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Nobel Peace Prize could go to environmentalists
Rumours are doing round that the coveted Nobel for Peace could go to environmentalists, such as Kenyan tree planter Wangari Maathai or former Russian navy officer Alexander Nikitin.
The last-minute reports suggest that the coveted Nobel for Peace could go to defenders of the environment, such as Kenyan tree planter Wangari Maathai or former Russian navy officer Alexander Nikitin.
The fight against nuclear proliferation could also be honoured this year, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director general Mohamed ElBaradei also said to be in the running, as well as US Senators Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn, the initiators of a disarmament project.
The Nobel Committee has for many years chosen to give the prize to people or organizations who have worked either to resolve conflicts by peaceful means or in defense of human rights.
But the Committee has previously said that it plans to widen the scope of the prize, and it may have decided to honour an environmentalist this year, Norway's normally well-informed public television channel NRK said on Thursday.
Maathai, 64, who started a tree planting project in Africa, could thus become the first African woman to win the Peace Prize.
Last year, the Nobel Committee, which has five members, three of whom are women, gave the prize to Iranian human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to become a Peace Prize laureate since the award was first handed out in 1901.
Maathai launched the "Green Belt Movement" in 1977, a project aimed at promoting biodiversity and at the same time creating jobs and giving women a stronger identity in society. The organisation has planted more than 30 million trees and its nurseries now employ tens of thousands of people.
Another possible laureate is Nikitin, who served 11 months in prison on charges of espionage after he contacted Norwegian environmental group Bellona to blow the whistle on the Russian navy's nuclear pollution in 1995.
A record of 194 candidates are in the running for the prize this year.
The winner of Nobel Peace Prize, which consists of a gold medal, a diploma and cheque worth 1.3 million dollars (1.1 million euros), will be announced at 11:00 am at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
The laureate will then receive the prize at a formal ceremony in the Norwegian capital on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1896.
