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Syria monitors win Nobel Peace Prize | Syria monitors win Nobel Peace Prize |
(35 minutes later) | |
The OPCW, the body overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. | The OPCW, the body overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. |
The Nobel Committee said it was in honour of the OPCW's "extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons". | The Nobel Committee said it was in honour of the OPCW's "extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons". |
The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. | |
It recently sent inspectors to carry out the dismantling of Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons. | |
The watchdog picks up a gold medal and 8m Swedish kronor ($1.25m; £780,000) as winner of the most coveted of the Nobel honours. | |
Successful treaty | |
Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai and gynaecologist Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of Congo had been tipped as favourites to take the award. | |
Others who had been listed as contenders were Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), the US soldier convicted of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks and Maggie Gobran, an Egyptian computer scientist who abandoned her academic career to become a Coptic Christian nun and founded the charity Stephen's Children. | |
But an hour before Friday's announcement, Norway's public broadcaster reported the award would go to the OPCW. | |
The BBC's Lars Bevanger, reporting from Oslo where the announcement was made, said the award recognises the organisation that oversees arguably the most successful disarmament treaty in the world today. | |
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention has contributed to the destruction of nearly 80% of the world's chemical weapons stockpile. | |
Syria - which is believed to have one of the world's largest chemical weapons stockpiles - is expected to be the 131st country to sign the treaty, our correspondent adds. |