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Some facts about the Nobel Peace Prize
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-12 09:11

The 2009 winner was selected from a record 205 nominees.

The 2009 prize was awarded to US President Barack Obama for his efforts "to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

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The 2008 prize was won by Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, for his efforts on several continents and over more than three decades to resolve international conflicts.

Mother Teresa refused to attend a Nobel dinner in Oslo when she went to collect her prize in 1979, saying the money would be better spent on the poor. The banquet was cancelled.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is the most successful winner, with prizes in 1917, 1944 and 1963. Red Cross founder Henri Dunant of Switzerland shared the first award in 1901.

Protesters threw snowballs at the US ambassador in Oslo when he arrived to collect the 1973 prize on behalf of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for brokering an unsuccessful deal to end the Vietnam war. North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho turned down the joint award, the most controversial in the prize's history.

Past nominees have included Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Reuters