WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Arab revolt organizers are among the contenders for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday at 8 p.m. Australia time.

The nomination of Assange was made as early as February by Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen of the Socialist Left Party.

Among the leaders of the Arab Spring revolts who have been nominated are Israa Abdel Fattah, who defied Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government in 2008 by launching the online April 6 youth movement, and former Google executive Wael Ghonim, whose use of social media helped organize the revolution this year.

Censored Tunisian blogger and government critic Lina Ben Mhenni is also in the top list of nominees. Her social media reporting antedated the uprising that overthrew President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Other contenders are Gene Sharp, founder of the non-violence promoter Albert Einstein Institution in Boston; Russian civil rights group Memorial; Afghan human rights official Sima Samar; Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl; Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payas Sardinas; and Ghazi bin Muhammad, a Jordanian advocate of interfaith dialogue. Suu Kyi won the Peace Prize in 1991, but the award may be given twice.

Australian citizen Assange's nomination was based on his whistleblowing Web site's exposes of corruption, war crimes and torture in various countries.

He is now facing extradition to Sweden, which awards all the other Nobel Prizes, on charges of raping two women there. The Peace Prize is awarded by Norway.