Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by Taliban gunmen, is to address the United Nations as part of her campaign to ensure free compulsory education for every child.
Malala Yousafzai will mark her 16th birthday by delivering a speech later on Friday at the UN headquarters in New York.
She was shot in the head on a school bus by Taliban gunmen because of her campaign for girls’ rights.
It will be Malala Yousafzai’s first public speech since last October’s incident in Pakistan’s north-western Swat valley.
After the shooting Malala Yousafzai was flown from Pakistan to the UK for treatment, and now lives in Birmingham.
Malala Yousafzai is to address the UN as part of her campaign to ensure free compulsory education for every child
A passionate campaigner for female education, Malala Yousafzai will address more than 500 students at a specially convened youth assembly.
The teenager has been credited with bringing the issue of women’s education to global attention.
In her speech Malala Yousafzai will call on politicians to take urgent action to ensure every child has the right to go to school.
About 57 million people around the world still do not have access to education, and a quarter of young women have not completed primary school.
The Pakistani schoolgirl, who set up the Malala Fund following the attack, will also present a petition of more than three million signatures to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanding education for all.
The event, described as Malala Day by the UN, has been organized by former British PM Gordon Brown, now the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.
Gordon Brown said: “Getting every girl and boy into school by 2015 is achievable.
“It is only impossible if people say it’s impossible. Malala says it is possible – and young people all over the world think it is possible.”
Aid agencies say that female access to education in Pakistan is a particular problem. They say that the country ranks among the lowest in terms of girls’ education enrolment, literacy and government spending.
Former CIA director David Petraeus is making his first public speech since resigning in November over his extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus is scheduled to speak on Tuesday night at a University of Southern California event honoring the military as he carves out a role for himself as a voice on energy, economic and veterans issues.
A prepared text of his speech, obtained by The New York Times, indicates David Petraeus will apologize for the affair with Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus is expected to acknowledge that he’s “regarded in a different light now” than he was a year ago and that he’ll try to make amends and move forward as best he can.
“I am also keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing,” David Petraeus will say, according to The New York Times.
“So please allow me to begin my remarks this evening by reiterating how deeply I regret – and apologize for – the circumstances that led me to resign from the C.I.A. and caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters.”
David Petraeus will apologize for the affair with Paula Broadwell in his first public speech since resignation at a University of Southern California event
David Petraeus, 60, a famed Iraq and Afghan war, is a general retired from the military in 2011 who went on to lead the CIA.
President Barack Obama accepted his resignation from the CIA on November 9, saying David Petraeus had “made our country safer and stronger”, after he admitted having an affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.
David Petraeus will talk about the importance of supporting the families of military personnel and will close his speech by once again referring to his mistakes.
“I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others,” the decorated general will say.
“I can, however, try to move forward in a manner that is consistent with the values to which I subscribed before slipping my moorings and, as best as possible, to make amends to those I have hurt and let down.”
David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell affair was discovered during an FBI investigation into emails Broadwell sent to another woman she saw as a rival for Petraeus’ attention – emails the other woman viewed as threatening.
He told his staffers at the time that he was guilty of “extremely poor judgment” in the affair.
“Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,” David Petraeus told CIA employees in a statement.
After the affair, David Petraeus testified behind closed doors about the Benghazi attack but kept out of the public eye after the very powerful media storm which blew up in the wake of the scandal.
In recent months, however, David Petraeus has increasingly appeared in public for lunches and dinners with former colleagues, foreign officials, members of Congress and policy experts.
