Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel for atomic bombing survivors shows need for peace: Japan's Empress

Japanese Empress Masako said the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, an organisation of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a key event of this year that impressed and reminded her of the importance of global peace efforts. Masako, the wife of Emperor Naruhito, said she thought of the pain and suffering of the survivors and struggles of those who have long led the nuclear disarmament effort. She felt anew the importance for the people of the world to strive for mutual understanding and work together in order to build a peaceful world, Masako said in a statement released by the Imperial Household Agency for her 61st birthday Monday. Her comment comes one day before a group of 30 atomic bombing survivors will attend Tuesday's Nobel prize award ceremony in Oslo. Hidankyo was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The 30 survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as a last chance to get the

Nobel Peace Prize 2024 awarded to Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo

Nihon Hidankyo is a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as Hibakusha.

Google Deepmind CEO Hassabis among 3 winners of Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was awarded in two parts: one to David Baker, and the other jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, for their contributions to decoding the protein structure

Russia sliding back toward Stalinist times, says human rights advocate

A human rights activist since the 1980s, Oleg Orlov thought Russia had turned a corner when the Soviet Union collapsed and a democratically elected president became leader. But then Vladimir Putin rose to power, crushing dissent and launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Finally, the 71-year-old Orlov was himself thrown in prison for opposing the war. Freed last week in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, he was forced into exile -- just like the Soviet dissidents of his youth. In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday in Berlin, Orlov decried t he scale and severity of repressions under Putin, with people imprisoned for merely criticizing the authorities, something unseen since the days of dictator Josef Stalin. And he's vowing to continue his work to free the many political prisoners in Russia and keep their names in the spotlight. We're sliding somewhere into Stalin times, said Orlov, who at times showed signs of fatigue from a hectic schedul

Malala Day 2024: History, significance, quotes and why we celebrate it

Malala Day 2024: Malala Yousafzai was born in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on July 12, 2024. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for advocating female education

US lawmakers meet Tibet's Dalai Lama, warn China on choice of successor

The bipartisan group of seven met the 88-year-old Nobel peace laureate at his monastery in Dharamshala. The comments are expected to anger Beijing which calls Dalai Lama a separatist

Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus indicted on embezzlement charges

A Dhaka court on Wednesday indicted Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and 13 others for embezzling more than USD two million from the dividends of the employees of a telecom company. Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court 4 rejected a plea for the dismissal of charges by the accused and ordered the indictment. Judge Hossain read out the charges as Dr Yunus and the co-accused were on the dock and fixed the date for starting the trial hearing on July 15, a prosecution lawyer said. Counsels for Yunus, 83, and the 13 others accused all currently on bail pleaded not guilty and demanded exemption of the clients but the court rejected the plea saying the charges brought against the accused were primarily proved and thus, charges were framed against them. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering microcredit to help impoverished people, especially women, while the Grameen Bank, which he had founded, also secured the prize on the same occasion.

Bangladesh appeals court grants bail to Nobel laureate Yunus in labour case

An appeals court in Bangladesh on Sunday granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who had been sentenced earlier to six months in prison for violating the country's labour laws. The court also agreed to hear an appeal against his sentencing. Yunus who pioneered the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, especially women, filed the appeal seeking bail on Sunday morning before it was granted. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 2006. The 83-year-old economist and three other officials of the telecommunications company were sentenced to six months in prison on January 1, but they were immediately granted 30 days of bail to appeal the verdict and sentence. Sunday's court decision said the bail would remain effective until a final decision is made on the appeal for the sentencing. Defence lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said the first hearing on the appeal would be held on March 3. The case involves Grameen Telecom, which Yunus founded as a non-profit ...

