331 nominees vying for 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is Friday set to announce the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, choosing from a group of 331 nominations.

The announcement is due at 11 am (0900 GMT).

The tally - comprising 216 individuals and 115 organizations - is the second-highest to date.

Some of the speculation this year has centred around the efforts to lower tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Several betting sites offered low odds for a prize to South Korean President Moon Jae In and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Last year's winner was the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Other tips for 2018 revolve around the theme of sexual violence in conflict and the #MeToo movement.

Congolese physician Denis Mukwege could be awarded for his work to assist victims of mass rape committed by warring groups.

Another contender is human rights activist Nadia Murad Basee, a young Yezidi woman from Iraq, who was a victim of torture and sexual slavery at the hands of Islamic State militants.

The World Food Programme has also been mentioned as a contender.

Nominations are sealed for 50 years, which adds to the difficulty of predicting the committee's selections.

Earlier this week, the Nobel prizes in the fields of medicine, physics and chemistry were awarded. The Nobel Prize in Economics is due next week.

The literature prize announcement has been postponed until next year.

Each prize is worth 9 million kronor (1 million dollars). With the exception of economics, the prizes were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The awards are traditionally presented on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

Source: IOL