Malala Yousafzai became the youngest-ever winner of the Nobel Prize last week for her activism efforts in education for girls around the world. She launched to prominence on the international scene at age 11 for her efforts in her home country of Pakistan (she is now 17), and was shot by the Taliban in 2012. She now lives in England for safety reasons, where she is focused on completing her education.

5 airports began screening for Ebola, in an attempt to slow down the spread of the virus. No-touch thermometers are being used upon arrival of passengers from countries affected by the virus, specifically Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Passengers who seem to show signs of the virus, such as a fever, are quarantined and interviewed. The airports in question are located in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Chicago and Atlanta.

In other Ebola news, a Texas health care worker had a preliminary positive test for the virus. The health care worker was in contact with Thomas E. Duncan, the first person to test positive for Ebola within the U.S., who passed away last week. The hospital said that full Ebola precautions were taken by the health care worker in question, and that they are extremely concerned about how the virus managed to spread.

Protests gained momentum in St. Louis, MO after another shooting death of a young African-American man, Vonderrit Myers Jr., this time by an off-duty white police officer who had been working as security for a private company. Protests have continued in nearby Ferguson, MO as October 4 marked the two-month anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.

“Occupy Central” protests continued in Hong Kong last week, although their numbers had dwindled as students returned to school. Religion seems to be playing a strong role in the protests, with many Christian leaders of the “Occupy Central” movement stepping forward in the call for greater democracy. Desire for an electoral democracy has surged in the semi-autonomous Chinese region.

Snapchat users are scrambling as more than 100,000 “snaps,” many containing sensitive content and some underage nude photos, have been released in a torrent in one of the largest data breaches in history. The implications of the breach are not yet known, and Snapchat has come under fire for allowing access to snaps by the third-party apps that were hacked.

The Islamic State(aka ISIS or ISIL) is gaining traction near Baghdad and the Syrian town of Kobani, despite aggressive airstrikes by the U.S. and its allies. The defense on the ground is driven mostly by the Kurdish ethnic group, who make up the majority of Kobani’s fighters and are considered to be the most active local resistance against the Islamic State. However, fears that they are outgunned by the Islamic State militants remain high.

Sources: The New York Times, NBC News, The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters, NPR, Newsweek, CBS News