Top of the Morning: Three Women Win Nobel Peace Prize; Aid Workers Attacked in DRC

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Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Three Women in the Developing World

And the winners are….”Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Africa’s first elected female president — her compatriot, peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.  They were the first women to win the prize since Kenya’s Wangari Maathai, who died last month, was named as the laureate in 2004. Most of the recipients in the award’s 110-year history have been men, and the award seemed designed to give impetus to the cause for women’s rights around the world. ‘We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,’ said the citation read to reporters by Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister who heads the Oslo-based Nobel committee that chooses the winner of the $1.5 million prize. In a subsequent interview, he described the prize as ‘a very important signal to women all over the world.’” (NYT http://nyti.ms/puIKw5)

Aid Workers Killed in Attack in Eastern DRC

Mai Mai militiamen in eastern Congo are believed to be responsible for a series of brutal attacks this week that have left at least 5 humanitarian and 5 others dead. “Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed 10 people, including members of a local aid group, in attacks on vehicles travelling in the province of South Kivu this week, the local government said on Thursday. Congo’s east remains plagued by armed groups eight years after a war that left around five million people dead — a problem that could weigh on President Joseph Kabila’s bid for re-election in a Nov. 27 vote. Seven people were killed and three injured on Tuesday in an attack on a vehicle owned by a local NGO, Eben Ezer, on a road south of the town of Baraka near Lake Tanganyika, according to local administrator Selestin Kalume Mwanshima. The same armed group killed three more people when a motorbike was attacked on the same day, Kalume said, blaming the killings on a Congolese rebel band known as Mai Mai Yakatumba.” (AlertNet http://bit.ly/p3VrUY)