•Canada is to ship 800 vials of its Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization.

The vaccine can completely protect animals from a fatal dose of the Ebola virus. However, its safety and effectiveness in humans is unknown.

Trials began in the U.S. this week and the World Health Organization will conduct further tests in Europe and Africa.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said the vaccine could be an “important tool in curbing the outbreak.”

There is no cure or proven vaccine, but a number of experimental approaches are being rushed through.

Source: BBC News

 •Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize inspires young girls to fight for rights.

Since then she has been shot in the head by the militants and become the youngest person ever at age 17 to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

When she was shot in the head in October 2012 by a Taliban gunman, she was already well known in Pakistan, but that one shocking act catapulted her to international fame.

She survived the dramatic assault, in which a militant boarded her school bus in Pakistan’s north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding two of her school friends as well.

Other ambitious teenagers who want to go on to lengthy careers as doctors, engineers and psychologists, follow Malala’s story. “We’re not going to stop working after we get married like some women do,” Sharmeen Farooq, 14, said.

For them, Malala’s plight was not an isolated incident. “There are thousands like her,” Azka Yamin, who is also 14, said.

Source: The Independent 

•Remains found in search for U-Va. student believes to belong to Hannah Graham.

Police on Saturday announced  they found human remains believed to be those of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, who disappeared from Charlottesville five weeks ago after an evening out with friends.

Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr., said the remains were found during a search of an abandoned property in Albemarle County. Authorities said a conclusive identification has not been made.

Source: USA Today 

•Comet Siding Spring set to have rare near miss with Mars.

An extremely rare celestial event played out Sunday night, with an ancient comet hurtling narrowly past Mars.

The comet passed within 140,000 km of Mars at a speed of around 56 km a second. This distance is equivalent to a comet passing at a third of the distance between the Earth and the moon.

Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University, said the hurtling comet’s fly-past of Mars is “extremely rare.”

Source: The Guardian 

•Emory University students developing fast-acting Ebola detection strips.

Two Emory University students may have discovered a faster and less expensive way to detect Ebola.

Freshmen Rostam Zafari and Brian Goldstone plan to pursue careers as physicians. They designed Rapid Ebola Detection Strips (REDS), a portable test strip kit, after their biology professor challenged students to devise a way to fight Ebola in exchange for extra quiz points.

Testers place a blood sample on the strip, and a color change represents whether the individual has contracted the virus.

Source: USA Today College