Yousafzai, Satyarthi receive Nobel Peace Prize

Associated Press

OSLO, NORWAY

Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India received the Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday for risking their lives to help protect children from slavery, extremism and forced labor.

The 17-year-old Malala, the youngest ever Nobel winner, and Satyarthi, 60, collected the award at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall in the Norwegian capital to a standing ovation.

As she received her award, an asylum seeker from Mexico ran onto the stage waving his country’s flag, which he had apparently smuggled into the heavily guarded ceremony without an official invitation, police said. The young man was whisked away by a guard.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg bemoaned the brief interruption and lapse in security. To help protect Malala — who had been shot in the head by Taliban in Pakistan in 2012 — Oslo has been dominated by armed police and security guards for days, with blocked-off streets, metal fences and helicopters whirring above.

In his speech to an audience including Norwegian royalty and politicians, Nobel committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said all children have a right to childhood and education, and “this world conscience can find no better expression” than through this year’s winners.

Referring to Malala’s serious injury in Pakistan two years ago, he said Islamic extremist groups dislike knowledge because it is a condition for freedom.

He praised Satyarthi’s vision of ending child labor and how he had abandoned a career as an electrical engineer in 1980 to fight for that vision.