OSLO: Finnish former president and peace broker Martti Ahtisaari will on Wednesday receive the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for his efforts to resolve conflicts in trouble spots ranging from Kosovo to Namibia and Indonesia.Later in the day, the winners of the literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics prizes will receive their awards from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm. Ahtisaari, 71, who figured among the frontrunners for the prize for years, is being honoured "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts." Ahtisaari has said the highlight of his career was his tour as United Nations special envoy to Namibia, during which he helped guide the country to peaceful independence in 1990 after more than a decade of talks. He also oversaw the 2005 reconciliation between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, ending a three-decade conflict that killed some 15,000 people. In Europe, the Finnish career diplomat played a key role in bringing an end to hostilities in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999, before attempting in vain from 2005 to 2007 to broker an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on the province's status. Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence in February this year. Ahtisaari, who had come out in favour of independence for the province, told reporters in Oslo on Tuesday that Kosovo's status was now "irreversible" despite continued strong opposition from Serbia and Russia. Ahtisaari will receive his prize, consisting of a Nobel diploma, a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.2 million dollars, 950,000 euros) at a formal ceremony at Oslo's city hall at 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Wednesday. At a separate ceremony in Stockholm, the winners of the literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics prizes will receive their awards in Stockholm's Concert Hall. French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 68, whose novels include "La Guerre" (War), "Mondo" and "Desert," will receive the prestigious award for literature. In announcing the prize in October, the Swedish Academy hailed Le Clezio as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation." US economist Paul Krugman, 55, a fierce critic of George W. Bush's handling of the global financial crisis, will meanwhile receive the Nobel economics prize for his work on the impact of free trade and globalisation. Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of France and Harald zur Hausen of Germany will receive the medicine prize for the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan will receive half of the Nobel Physics Prize for their work in fundamental particles, while organisers said 87-year-old Yoichiro Nambu of the United States had been unable to travel to Stockholm to receive the other half of the award due to his advanced age. And finally, Osamu Shimomura of Japan and US duo Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien will receive the chemistry prize for their work on a fluorescent jellyfish protein that has become a vital lab tool. The ceremony in the Swedish capital -- held as tradition dictates on the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel -- will be followed by a gala banquet at the Stockholm city hall.
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