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By now even the increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant Nobel Peace Prize Committee, a stinking stain on the face of Scandinavia, must be wondering what possessed it to give Black Jesus its annual Donald Duck prize for being fashionably left-wing. Previous holders of the four-boxtops cuddly toy include a peanut farmer and a global-warming profiteer, both of whom, like Obama, are “Democrats.” The Christmas-cracker trinket has also been awarded to an Arab terrorist and to a South African terrorist. Recently, the Peace Popsicle has been given – fatuously – to the European Tyranny-by-Clerk and also to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

In a sharp escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's bloody civil war, the White House announced late Thursday that it will provide military aid to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad after confirming that his government used chemical weapons on the opposition. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told reporters on a conference call that President Barack Obama had heard pleas from Syria's rebel Supreme Military Council (SMC) for more help. "Our aim is to be responsive," Rhodes said, underlining that the new assistance would have "direct military purposes."

Revoke Obama's Nobel Peace Prize After receiving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama has made perpetual war look more perpetual than ever. Today, there are more U.S. troops in Afghanistan than when Obama took office. His presidency has widened the use of drones and other instruments of remote killing in several countries. Please sign this petition to the Norwegian Nobel Committee: I urge you to rescind the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to Barack Obama.

Soviet Agent Award for Mother Jones Reporter Cliff Kincaid — April 12, 2013 David Corn, the liberal writer and MSNBC analyst who based a story about Republican Senator Mitch McConnell on a secret and possibly illegal tape recording, is scheduled to accept an award named for Soviet agent of influence I.F. Stone. The identification of Stone as a Soviet agent is not in serious dispute, except among his most loyal and sycophantic followers.Equally scandalous, Corn is being presented the award by Jeff Cohen, who has started a petition through his radical organization, RootsAction, to give accused traitor Bradley Manning the...

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of providing an enormous stash of classified government documents to WikiLeaks for publication, deserves a Nobel Peace Prize more than President Barack Obama, according to former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. “While President Obama was starting and expanding unconstitutional wars overseas, Bradley Manning, whose actions have caused exactly zero deaths, was shining light on the truth behind these wars,” the former Republican presidential contender told U.S. News. “It’s clear which individual has done more to promote peace.” Manning was nominated for the award in 2011, 2012 and again earlier this year. Obama won the...

Like no cabinet secretary before, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is being sent off with a huge thank you from the Democratic Party and some of her supporters are even urging the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to give the award to her and her husband Bill Clinton. A new petition on Change.org calls on the committee to present the prize to Hillary for her work around the world for President Obama and Bill Clinton for his post-presidential international involvement. "President and Mrs. Clinton have had a lasting impact upon promoting peace in this world. Both have reached out to...

"For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples..."On Friday, the European Union learned that with austerity riots, struggling currency, rising anti-Semitism, and growing neo-Nazi groups it’s apparently still possible to be a harbinger of peace. The Nobel Peace Prize for the euro bloc was awarded for six decades of “the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.” Surely the well-deserved 2010 award to Liu Xiaobo might have reminded the Nobel Committee that there are men and women risking their lives every day around the globe as prime contenders for “the person who...

Like most people, I reacted to the news that the EU had won the Nobel Peace Prize with a shout of delighted mirth. In picking this moment – just as the euro brings national antagonisms to a new high – the committee members have revealed a sublime comic genius. It is 40 years since, hearing that the award had gone to Henry Kissinger, Tom Lehrer declared 'satire is now obsolete'. But even Lehrer at his most fanciful couldn't have imagined the committee passing over Irena Sendler, who had repeatedly risked her life to save children from the Warsaw Ghetto, in...

US President Barack Obama has vowed to bring to justice those who killed the US ambassador to Libya during protests against a film that mocks Islam. But he told reporters that the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi would not break the bonds between the US and the new Libyan government. His election rival Mitt Romney criticised his handling of the crisis. Ambassador J Christopher Stevens reportedly died of smoke inhalation after a crowd stormed the consulate. Three other Americans were also killed and the consulate set ablaze, in what the White House described as a "complex" attack. Unconfirmed...

