Record 165 names in the running for Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO: A record 165 candidates have been nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said yesterday, with Irish pop star U2, Pope John Paul II and anti-war French President Jacques Chirac believed to be on the list. 

“The list of candidates includes 25 organisations and 140 individuals,” Geir Lundestad, the head of the Nobel Institute and influential secretary of the Nobel Committee that selects the winner, said. 

Each year, the institute only reveals the overall number of nominees, leaving it up to people or organisations who have put names forward to float them to the media, sometimes without identifying themselves. 

As a result, it is known that one of the candidates is the former governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, who granted clemency to all 167 inmates on the state's death row in January, commuting the sentences to life without the possibility of parole. 

While sources have confirmed that Chirac is also on the list, the name of the person or people who nominated him is not known, nor the reason for his nomination. – AFP  

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