Whistleblower Snowden, Pope Francis tipped for 2014 Nobel prizes

STOCKHOLM - Nobel prize season starts Monday with speculation rife that the peace prize could go to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pakistani girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, or perhaps Pope Francis.

Last year, the physics prize awarded to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert for the Higgs particle was widely predicted, but Nobel pundits and bookmakers tend to focus more on who will get the prestigious peace and literature awards.

This year saw a record 278 peace prize nominations and, while the list is secret, some names have been revealed by their sponsors, including US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was nominated by two Norwegian members of parliament.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is one of few experts to publish an annual shortlist of likely winners, even if he has yet to predict one accurately.

This year he ranked Snowden second place -- behind Pope Francis -- for exposing the extent of US electronic surveillance. However, he acknowledged that the former intelligence analyst would be a controversial choice as "many continue to see him as a traitor and a criminal."

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Whistleblower Snowden, Pope Francis tipped for 2014 Nobel prizes