Malaria kills about 780,000 people a year, and most of them are children in Africa. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made eradication of the disease a top priority. On Tuesday, the organization touted the results of a study that showed a vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline protected nearly 50 percent children from severe malaria. As far a success rates for vaccines go, those are not the best odds, but even that amount of protection would save millions of lives over a even just a decade of use. And the news does indicate that scientists are on the right path toward eventually preventing malaria.

By most accounts, the history of AIDS begins sometime in the late 1970s, before the first official cases were diagnosed in 1981 among a handful of gay men. But a striking new book by Dr. Jacques Pépin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, upends medical history. In "The Origins of AIDS," Pépin traces the roots of the disease back to 1921 when a handful of bush-meat hunters in Africa may have been the first to be exposed to infected chimpanzee blood.

A great deal of anger has been directed at the profits of the banking industry since the onset of the recession. One of the focal points of Occupy Wall Street, and of the like-minded protests that have emerged throughout the country, is precisely this discontent with the earnings of banks, particularly during a period of such economic duress for the rest of the country. But the quarterly reports from the banks have been showing that they've taken considerable losses over the past three months.

Todaymarks ten years since the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan began — a milestone many people may not have imagined the U.S. would reach. For soldiers, the anniversary is cause for reflection. Special Forces Major Fernando M. Luján made his reflections public last week, in an op-ed in The New York Times called "This War Can Still Be Won." Luján, who was stationed in Afghanistan for 14 months, and is now a member of the Afghan Hands program, says "the Afghans have the will to win, with or without us."

Bank of America's decision to charge customers $5 per month to use debit cards has prompted many, including President Obama, to criticize the banking giant. Other large banks, including Chase, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, and HSBC, are following suit, with plans to charge their customers varying monthly debit card fees. This leaves many Americans wondering what steps they should take next, and where they should do their banking.

Heads of state, business and technology leaders, and throngs of consumers, who were touched by his products, are mourning the loss of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56. The news comes little over a month after Jobs stepped down as CEO of the company, on August 24, due to his declining health. Jobs was battling pancreatic cancer. New Yorker writer Ken Auletta wrote an obituary for Jobs last night, saying Jobs' creations "changed our lives." "The Macintosh, the iTunes store that induced people to pay for music and other content, Pixar, which forever changed animation, the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. These were more than technological feats. Apple products were beautifully designed, as well," Auletta wrote.

Fred Shuttlesworth, a civil rights leader who helped bring Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Shuttlesworth worked alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died on Wednesday at age 89. Shuttlesworth often spoke publicly against the violence that was prevalent in the South at that time, and founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

Steve Jobs, Apple's iconic co-founder, died Wednesday at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Widely credited with transforming the way people use computers, listen to music, and communicate, Jobs's influence and vision shaped each of Apple's popular devices. Jobs, a college dropout inspired by the spirit of the 60s, founded Apple in a garage with Steve Wozniak in 1976. In a statement on its website, Apple wrote, "Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives."

Though nearly one out of every 11 people across the country is out of work, on industry is facing a labor shortage. Some farmers in the western U.S. who have traditionally relied on migrant workers are now offering the same jobs to Americans — $10 an hour for pulling in the fall harvest. John Harold is one of those farmers. Instead of hiring migrant workers this year, he left openings for local, jobless Americans, something he considers a mistake. Americans, he says, proved to be less reliable and less willing to perform the hard work necessary to run his corn and onion farm than foreign workers.

Law enforcement officials accused a 26-year-old man from a town west of Boston of plotting to blow up the Pentagon and the Capitol Building with a remote-controlled aircraft fitted with explosives. Officials said Rezwan Ferdaus, who has a physics degree from Northeastern University, has also provided resources to Al Qaida to aid in attacks on American soldiers overseas.

For months gold had been on a fantastic run, but last week gold prices plunged 9.6 percent, and then Monday another 2 percent, to $1,600 an ounce. Investors usually consider gold a safe bet, but they may not think of them that way anymore.

A single map inside the latest edition of the well-respected "Times Atlas of the World" has caused friction between the cartography world and the scientific community. A map of Greenland in the book shows that the country has considerably less landmass than ever before. Harper Collins, which prints the "Times Atlas," recently circulated a press release that said Greenland had lost more than 15 percent of its coastline after nearby glaciers melted, thanks to global warming. Scientists say that number is incorrect. 

August's Gallup poll numbers showed that 41 percent of American adults approve of the way Obama is currently handling his job, an all-time low for the President. And some of the most significant declines in approval come from Latino voters — a group that was formerly solidly supportive of the President.

Hewlett-Packard announced on Wednesday that Meg Whitman would replace Léo Apotheker as chief executive. Whitman is the former chief executive of eBay, who made a failed bid for the governorship of California last year. Hewlett-Packard's decision shocked many people in the business world.

A last minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was not enough to save Troy Davis. The Georgia inmate was executed for the murder of a Savannah police officer, despite serious doubts about the evidence against the 42-year-old. Davis's case gained the support of hundreds of thousands of followers, including former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Republican presidential candidate Bob Barr, and celebrities like Sean Combs and Cee-Lo Green. 

Two major announcements hit Wall Street and Washington on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve unveiled its plan to invest $400 billion in Treasury securities in an effort to boost the economy, and Moody's downgraded the ratings of Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. How is all of this going to affect consumers and businesses? And how is divided Washington going to react?

Faced with an uphill reelection battle and a disenfranchised base, President Obama indicated on Monday that he plans on taking a harder line against an anti-tax GOP. In a speech introducing his debt reduction plan yesterday, Obama vowed to veto any plan Congress sends him that does not raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while cutting Medicare benefits. "I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans," Obama said. Obama's plan, which will reduce annual deficits up to $4 trillion over 10 years, has been assailed as "class warfare" by Republicans.

Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera had arguably the most important moment of his career yesterday, in a game aginst the Minnesota Twins, when he surpassed Trevor Hoffman as the major league career leader in saves with 602. Rivera has been the Yankees' closer since 1997, so this milestone has been 15 years in the making.

The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution on Thursday for Duane Buck, a Texas man who has sat on death row for the past 16 years. Buck's guilt is not in question. He was convicted for killing his former girlfriend and another man in 1995. But Buck, a black man, was sentenced by a jury who heard expert testimony from a psychologist who said black people pose a of violently reoffending when released from prison. Gov. Rick Perry, who was cheered on at a GOP debate for the 234 inmates executed in Texas under his watch, has been asked to review the case.

Over the past twenty-four hours, we’ve learned more about the rogue trader that lost the Swiss bank UBS $2 billion. It turns out that the trader, Kweku Adoboli, had the same job at UBS as Societe Generale's Jérôme Kerviel, whose fraudulent trading cost the bank €4.9 billion in 2008. How does this happen, and what is it that drives these traders to commit fraud?