The 8.5 billion barrels of oil reserves estimated to be beneath Kirkuk made it a prize no one was willing to yield.
"We thought if we're going to kickstart it over here, then rather than make it a prize for 2012, let's think about all the ones we've missed, let's make it a lifetime award for quackery".
Kirkuk's rich oil deposits make it a prize sought by Iraqi Kurds and the government in Baghdad, but the city has remained relatively free of violence compared with much of the rest of Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Not surprisingly, the proximity of Libya to Italy and the country's hundreds of kilometres of unguarded coastline had made it a prize shove-off venue for smugglers, many of whom had turned to offering Mediterranean passage as an alternative to increasingly bottled-up land routes through Israel and Saudi Arabia.
California's outsized influence on national policy debates has long made it a prize for marijuana reformers.
The capital of restive Jonglei state, the city lies between the Nile and the long and unpaved road to the capital Juba 200km south, making it a strategic prize for both the rebels and the government.
The capital of restive Jonglei state, the city lies between the Nile and the long unpaved road that goes 125 south to the capital Juba, making it a strategic prize for both the rebels and the government.
Others have talked about introducing a public vote, changing the age limit, or making it an international prize.
"One thing that amazes students is the making of wire and chains, which did not utilize a drawplate in early antiquity, making it a laborious process to create highly prized items," she said.
Its movable platform and crane made it a valuable prize.
