Baggio nets Nobel prize

TOKYO (AP):

Italian soccer star Roberto Baggio is this year's winner of a special award bestowed annually by the world's Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Baggio, 43, the FIFA player of the year in 1993, was chosen yesterday for the Peace Summit Award 2010 for his long-time efforts in charities, including pressing for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader and peace laureate, the office of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates said yesterday.

Baggio is more known for his soccer glory. But he has also helped fund hospitals, including raising money to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake and fighting bird flu, as well as supporting the work of the United Nations.

This year's meeting of laureates, set to start on Friday, is in the southwestern Japanese city of Hiroshima, where the US atomic bomb killed 140,000 people in 1945, ending World War II.

Previous such summits were held in Europe.

This year, the laureates will also be giving a special award to the representatives of the bomb victims, "to honour all those who have witnessed and endured the tragic consequences of nuclear bombardments and war, warning with their unbearable suffering present and future generations," the group said in a statement.