Briefly

SWEDEN

A-bomb survivors group wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to the Japanese group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the Nobel committee "wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace". Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the dropping of nuclear bombs by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. This year's prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the world.

PAKISTAN

20 laborers killed in coal mine attacks

Twenty laborers were killed and six others injured in attacks on coal mines in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan Province in the early hours of Friday morning, officials said. The incidents happened in the Duki district of the province, where unidentified attackers targeted at least 10 coal mines with hand grenades, killing and injuring the laborers working inside, the district's political head Haji Khairullah Nasir told the media. He said the attackers set the mines and extraction machinery on fire before fleeing the scene. Most of the victims were residents of different districts of Balochistan, police said. No group claimed responsibility.

Agencies - Xinhua