Rights prize withdrawn from Putin after protests

16 July 2011 Last updated at 17:38 GMT Mr Putin is accused of overseeing oppressive government policies while Russia's president A prestigious German rights prize will not be awarded this year after organisers were heavily criticised for giving it to Russian PM Vladimir Putin.

The Quadriga Prize is given annually to "role models who are committed to enlightenment, commitment and welfare".

The decision to give it to Mr Putin was angrily received by his critics, who said it made a mockery of the award.

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel had threatened to return his own prize in protest at last week's announcement.

The Quadriga, named after the statue on top of Berlin's Brandenberg Gate, is awarded annually on the anniversary of German re-unification and is "dedicated to all those whose courage tears down walls and whose commitment builds bridges".

'Downright cynical' The award's organisers said they were retracting Mr Putin's award with "great regret," citing "massive criticism in the media and the political world" over their choice.

"The growing pressure was becoming increasingly unsustainable and risked escalating further," they said in a statement.

No awards will be given in 2011 and the panel said they would "see how it continues next year".

Mr Putin was to be recognised for his "service to the dependability and stability of German-Russian relations", but the move immediately came under fire both in Germany and abroad.

His critics say that while serving as president between 2000 and 2008, Mr Putin - a former KGB spy chief - oversaw oppressive government policies and curbs on civilian liberties.

Germany's human rights commissioner Markus Loening said it was "downright cynical" for Mr Putin to be put in the same group as previous winners Mikhail Gorbachev and Mr Havel.

"It devalues the prize," he said last week.

The prize is awarded on the anniversary of German re-unification

Last year's winner, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, had already returned his award and Mr Havel threatened to do the same.

On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Mr Havel said he thought the panel were "very wise" to reconsider their choice.

The award should be given to people "who devoted their lives to protection of human rights and freedoms and promoting democracy," she said, naming Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Russian rights campaigner Sergei Kovalov and Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006.

A spokesman for Mr Putin said the row would have no effect on Russia-German ties and that Moscow would "treat with respect any decision by this organisation".

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Zimbabwe author wins Caine prize

12 July 2011 Last updated at 14:20 GMT NoViolet Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe and studied in the US Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has won this year's Caine Prize for African Writing, regarded as Africa's leading literary award.

The ?10,000 ($16,000) prize was given for her story Hitting Budapest about hungry children from a shantytown who steal guavas from an upmarket suburb.

She told the BBC: "I try to write stories that don't normally get told."

The chair of judges said the gang of "poor and violated" children were "reminiscent of Clockwork Orange".

"The language of Hitting Budapest crackles," said judge chair Hisham Matar, who announced the winner at a prize-giving ceremony in the UK city of Oxford on Monday evening.

"This is a story with moral power and weight, it has the artistry to refrain from moral commentary. NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who takes delight in language."

At the beginning of the story, first published in The Boston Review last year, the narrator explains why the children are heading for Budapest: "There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right now I'd die for guavas, or anything for that matter."

"There they encounter this lady from London who is more interested in taking their picture, which I guess happens when Westerners go to Africa, but she fails to realise that they are hungry," Ms Bulawayo told the BBC's Network Africa.

One of the children is a 10-year-old girl who has seemingly been made pregnant by her grandfather.

"It's very, very wrong but in this environment it's normalised," she says.

Ms Bulawayo says she identifies with the characters - Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho - and in the story she is "marrying the personal with the imaginary".

"Some of these incidents in Hitting Budapest are taken from my own life - the stealing of guavas to begin with, growing up less privileged and having these dreams."

NoViolet Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe and recently completed a masters degree at Cornell University in the US.

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Peruvian author wins book prize

27 May 2011 Last updated at 10:09 GMT At 36, Santiago Roncagliolo is the youngest author to win the prize Peruvian author Santiago Roncagliolo has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his third novel, Red April.

The writer beat competition from the likes of Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk to become the youngest person to win the prize at 36.

He shares his ?10,000 award with the translator of his novel, American Edith Grossman.

The prize is given to a living author whose book has been translated into English and published in the UK.

Roncagliolo's political thriller, translated from Spanish, tells of a Peruvian prosecutor in charge of a murder investigation.

Judge and literary editor at the Independent Boyd Tonkin described Red April as "a novel that will grip, excite, disturb and challenge all its readers".

Roncagliolo said: "The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize closes a wonderful 'British season' for me and my book.

"I am very happy to have won, but I was already honoured to be on the longlist, to be considered in the same league as such amazing writers."

Edith Grossman said: "Translating the work of a fine writer is sheer pleasure: the better the writing, the more satisfying the challenge for the translator.

"I so enjoyed the opportunity to bring the work of Santiago over into English. His use of language is clean and sharp and perceptive, and regardless of the kind of piece he has written, that wonderful quality is constant."

The other authors shortlisted for the prize included Pamuk for his novel, The Museum of Innocence, Norwegian Per Petterson for I Curse the River of Time and Kamchatka by the Argentine Marcelo Figueras.

The Sickness from Venezuelan author Alberto Barrera Tyszka and Visitation, the third novel by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck were also nominated.

Last year's prize went to Philippe Claudel for Brodeck's Report, translated from the French by American John Cullen.

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Coens win $1m international prize

16 May 2011 Last updated at 09:22 GMT The Coen brothers won Oscars for 2007's No Country for Old Men Movie directors Joel and Ethan Coen have won a $1m (?617,000) international award for "a creative partnership unique in the history of film-making".

The pair were given the Dan David Prize - awarded to people who have made "an outstanding contribution to humanity" - at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Joel Coen said their mother lived in the British mandate of Palestine before Israel's creation in 1948.

"Our mother tried to get us to come here for many, many years," he said.

"But, you know, life intervenes - we've been busy."

The awards, established by international businessman and philanthropist Mr David in 2002, give three annual prizes in "past, present and future" categories.

The Coens join previous winners of the "present" award including former British Prime Minster Tony Blair and environmental campaigner and former US Vice-President Al Gore.

The prize's citation said their debut movie Blood Simple showed their abilities as "young film-makers whose grasp of film genres, dark comedy and the capacity to bring narrative complexity to apparently simple plots became hallmarks of their future films".

Their "impressive list of films" had "garnered countless awards", it added.

In 2008, they won Oscars for best directing, best screenplay and best picture for No Country for Old Men, while in 1997 they picked up the writing award for Fargo.

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German hairdresser awarded best beard prize

16 May 2011 Last updated at 00:20 GMT Mr Weisser said his beard reached his waist when it had not been styled A German hairdresser has won the title of world's best beard at the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Trondheim, Norway.

Elmar Weisser, 47, beat 160 contestants to the prize with his elaborate facial hair sculpture of a moose.

It is the third time Mr Weisser has emerged as champion.

In 2005 he won with with a beard styled into the shape of Berlin's Brandenberg Gate, and in 2007 with a representation of London's Tower Bridge.

He said he had begun preparing his creation for the Trondheim event at 7am, with the help of his sister.

"When my beard isn't styled, it goes down to my waist. It is sort of folded up," he told the AFP news agency.

The World Beard and Moustache Championship has been running every two years since 1995 and its organisers say it is "the premier event in the international sport of bearding".

Contestants from all over the world compete in 14 categories, including natural goatee, sideburns freestyle, Hungarian moustache and imperial partial beard.

Organisers say the field has traditionally been dominated by Europeans but that the US, which has twice hosted the event, is fast becoming "the world's new facial hair super power".

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