Pope Francis lines up against Angela Merkel in race for Nobel Peace Prize

Pope Francis and a line-up of anti-nuclear campaigners headed lists of favorites to win the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize on the eve of Friday’s announcement. The pontiff’s’ opposition to nuclear weapons and stance on climate change are widely seen as boosting his chances, alongside his help in brokering a deal between the U.S and Cuba. However the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was named as a leading contender for the $972,000 prize by other pundits. Angela Merkel. the German chancellor has been given odds as low as 2-1 to win for her role in seeing the country accept large numbers of new arrivals amid Europe’s refugee crisis.

She’s not on social media, some of the normal things you might associate with a very powerful politician. She’s quite humble, she’s pragmatic, and seen as a rational decision maker.

Thomas Raines, from London think-tank Chatham House, on Angela Merkel

Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima is also thought to be in the running alongside Sumiteru Taniguchi, a survivor of the atomic attack on Nagasaki. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. secretary of state John Kerry could get the nod for concluding a deal over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Another contender is Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam after criticising the kingdom’s powerful clerics. The award will be announced at 10am GMT.

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