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends. The Urban Health Initiative, which received the award, was originally based on a smaller program launched during the last decade by Michelle Obama, who was an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center before she departed to become first lady. The UHI is headed up by Obama basketball and golf buddy Whitaker, who has known the president since Obama’s...

President Barack Obama's enormous self-regard was on display during a meeting with 20 Jewish community leaders last Tuesday. "Obama reportedly boasted about his knowledge of Judaism, telling the leaders that he thinks he knows more 'about Judaism' than all past presidents," said the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. This would have been impolitic to say if it were true. It isn't. John Adams and James Madison knew Hebrew. Harry Truman. who recognized the state of Israel in 1948, had since before World War II supported a homeland for the Jews. Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school for years, and was very interested in...

  Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in a bloody massacre in Norway, considered assassinating President Barack Obama.   Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in a bloody massacre in Norway last year, considered an attempt at the life of U.S. President Barack Obama, RIA Novosti reported on Sunday, citing Norwegian media. According to the reports, Breivik planned to kill Obama as he visited Oslo to accept his Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. The local Dagbladetnewspaper reported that Breivik wanted to kill Obama in protest of the prize, which he said is traditionally awarded to people of...

PEACE, THEY SAY: A HISTORY OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, THE MOST FAMOUS AND CONTROVERSIAL PRIZE IN THE WORLD Jay Nordlinger What on Earth has happened to the Nobel Peace Prize, which once was easily the world’s most prestigious award? Consider that in 1953, Albert Schweitzer and Gen. George C. Marshall were honored on the same day (with Winston Churchill winning the prize for literature, incidentally). Then fast-forward four decades to the 1990s when it was won by Yasser Arafat and Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the Guatemalan who supported murderous Communist guerrillas and has been accused of fabricating parts of her...

The Nobel Foundation, which administrates the prestigious prizes in line with the will of Alfred Nobel, on Thursday rejected criticism of recent choices for the Peace Prize. "Despite that many lively discussions have been held on whether the chosen Peace Prize laureates fulfilled the prescribed provisions, the Foundation does not consider that the prize decisions made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee have entailed any such deviation," it said in a statement. Swedish authorities had asked the foundation to look into claims from Fredrik Heffermehl, a lawyer and author of the book "The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted," that...

Bill Clinton and Bradley Manning nominated for Nobel Peace Prize A total of 231 nominees are up for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, the Nobel Institute said on Monday, with Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, the EU and US soldier and WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning known to be on the list. 10:36AM GMT 27 Feb 2012 "As always, there are the usual 'nominees' and some newcomers, some famous and some unknowns, hailing from the four corners of the world," the head of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, told AFP. With 188 individuals and 43 organisations, the number of candidates comes...

June 07, 2010 I SUPPOSE IF I SUGGESTED SUMMARY EXECUTION I WOULD BE CALLED "HARSH"? SNIPPET: "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe Note that he didn't just lift a video and send it to Wikileaks. He also stole and released 260,000 classified US State Department diplomatic cables."

Is this the first time in history that a Nobel laureate is overseeing thecriminal prosecution of a Nobel nominee? Apparently, three members of the Icelandic Parliament have nominated Army PFC Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. On February 1, 2012, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Margrét Tryggvadóttir, and Þór Saari, all members of the Icelandic Parliament, sent their nominating letter to the Nobel nominating committee. This is, of course, their right to do so. But it shows a deep ignorance of what Manning stands accused of. Manning, you may recall is to be court-martialed for allegedly capturing 250,000 Department of State...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize’s original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday. The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations. If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden’s capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel’s will is not being honored, it has the authority to...

Nobel peace prize jury under investigation By KARL RITTER | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago. STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize's original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday. The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations. /snip For example, in 2007 the prize went to climate activist Al...

