Nobel to no-nukes group

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group of mostly young activists pushing for a global treaty to ban the cataclysmic bombs.

The award of the $1.1 million prize comes amid tensions over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. The committee wanted “to send a signal to North Korea and the US,” said Oeivind Stenersen, a historian of the peace prize.

The Geneva-based ICAN has campaigned actively for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by the United Nations in July, but which needs ratification from 50 countries.