Pakistani Teen Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Via CNN:

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to India's Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people's rights, including the right to education. Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, "Children must go to school, not be financially exploited." Yousafzai came to global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban -- two years ago Thursday -- for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan. Since then, after recovering from surgery, she has taken her campaign to the world stage, notably with a speech last year at the United Nations. Yousafzai said Friday that the award is a "great honor for me," and that she's honored to share it with Satyarthi. "I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person getting this award," she said in Birmingham, England.

Yousafazai got the news this morning while in chemistry class.

Morrissey At The Nobel Concert

Morrissey performed three numbers at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo on Thursday night. Stereogum ponders:

His voice sounded strong, and he looked as engaged as he ever looked. But he still offered a few questions to puzzle out. For instance: Why was he wearing what appeared to be enormous wide-legged sweatpants? And why were all the members of his backing band rocking matching Hustler T-shirts? Finally, why would an event like this, which seems to operate entirely on sincerity, book a hall-of-fame arch ironist like Moz in the first place?

Putin Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite Russia’s role as the main supplier of weapons to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, an advocacy group has put the president’s name forward because the former KGB agent “actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet.” The International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World made no mention of Putin’s ruthless and violent campaign against the separatists in Chechnya or the war he waged on Georgia, but instead points to his efforts to prevent a US air strike on the Syrian regime following a chemical gas attack in August. The activist group is on the list of those approved to make Nobel Peace Prize nominations and according to the vice president of the organisation.

It's worth noting that Stalin and Hitler also got nominations.

Headline Of The Day

Source. (Tipped by JMG reader Aaron)

EU Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

As parts of Europe endure austerity-related riots, the Nobel committee has awarded the European Union its coveted Peace Prize. Reporters in the room "gasped in surprise" when the announcement was made in Oslo. Bill Gates was considered to have been the front runner for this year's award.

LIBYA FALLOUT: Critics Demand Obama Be Stripped Of Nobel Peace Prize

The president of Bolivia and a high-ranking Russian politico have asked the Nobel committee to strip President Obama of his 2009 Peace Prize over the attacks on Libya.

Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader and Vice-Chairman of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky released a statement today calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to take back the honour bestowed on US President Barack Obama in 2009. Zhirinovsky said the attacks were "another outrageous act of aggression by NATO forces and, in particular, the United States," and that the attacks demonstrated a "colonial policy" with "one goal: to establish control over Libyan oil and the Libyan regime." He said the prize was now hypocritical as a result. Bolivian President Evo Morales echoed the call: "How is it possible that a Nobel Peace Prize winner leads a gang to attack and invade? This is not a defence of human rights or self-determination."

It should be noted that in 2006 Morales won the Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.

Nobel Peace Prize Nom For WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for the site's "exposure of corruption, war crimes and torture around the world."

Nobel-watcher and Peace Research Institute Oslo Director Kristian Berg Harpviken says he is not surprised WikiLeaks has been nominated and he expects it will receive more than one vote. "WikiLeaks has been on top of the international news headlines for the last 12 months," he said. "It is also something very new in more ways than just bringing interesting news. It is, in fact, newsworthy in and of itself as a phenomenon. It is an interesting and many ways challenging candidate in its own right." A wide range of people are invited to make a peace prize nomination, including politicians, professors, and former laureates.

The wingnuts are gonna really lose their shit.

Not This Year's Nobel Peace Prize Winner

In the midst of a campaign to see him nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, Belgium's revered Father Francois Houtart has confessed to child molestation.

The confession was published in a Belgian newspaper Wednesday and confirmed by the organization the priest founded, deepening a sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in the country. After a spate of accusations this year, the church in September published the harrowing accounts of more than 100 victims of clerical sex abuse, some as young as 2 when they were assaulted. In October, after supporters of 85-year-old Francois Houtart began working to nominate him for the Nobel, a woman contacted the nonprofit organization he founded and said the priest had abused her brother 40 years ago, according to its director, Bernard Duterme.

The committee to nominate Houtart for his anti-globalization work has disbanded.

Imprisoned Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is one year into an eleven year prison sentence, was today awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a statement, the Nobel Committee said Liu, 54, was awarded the prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Liu is serving his sentence at Jinzhou prison in Liaoning, hundreds of miles from his home and wife, Liu Xia, in Beijing. His wife reacted to the news by expressing her thanks that Liu's physical condition seems to have improved in jail, that he's allowed to read and that the two can exchange regular letters. "We have no regrets," she said. "All of this has been of our choosing. It will always be so. We'll bear the consequences together. I've known Liu since 1982. I've watched him change little by little year by year, and we know that we have to pay the price under the current situation in China."

China had warned the Norwegian government that they were not to consider Liu for the honor, claiming that he was ineligible. Liu was imprisoned in 2009 for signing onto a document calling for free elections and expanded human rights in China. He is the first Chinese citizen to win the prize.

Quote Of The Day - Donald Trump

"With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore. Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn't care less. It would make us totally noncompetitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America's stupidity." - Donald Trump, speaking at his self-named private golf club in New York's Westchester County.

Wingnuts Want Obama's Nobel

According to the American Family Association, President Obama has 60 days to turn his Nobel Prize over to Congress because he didn't get their permission to accept it.

A clause in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office or Trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign state." That raises a question: Is the Nobel Peace Prize an "Emolument" -- a gift arising from one's office which includes some sort of monetary award with it? Matthew Spalding, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation, says since the award is technically the property of the United States, Obama has under 60 days to turn the award over to the appropriate authorities for proper disposal.

Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize

This morning President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. A portion of his acceptance speech is below. In the audience: Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, for some reason.

Laura Ingraham On Obama's Nobel Prize

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Gotta say, this is a shocker.

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president. The award, announced in Oslo by the Nobel Committee while much of official Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. “He has created a new international climate,” the committee said. For Mr. Obama, one of the nation’s youngest presidents, the award is an extraordinary recognition that puts him in the company of world leaders such as Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who won for helping to bring an end to the cold war, and Nelson Mandela, who sought an end to apartheid. But it is also a potential political liability at home; already, Republicans are criticizing the president, contending he won more for his “star power” than his actual achievements.

Al Gore: Oscar, Emmy, Nobel Peace Prize

By now you probably know that Al Gore has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for global warming work. Gore joins Americans such as Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King. Now we can only hope that the Draft Gore movement gains more steam and convinces him to enter the 2008 presidential race. I like Hillary Clinton, but not wholeheartedly. Gore, however, is a man I can support without much reservation.

Nobel Nomination For Al Gore

Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work to publicize the issue of global warming. Those eligible to submit nominations include former Nobel winners themselves, members of national governments, selected university professors, and members of the awards committee. The Peace category of the Nobels has been widely criticised for some of its winners in recent years, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, and Kim Dae-jung.