This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be

The Nobel Peace Prize was announced this afternoon as a highly agreed option and will be less controversial than last year, the award committee chairman said.

"I think this year's award will be accepted around the world," AFP quoted Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland to tell NRK news agency yesterday, the day before the award was announced.

At 9:00 GMT (16h Hanoi time) today, the committee will announce a "persuasive" Nobel Prize, he said, adding that the choice "is not without any controversy".

This year's Nobel Peace Prize "will not cause a strong reaction from a country like last year" , when Liu Xiaobo, a dissident and a prisoner in China, was chosen. That made Beijing extremely angry.

Observers all claim that the Arab Spring series, in which peaceful protests by the people have led to the collapse of a series of governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, causing waves of turmoil in Syria. , Yemen and Bahrain, will mark the Nobel Prize this year. On that background, online social activists in North Africa are the brightest candidates.

But Mr. Jagland does not support these conjectures, and points out that "there are many other positive developments in the world that we can observe."

"I'm a bit surprised that researchers and others haven't noticed," he said without revealing any more clues about this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

The list of candidates this year is a record, with 241 names. This list is always kept secret, and every year it creates countless guesses until the last minute.

In addition to activists in North Africa and the Middle East, names mentioned include Sima Samar, an Afghan doctor and feminist activist; Russian social activist Svetlana Gannushkina and Memorial human rights organization founded by her.

The European Union, which is dealing with a comprehensive crisis due to the public debt problem in the euro zone, is also thought to be able to win the Nobel prize for its role in maintaining peace in Europe in the second half. past century. Mr. Jagland is an enthusiastic and open supporter for this candidate, although Norway is not a member of the Union.

The Nobel Peace Prize was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The awarded person / organization will receive a medal, a certificate and an equivalent of USD 1.4 million. Nobel peace is always a controversial issue. In 2009, the award to US President Barack Obama also raised two waves of criticism and support.