'Banker to poor' receives Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday, saying he hoped the award would inspire "bold initiatives" to fight poverty and eradicate the root causes of terrorism.

Yunus, 66, shared the award with his Grameen Bank for helping people rise above poverty by giving them microcredit -- small, usually unsecured loans.

"I firmly believe that we can create a poverty free world if we collectively believe in it," Yunus said after accepting the prize at City Hall in Oslo, Norway. "The only place you would be able to see poverty is in a poverty museum." (Watch Muhammad Yunus accept peace prize to standing ovation )

The Nobel Prizes, announced in October, are always presented in Oslo and Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10 to mark the anniversary of the 1896 death of their creator, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite and stipulated the dual ceremonies in his will.

The winners for literature, medicine, physics and economics will receive their awards later Sunday at a royal ceremony in Stockholm's blue-hued concert hall. Each award carries a purse of $1.4 million, a diploma and a gold medal. The first prizes were handed out in 1901.

This year's laureates include a novelist who explored Turkey's clash of cultures and American scientists who helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and broke new ground in genetic research.

Yunus said ending poverty was the best way to fight terrorism.

"We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time," he said. "I believe putting resources into improving the lives of poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns." (Watch Yunus deliver acceptance speech )

Grameen Bank, set up in 1983, was the first lender to provide microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed, and repayment is based on an honor system, with a nearly 100 percent repayment rate.

Yunus said the idea has spread around the world, with similar programs in almost every country.

Clad in a traditional Bangladeshi sleeveless jacket, Yunus accepted his half of the $1.4 million prize from awards committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes.

Board member Mosammat Taslima Begum, wearing a traditional dress in red with a green shawl, accepted the other half of the award on behalf of Grameen bank, saying she dedicated it to all Bangladeshis.

Mjoes said the award was an outstretched hand to the Islamic world in an era where Muslims are often demonized because of terrorism.

"The peace prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank is also support for the Muslim country of Bangladesh, and for the Muslim environments in the world that are working for dialogue and collaboration," Mjoes said

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the literature prize for a body of work that illustrates the struggle to find a balance between East and West.

U.S. researchers have long dominated the science awards, and swept them all this year for the first time since 1983.

The Nobel Prize in medicine went to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes. John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the physics prize for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of how the universe was created.

Roger D. Kornberg won the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins, a process that could provide insight into defeating cancer and advancing stem cell research.

Economics winner Edmund S. Phelps was cited for research into the relationship between inflation and unemployment, giving governments better tools to formulate economic policy. The economics award is not an original Nobel Prize, but was created by the Bank of Sweden in 1968.

Pamuk, whose trial last year for "insulting Turkishness" made headlines worldwide, was honored for exploring "new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." His novels include "Snow" and "My Name Is Red." The charges against Pamuk were eventually dropped.

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