This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been won by peace negotiator Martti Ahtisaari, the Nobel Foundation has announced in Oslo, Norway.
Finland's ex-president has been the UN special envoy for talks on the final status of Kosovo and mediated a 2005 accord in Indonesia's Aceh province.
The winners were chosen by a secretive five-member Norwegian awards committee from 197 nominations this year.
The Nobel committee commended Mr Ahtisaari, 71, "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts".
The citation continued: "He has figured prominently in endeavours to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts," mentioning his roles in Namibia, Aceh, Kosovo and Iraq.
"He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia and on the Horn of Africa," it said.
Mr Ahtisaari will receive the prize in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the awards' founder, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

source: news.bbc.co.uk