Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

She won "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy", the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation on Friday.

The former opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela was lauded for being a "key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided - an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government", committee chair Joergen Watne Frydnes said.

"In the past year, Miss Machado has been forced to live in hiding.

"Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has i

See Full Page