Tutu wins Templeton Prize

April 4 – The 81-year-old Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu from South Africa has been awarded the $US1.7 million Templeton Prize for his lifelong work promoting "love and forgiveness".

Tutu who rose to fame in the 1980s as a vocal opponent of South Africa's white-minority regime, will be presented with the award in London on May 21.

The Templeton Prize, one of the world's largest annual awards, is given to a living person who has made "an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension".

Last year's winner was the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, who gave the money to charity.

Tutu thanked "all the wonderful people who accepted me as their leader at home" for the prize, which is administered by the US-based Templeton Foundation.

"When you are in a crowd and you stand out from the crowd it's usually because you are being carried on the shoulders of others," he said.

The prize was set up in 1972 by late investor and philanthropist John Templeton. Its first winner, in 1973, was Mother Teresa.