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Malala Yousafzai 'Overwhelmed and Happy' to Be Back in Pakistan

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai (2R) returns to her native Pakistan to attend a summit on girls' education. Zain Zaman JANJUA / AFP
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai (2R) returns to her native Pakistan to attend a summit on girls' education. Zain Zaman JANJUA / AFP
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Malala Yousafzai 'Overwhelmed and Happy' to Be Back in Pakistan

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai (2R) returns to her native Pakistan to attend a summit on girls' education. Zain Zaman JANJUA / AFP
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai (2R) returns to her native Pakistan to attend a summit on girls' education. Zain Zaman JANJUA / AFP

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said Saturday she was "overwhelmed" to be back in her native Pakistan, as she arrived for a global summit on girls' education in the Islamic world.
The education activist was shot by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl and has returned to the country only a handful of times since.
"I'm truly honored, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan," she told AFP as she arrived at the conference in the capital Islamabad.
The two-day summit was set to be opened Saturday morning by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and brings together representatives from Muslim-majority countries.
Yousafzai is due to address the summit on Sunday.
"I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls," she posted on social media platform X on Friday.
The country's education minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told AFP the Taliban government in Afghanistan had been invited to attend, but Islamabad has not received a response.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from going to school and university.
Pakistan is facing its own severe education crisis with more than 26 million children out of school, mostly as a result of poverty, according to official government figures -- one of the highest figures in the world.
Yousafzai became a household name after she was attacked by Pakistan Taliban militants on a school bus in the remote Swat valley in 2012.
She was evacuated to the United Kingdom and went on to become a global advocate for girls' education and, at the age of 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

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Inauguration of Venezuela's Maduro Draws International Condemnation

People in Caracas, Venezuela rest on stairs featuring a mosaic portraying the eyes of the country's late president Hugo Chavez during the inauguration of his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, for a third term. Betty Laura Zapata / AFP
People in Caracas, Venezuela rest on stairs featuring a mosaic portraying the eyes of the country's late president Hugo Chavez during the inauguration of his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, for a third term. Betty Laura Zapata / AFP
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Inauguration of Venezuela's Maduro Draws International Condemnation

People in Caracas, Venezuela rest on stairs featuring a mosaic portraying the eyes of the country's late president Hugo Chavez during the inauguration of his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, for a third term. Betty Laura Zapata / AFP
People in Caracas, Venezuela rest on stairs featuring a mosaic portraying the eyes of the country's late president Hugo Chavez during the inauguration of his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, for a third term. Betty Laura Zapata / AFP

Nicolas Maduro's inauguration on Friday for a third term as Venezuela's president drew widespread admonishment from countries that have accused him of stealing the July election.
The defiant 62-year-old leader, who has shrugged off allegations of electoral fraud and insisted he won another six-year term, was also congratulated by states that have maintained support for his controversial government.
Here are the main reactions to Maduro taking the oath of office in Caracas.
United States
Washington hiked its reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to $25 million on Friday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Maduro "clearly lost" last year's election and called the swearing-in ceremony "an illegitimate presidential inauguration."
In a separate announcement, the US Treasury Department said it was sanctioning eight senior officials who lead "key economic and security agencies enabling Nicolas Maduro's repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela."
On Thursday, incoming US president Donald Trump defended Venezuela's opposition party leader and its exiled presidential candidate as "freedom fighters."
European Union
The EU said Friday that Maduro was not Venezuela's legitimate president.
Foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said "Maduro lacks all democratic legitimacy," as Brussels announced sanctions on a further 15 officials from Venezuela's National Electoral Council, judiciary and security forces.
Britain UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Maduro's "claim to power is fraudulent," as London also announced further sanctions on individuals associated with the Caracas government.
"The outcome of July's elections was neither free nor fair and his regime does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people," Lammy said.
United Nations
UN chief Antonio Guterres called Friday for Venezuelan authorities to release all those who have been "arbitrarily detained" since the elections.
"The Secretary-General strongly condemns the detention of a large number of persons, including opposition figures, journalists and human rights defenders since the July 28 presidential elections," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Maduro on his swearing-in, according to the lower house of parliament.
Lower house speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who attended Maduro's inauguration in Caracas on behalf of Putin, "conveyed congratulations from Russia's head of state", it said in a statement.
- Regional states -
In a sign of Maduro's pariah status, only two leaders -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Nicaraguan president and ex-guerrilla Daniel Ortega -- attended his inauguration.
Traditional left-wing allies, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pointedly stayed away from the ceremony.