Tuesday, 27 November 2007

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George Clooney and Don Cheadle to get Nobel laureate award

Actors are rewarded for their efforts in the Sudan

George Clooney and Don Cheadle will be sharing a prestigious honor for their efforts to bring peace to Africa's war-torn Darfur region, awarded by a collection of Nobel laureates.

The 8th World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates – a group that includes former Soviet President Michael Gorbachev, former President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu – will present the actors with the 2007 Peace Summit Award at its annual meeting in Rome next month.

Clooney and Cheadle are being honored for promoting peace in Darfur and "for their commitment to saving human lives and alleviating the suffering of civilian victims of the conflict," the World Summit announced Monday. Gorbachev and Walter Veroni, the mayor of Rome, will present the award to the actors at the summit Dec. 13.

"I am always moved when I see artists such as George and Don use their positions to speak up for the most vulnerable of our fellow human beings," Archbishop Tutu said in a statement, according to the peace and human rights Web site The Community.com.

"They have brought the suffering in Sudan into the awareness of millions, and have raised tens of millions of dollars to assist the victims of violence there. They inspire us all and show that every person, in every walk of life, can do something to help make the world a better place."

Over the past two years Clooney and Cheadle have both traveled to the African nation to bring attention to the plight of war refugees there, spoken to government leaders about the ongoing ethnic and tribal conflict in the region and appeared in the 2007 documentary Darfur Now.