Bangladesh court sentences Nobel laureate Yunus to 6 months in jail

A labour court in Bangladesh's capital on Monday sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to six months in jail for violating the country's labour laws. Yunus, who pioneered the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, was present in court and was granted bail. The court gave Yunus 30 days to appeal the verdict and sentence. Grameen Telecom, which Yunus founded as a non-profit organisation, is at the centre of the case. Sheikh Merina Sultana, head of the Third Labour Court of Dhaka, said in her verdict that Yunus' company violated Bangladeshi labour laws. She said at least 67 Grameen Telecom workers were supposed to be made permanent employees but were not, and a "welfare fund" to support the staff in cases of emergency or special needs was never formed. She also said that, following company policy, 5 per cent of Grameen's dividends were supposed to be distributed to staff but was not. Sultana found Yunus, as chairman of the company, and three other company director

Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus convicted, to face jail in Bangladesh

Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit and lifting millions out of poverty

Children of Narges Mohammadi to accept Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf

The children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi are set to accept this year's Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf in a ceremony on Sunday in the Norwegian capital. Mohammadi is renowned for campaigning for women's rights and democracy in her country, as well as fighting against the death penalty. Ali and Kiana Rahmani, Mohammadi's twin 17-year-old children who live in exile in Paris with their father, will be given the prestigious award at Oslo City Hall, after which they will give the Nobel Peace Prize lecture in their mother's name. Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in October for her decades of activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She is currently detained in a prison in Tehran. At a news conference in Oslo on Saturday, Kiana Rahmani read out a message from her mother, in which the imprisoned activist praised the role international media played in conveying the voice of dissenters, protesters and hu

Henry Kissinger: Diplomatic powerhouse who shaped US foreign policy

Kissinger was known for his disdain for India's leadership in the 1970s, but he had been advocating strong ties with India after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014

Iran unlawfully detaining human rights activists, including Narges: UN

Iran is cracking down on protesters, unlawfully detaining human rights activists, including new Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, and carrying out an alarming number of executions, the UN independent investigator on human rights in the Islamic Republic said in a report circulated Friday. The wide-ranging report by Javaid Rehman, covering the period from October 2022 through July, was written before the announcement early Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Mohammadi, a longtime campaigner for women's rights even from her current cell in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Rehman, a Pakistani-born professor of international human rights law at Brunel University in London, singled out Mohammadi among lawyers and human rights defenders imprisoned for their work in the report to the General Assembly. He was highly critical of the excessive and lethal use of force unleashed by Iranian authorities in reaction to nationwide protests following the 2022 death of Mahs

Nobel Peace Prize 2023 awarded to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women's rights advocate, has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2023

Nobel Prize winners in 2023, check the complete list, name and fields below

The Nobel Prize winners for 2023 belong to a variety of different fields, a few awards are yet to be announced. Here is the full list of all the Nobel Prize winners in 2023

International Malala Day 2023: Date, Theme, Significance & History

International Malala Day is marked on July 12 every year to honour the bravery and activism of Pakistani activist and nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai

Nobel peace laureate transferred to brutal prison in Belarus, says his wife

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has been transferred to a notoriously brutal prison in Belarus and hasn't been heard from in a month, his wife said Wednesday. Natalia Pinchuk told The Associated Press that Bialiatski, who is serving a 10-year sentence, has been kept in an information blackout since his transfer to the N9 colony for repeat offenders in the city of Gorki, where inmates are beaten and subject to hard labor. The authorities create unbearable conditions for Ales and keep him in strict informational isolation. There is not a single letter from him for a month, nor does he receive my letters, Pinchuk said by telephone. In March, a court convicted 60-year-old Bialiatski Belarus' top human rights advocate and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and three of his colleagues on charges of financing actions violating public order and smuggling. It was the latest move in a years-long crackdown on dissent that has engulfed the country since 2020. Bialia

Fact check: Did Asle Toje call PM Modi biggest contender for Nobel Prize?

Reports claimed that deputy leader of the Nobel Prize Committee Asle Toje endorsed PM Narendra Modi for the coveted prize. But did he really say so? Find out here

From physics to literature, all about the winners of the Nobel Prize 2022

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo won the first Nobel of the year, for initiating the field of ancient DNA studies

Belarus's Bialiatski joins small group of jailed Nobel Peace laureates

Belarussian pro-democracy campaigner Ales Bialiatski, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with human rights groups in Russia and Ukraine, is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prizes to receive the award while in prison or detention. Bialiatski, 60, who founded the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Center Viasna, was detained following protests in 2020 against the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He remains in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen urged Belarus to release Bialiatski but acknowledged that chances of that happening in time for the Dec. 10 award ceremony were slim. Here is a look at what happened to the other Nobel Peace Prize winners who were in captivity when they were awarded the prize. CARL VON OSSIETZKY The German journalist, a staunch opponent of militarism, was imprisoned for exposing secret plans for German rearmament in the 1920s.