Queen Elizabeth invites Malala to Buckingham Palace: Report

LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has invited Malala Yousafzai to Buckingham Palace, The Sunday Times reported. The invitation comes amidst speculation that Malala will be named the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize this week. The report stated that the Queen was impressed by Malala’s bravery and inquired about her health from Pakistan High Commissioner in the United Kingdom. Malala was shot by the Taliban in Swat for campaigning for girls’ schooling. She was recently awarded the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award and is also among the favourites for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on October 11. Nobel Malala and a Japanese author who writes about alienation and a fractured modern world are tipped as Nobel Prize winners ahead of the annual awards. She is a favourite for the peace prize among experts and betting agencies. “I have Malala Yousafzai on top,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of Oslo-based peace research institute PRIO, told reporters. “The EU (European Union) got the prize last year and the EU prize was poorly understood and fundamentally questioned in many quarters.” One obstacle could be her age. Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni human rights activist and youngest winner to date, was 32 when she received the prize and some experts argue the prize would overburden such a young woman. Malala is living in London and still facing Taliban threats.