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Nobel Prize committee tweets to notify winners, wherever they may be

Nobel Prize committee tweets to notify winners, wherever they may be

The Nobel Prize Committee had a message for 2013 prize winners this week: please pick up the phone.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a watchdog against chemical weaponry worldwide, won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. But as the committee prepared to announce the award, it seems they were having some trouble locating the honourable recipient, so they turned to Twitter.

However, the first tweet didn't work, leading the Nobelprize_org Twitter account to move ahead with the announcement and tweet again.

Social media users joked about the communication mishap that briefly plagued the awarding of the world's most prestigious prize, some of them mentioning another contender for this year's Peace Prize, 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai.

At nearly 7 a.m., the Nobel Prize account tweeted it had reached OPCW for a phone interview and posted the recording, in which the Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, said the Nobel would provide "great incentive" for the elimination of chemical weapons.

[ Related: Retiring Canadian author Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize in Literature ]

OPCW wasn't the only Nobel Prize winner who proved difficult to reach; the committee also posted on Thursday it couldn't reach the Literature recipient, Canadian author Alice Munro.

Peter Higgs found out he won the Nobel Prize in Physics this week when a driver pulled over in Edinburgh and congratulated him on the street, according to the Telegraph.