United Nations, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Receive Centenary Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Committee announced today that the United Nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will share the centenary Nobel Peace Prize, Reuters reports. The prize, named after Swedish philanthropist and inventor Alfred Nobel, was first awarded 100 years ago. Nobel Committee chair Gunnar Berge said that Annan has brought "new life" to the United Nations and has "risen to new challenges such as HIV/AIDS." Although specific U.N. committees have won the prize in the past, it is the first time that the United Nations has won as a whole and the second time the U.N. Secretary-General has won the award; Sweden's Dag Hammarskjold won the award posthumously in 1961 (Doyle, Reuters, 10/12).