NEW YORK, United States — "One Country," the newsletter of the Baha'i International Community, has won a prestigious "Grand Award" this year in the APEX 2005 Awards for Publication Excellence.

The periodical reports mainly on activities of the worldwide Baha'i community in relation to issues of sustainable development, peace and world order, human rights, and the advancement of women.

"One Country" won the Grand Award in the "nonprofit, small office" category.

Just 100 Grand Awards were handed out, in 16 categories, from among 5,000 entries, according to APEX organizers.

"We're honored to have won a Grand Award from APEX this year," said Douglas Moore, the director of the Office of Public Information of the Baha'i International Community, the publisher of "One Country."

"In the world of nonprofit and organizational publications, it is a sign of considerable recognition," Mr. Moore said.

The annual APEX awards are sponsored by Communications Concepts of Springfield, Virginia, USA. They aim at recognizing excellence in publications, including websites, by professional communicators.

The awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. Now in their 17th year, the APEX Awards have gradually grown in prestige. This year, for example, the editors of "Foreign Policy Magazine" won three Awards of Excellence, a fact that they have noted on their website.

In addition to the Grand Awards, APEX issues Awards of Excellence in 11 major categories, divided into some 109 subcategories.

This year "One Country," whose editor is Brad Pokorny, also won an Award of Excellence in the "Columns and Editorials" subcategory for its Perspective Editorial titled "Literacy and Development," which was published in the April-June 2004 issue (Volume 16, Issue 1).

"One Country" has won a number of APEX awards in previous years for its news and feature stories, including a 1991 "Grand Award" in the Newsletters category.

"One Country" is issued quarterly. In addition to an English edition, it is published in French, Spanish, Chinese, German, and Russian. The English edition goes to more than 38,000 people in 180 countries.

To see "One Country" on the Internet, go to http://onecountry.org.