Killed hostage nominated for Burns award

WESTERN Isles aid worker Linda Norgrove has been nominated for a prestigious humanitarian award for her work in Afghanistan.

Norgrove, 36, below, was kidnapped while working in the country in September, and killed during a US-led military mission to rescue her.

The aid worker, of Mangersta, Uig, Lewis, is one of two Scottish people put forward for the 2011 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award, which recognises those who have saved, improved or enriched the lives of others through self-sacrifice or charitable work.

The other is Argyll man Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who founded the charity Mary's Meals.

The third nominee is Madhu Pandit Dasa, founder of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which provides more than one million meals a day for pupils in India.

All three were selected from a list of submissions by the public.

The winner will be given 1,759 guineas (about 1,850) - which signifies the year of Robert Burns' birth and the coins used at that time.

The winner will also receive an award at the New Burns Museum, Alloway, Ayrshire, on 22 January.

Norgrove was working for US charity Development Alternatives Inc when she was kidnapped in the Dewagal Valley in Kunar province on 26 September.