the second infectious disease to be eradicated.

"A world without polio is within our grasp more than at any point in the past," said Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, during a video message to the audience. "The poliovirus continues to lose ground. Next month we will mark two years since the last case of wild poliovirus type 3, giving every appearance of eradication, and leaving only type 1 in the world."

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