Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former President Ronald Reagan have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second straight year, a Nobel committee source said Tuesday.
The source said both men are high on a short list of likely candidates and that Gorbachev has been nominated both individually and jointly with Reagan. "The date for the announcement has now been set for Oct. 5," the source said.The peace award will be the first of the six $455,000 Nobel awards to be announced this year.
Reagan and Gorbachev were widely tipped to win the 1988 award for their efforts in bringing about the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty, but the prize went instead to the U.N. peacekeeping forces.
Also among the 77 individuals and 20 organizations nominated for the 1989 prize were the nationalist movements of the Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the International Olympic Committee; and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
Individuals nominated for the award included imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, Philippines President Corazon Aquino, exiled Tibetan leader the dalai lama, and Brazil's Joao Havelange of the International Football Association, the source said.