Nobel Peace Prize Awarded; Protests in Russia; Hollywood Gunman

Three women received the Nobel Peace Prize today at a ceremony in Oslo. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, social worker Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakkul Karman were all "chosen for their non-violent struggle against injustice, sexual violence and repression." Sirleaf "became Africa's first democratically-elected female president in 2006," Gbowee "led a women's movement that protested the use of rape and child soldiers in Liberia's civil war," and Karman "founded the rights group Women Journalists without Chains." The three will each receive $1.5 million. [CNN]

Thousands of protestors crowded the streets in Moscow yesterday to demonstrate against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The protests were organized largely on social media and the New York Times reports organizers "hoped [it] would become the largest anti-Kremlin demonstration since the fall of the Soviet Union." Estimates had the crowd at about 15,000 people, but "the authorities had been trying to discourage attendance, saying that widespread protests could culminate in a disaster on the scale of the Soviet collapse, which occurred 20 years ago this month." [NYT]

A 26-year-old man was shot and killed by police after walking through the heart of Hollywood and shooting at cars. The AP reports the man, whose identity has not yet been released, was walking down Vine Street while "firing at least nine shots into the air and at passing cars while shouting 'kill me' and 'I'm gonna die!'" After running out of ammo, the man pulled out a knife before a plainclothes officer shot him in the chest. [AP]

21-year-old Long Island man David Smith was arrested for aiming a laser pointer at an airplane, the Daily News reports. The FAA notified Suffolk County police of the incident, and "as two officers in a police helicopter entered the airspace, they were also targeted by the laser." [NYDN]

Expect a cloudy day today, with highs in the forties. [TWC]