Finland’s ex-president and United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle East.

The award includes a gift of $1.3 million. His international prominence as a UN diplomat helped him win the first direct election in 1994 to become the Finnish president.

Also Read : Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Under his presidency, Finland entered the European Union and adopted the euro.

he island of Iceland might be the first country in “national bankruptcy” to follow in the steps of the credit crunch.

Iceland is all but officially bankrupt

People go bankrupt all the time. Companies do, too. But countries?

Iceland was on the verge of doing exactly that on Thursday as the government shut down the stock market and seized control of its last major independent bank. That brought trading in the country’s currency to a halt, with foreign banks no longer willing to take Icelandic krona, even at fire-sale rates.

With the government seemingly powerless to do anything about it, analysts said there was probably only one realistic option left: for Iceland to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Iceland Teeters On Bankruptcy

Iceland is getting closer to becoming the first nation to go bankrupt as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting squeeze on lending.

Also read :

• America’s Subprime Crisis - Timeline
• WALL- STREET IN PANIC - Lehman Brothers Collapses
• Washington Mutual Collapsed - Biggest in US History

[via -  iht , forbes ]

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

The 2008 Nobel prize winners in Literature has been revealed.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio of France, author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

The 2008 Nobel prize winners in Chemistry has been revealed for 3 persons for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP

Each share 1/3 of the prize

• Osamu Shimomura - USA - Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Woods Hole, MA, USA
• Martin Chalfie - USA - Biology professor at Columbia University New York, NY, USA
• Roger Y. Tsien - USA - University of CaliforniaSan Diego, CA, USA

Osamu Shimomura first isolated GFP from jellyfish drifting off the west coast of North America and discovered that the protein glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

Dr Chalfie picked up on the discovery to demonstrate the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for biological phenomena.

Roger Tsien extended the colour palette beyond green, which allowed researchers to follow several different biological processes at the same time.