...Speaking after receiving the prize at a ceremony in Oslo, 32-year-old Yemeni journalist Tawakul Karman said Saleh, who promised last month to stand down by February, "will not leave. He wants to (push) the country into civil war." "If the international community does not freeze his money and that of high officials and his family, he will continue to try to (lead) the country into civil war," she told Reuters in an interview in Oslo... During her prize acceptance speech, the 32-year-old journalist rebuked the international community for failing to support the Yemen uprising... "The democratic world, which has told...

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman says she believes the pro-democracy revolts that have swept the Arab world will help "drive out" al-Qaida terrorists. Karman told The Associated Press on the eve of Saturday's award ceremony that the autocratic leaders that were toppled from Tunisia to her native Yemen created an environment where extremism could grow.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hailed Muammar Gaddafi's death on Thursday as a warning to authoritarian leaders across the Middle East that iron-fisted rule "inevitably comes to an end," and as vindication for his cautious strategy toward Libya. Obama joined U.S. politicians and ordinary Americans in welcoming the demise of Gaddafi, who was for decades regarded as a nemesis of American presidents, and also claimed some of the credit for the Libyan strongman's downfall. ... "This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own...

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni women's rights advocate Tawakkul Karman. The Norwegian Nobel Committee made the announcement Friday in Oslo, saying the three women will split the coveted award for "their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights." Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland praised the work of the three recipients, saying that "we cannot achieve lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men." Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 72, became Africa's first democratically elected female president in 2005....

OSLO - The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize may recognize activists who helped unleash the revolutionary wave that swept through North Africa and the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian Internet activist and Google executive, Egypt's April 6 Youth Movement, one of its founders Israa Abdel Fattah, and Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni could therefore be among those in line for the award when it is announced on Oct. 7. "My strong sense is that this (Nobel) committee and its leader want to reflect the biggest international issues as defined by a wide definition of peace," said...

Former President Jimmy Carter and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari were hoping to visit the State Department this week to brief officials on their recent trip to North Korea, but nobody at the State Department was available to meet with them. Carter and Ahtisaari, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates, had been eager to give their readout of their meetings in North Korea April 26 and 27 to U.S. officials and press their case for a resumption of food aid to the Hermit Kingdom. The two are members of the Elders, a group of senior figures who have been informally engaging...

Irena Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker when the Nazis walled the Jewish quarter of her beloved Warsaw. The occupiers ruthlessly exacerbated the suffering in the ghetto by forbidding Poles from helping Jews. Sendler originally smuggled food and medicine into the ghetto, but changed tactics once she saw that the Nazis’ aim wasn’t humiliation but annihilation. “Very quickly we realized that the only way to save the children was to get them out,” she recalled. Sendler and her cohorts began smuggling Jewish babies and adolescents from the ghetto with their parents’ blessing. The women acclimated the kids to non-Jewish homes...

NATO has asked the United States to continue participating in airstrikes over Libya through late Monday, ABC News has learned. This was done to make up for the bad weather earlier in the week that had hampered targeting of Gadhafi forces and allowed them to push the rebels back to Ajdabiyah. The United States was supposed to have significantly begun dropping its participation in airstrikes over Libya. "Due to poor weather conditions over the last few days in Libya, the United States has approved a request by NATO to extend the use of some U.S. strike aircraft," NATO spokeswoman Oana...

Hillary Clinton has paved the way for the United States to arm the Libyan rebels by declaring that the recent UN security council resolution relaxed an arms embargo on the country. As Libya's opposition leaders called for the international community to arm them, the secretary of state indicated that the US was considering whether to meet their demands when she talked of a "work in progress". The US indicated on Monday night that it had not ruled out arming the rebels, though it was assumed this would take some time because of a UN arms embargo which applies to all...

President Barack Obama is offering Congress and an anxious public his first detailed accounting of his rationale for U.S. military involvement in Lybia and perhaps an answer to the burning question: What's next? His speech, set for 7:30 p.m. EDT Monday, comes after the administration scored an important diplomatic victory. NATO ambassadors on Sunday approved a plan for the alliance to assume from the U.S. command all aerial operations, including ground attacks.

