Global mediator Ahtisaari wins Nobel Prize (Reuters)

By John Acher 23 minutes ago OSLO (Reuters) - Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for a decades-long career of peacemaking around the globe from Namibia to Kosovo. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Ahtisaari to receive the $1.4 million prize from a field of 197 candidates "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts." "These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to 'fraternity between nations' in Alfred Nobel's spirit," the award committee said in its citation, adding it hoped the award would inspire other peacemakers around the world. Sweden's Nobel, the philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, created the prizes in his will in 1895. Ahtisaari, aged 71 and who was Finland's president from... [read full story]