via NYTimes
LONDON — The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia — the first woman to be elected president in modern Africa — her compatriot, the peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.
They were the first women to win the prize since Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who died last month, was named as the laureate in 2004.