"I am accustomed to this contradiction of being both a commander-in-chief but also someone who aspires to peace," President Obama told a CNN reporter in El Salvador. Later in the interview Obama says he doesn't think "the American people don't see any contradiction in somebody who cares about peace also wanting to make sure that people aren't butchered because of a dictator who wants to cling to power." Several countries and people, such as Michael Moore, have called for Obama to return the award he received shortly after his inauguration.

Why … no, as a matter of fact, it isn’t. The Bolivian President and a Russian political leader have launched a campaign to revoke Obama’s honour after the US attacked 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…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.�Morales...

“Barack Obama has now fired more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined.” Exactly who said that first is unclear, but at some point over the weekend, the line began circulating around Twitter. Since President Obama announced Friday that he had ordered an attack on Muammar Qadhafi’s forces in Libya, he has attracted plenty of new critics, including lawmakers in his party. Now, some foreign leaders are asking that the Nobel Committee take back the peace prize it awarded Obama in 2009. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the vice chairman of the Russian legislature’s lower house, released a statement on...

The Bolivian President and a Russian political leader have launched a campaign to revoke Obama's honour after the US attacked 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 controversial leader of the Russian Liberal Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky,  said in a statement on Monday that he will ask the Nobel Committee to strip President Barack Obama of the Nobel Peace Prize. Zhirinovsky said in the letter that the prize, awarded in 2009 for Obama’s historic presidential victory and his work on nuclear non proliferation, was now hypocritical in light of recent missile strikes in Libya. The US and some allies fired Tomahawk missiles into Libya on Sunday when Moammar Gadhafi failed to obide by his own cease-fire agreement, made with the UN Security Council early Friday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which gives the Nobel Peace Prize, loves an anniversary. The U.S. Peace Corps has never won the award, and is a natural winner of it. The 50th anniversary of the Corps is this year. Someone, or someones, should nominate the Peace Corps for the prize. The deadline is fast approaching: February 1. In October 1960, John F. Kennedy introduced the idea of the Peace Corps, while campaigning at the University of Michigan. He made his speech at 2 a.m. Bill Clinton was not the only lover of late-night campaigning. The Corps was established very quickly after...

Russia has suggested that Julian Assange should be awarded the Nobel peace prize, in an unexpected show of support from Moscow for the jailed WikiLeaks founder. In what appears to be a calculated dig at the US, the Kremlin urged non-governmental organisations to think seriously about "nominating Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate". "Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him," the source from inside president Dmitry Medvedev's office told Russian news agencies. Speaking in Brussels, where Medvedev was attending a Russia-EU summit yesterday , the source went on: "Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate."

Foreign media websites apparently blocked in China BEIJING (AFP) - The websites of several foreign media outlets appeared to be blocked in China on Thursday on the eve of the award ceremony in Oslo honouring the 2010 Nobel peace laureate, jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo. AFP attempts to access the websites of television networks CNN, the BBC and Norwegian public broadcaster NRK were unsuccessful, with the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page" appearing on the screen. China on Thursday stepped up its criticism of the Oslo-based Nobel committee that in October chose Liu -- who was jailed in December...

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Egypt and 18 other countries will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, officials said in an announcement that followed a Chinese campaign to dissuade diplomats from showing up. Representatives of different embassies, including those of Egypt, Russia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Colombia have turned down the invitation to the event, scheduled to take place in Oslo on 10 December, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said. At least 44 of the 65 embassies that have been invited have accepted the invitation, the committee claims, adding that the Chinese boycott...

Our Nobel Peace Prize Winning President Barack Obama (“Winner: 2009 Prize for Being the Darling of the Euro Left”) has, yet again betrayed the suckers who took him seriously as some sort of Messianic Bringer of Peace. First, it was the move (on the heels of the Nobel Prize) to increase troop levels in order to prop up a failed third world narco state with no clear plan of what to do besides get Americans killed in pointless battles. [snip] Sec’y of Defense Robert Gates... plainly stated, “We’re not leaving Afghanistan prematurely. In fact, we’re not ever leaving at all.”...

Nobel Peace Prize award 'encouraging crime', China claims Awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Liu Xiaobo is tantamount to encouraging crime, according to China. By Peter Foster, Beijing Published: 10:42AM BST 14 Oct 2010 “Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is equivalent to encouraging crime,” said Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, in the latest denunciation of the decision to honour the author of the Charter 08 petition calling for greater freedom in China. His remarks came after Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, joined the US, Germany and several other European nations in...

The contrast between the Nobel Committee's choice for its Peace Prize a year ago and today couldn't be more stark. In 2009, the Norwegian group tapped President Obama for its prestigious award. On Friday, they chose a genuine hero: Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.Mr. Obama was nominated within days of taking office, and the committee ridiculously claimed it awarded him the prize not for his accomplishments, but for the promise of what he might achieve. Mr. Liu was selected "for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Such is the distinction between style and substance.Mr. Obama...

Liu dedicates Nobel prize to Tiananmen victims by Robert Saiget Mon Oct 11, 9:45 am ET BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has tearfully dedicated his award to victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, activists said, as his wife was held under house arrest on Monday. "This award is for the lost souls of June Fourth," the US-based group Human Rights in China quoted Liu Xiaobo as telling his wife Liu Xia, referring to the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on democracy protests at the vast Beijing square. The 54-year-old writer, who was jailed for 11...

OSLO, Norway – Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights" — a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him. Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China and the government should expect that its policies face scrutiny

China Angered By Selection of Dissident Liu Xiaobo for Nobel Peace Prize China Calls Choice of Jailed Dissident a 'Blasphemy' on the Prize By CHITO ROMANA BEIJING Oct. 8, 2010— Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today, angering China which condemned the selection as a "blasphemy" and described Liu as a "criminal." In choosing Liu, the Nobel committee cited his efforts to use non-violence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland. Liu, 54, was sentenced to 11 years in prison last December for his role in creating a manifesto entitled Charter 08, calling for...

20 detained in Beijing for celebrating Nobel to Liu 2010-10-08 05:30:00 Beijing, Oct 8 (DPA) Police in the Chinese capital detained at least 20 human rights activists who were celebrating Friday's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, one of the activists said. 'First we went to karaoke because we feel happy and we also took photos (of each other),' activist Wang Lihong told DPA by telephone. When the group of about 20 activists moved to a restaurant near the east gate of Beijing's Ditan Park, more than 50 police in a dozen vehicles...

With news media across the globe reacting to this year's Nobel Peace Prize announcement, authorities in the winner's homeland are racing to delete his name from all public domains. Type "Liu Xiaobo" -- or "Nobel Peace Prize," for that matter -- in search engines in China and hit return, you get a blaring error page. It's the same for the country's increasingly popular micro-blogging sites. "Nobel Prize" was the top-trending topic until the authorities acted to remove all mentions of the award. Propaganda officials have also pulled the plug on international broadcasters -- including CNN -- whenever stories about Liu...

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, sparking a furious diplomatic row as China accused the Norwegian awards committee of honouring a "criminal". The Chinese authorities denounced the award as an "obscenity" and warned that it would damage relations between the two countries. The Nobel Committee said Mr Liu was honoured "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The 54-year-old activist, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for subversion. In a strongly-worded citation, the committee criticised China's human rights record. "Over the past decades, China has achieved economic...

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for using nonviolence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland. The award ignited a furious response from China, which accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of violating its own principles by honoring "a criminal." Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports from Internet websites. China declared the decision would harm its relations with Norway -- and the Nordic country responded that was a petty thing for a world power to do...

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his long and nonviolent struggle for human rights in his country. Here is a list of the past 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners and why the committee chose them. 10. 2009: Barack Obama The American president was a surpise pick for the prize, which he was awarded "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the committee said