Barack Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

U.S. president Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. While congratulations are pouring in from some, not everyone is convinced the Nobel Committee's decision was a good one.

The Nobel Committee is comprised of five members. The group chose Obama over 205 nominees, a list which included France's president Nicholas Sarkozy and Zimbabwe's prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Obama, in less then a year after he took office, has won a gold medal, a diploma and 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million). He is the third sitting U.S. President to be awarded the prize. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to win the award, followed by Woodrow Wilson 13 years later. In 2002, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Prize -- 21 years after his last day in the Oval Office. Hope for a better future "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the BBC quoted the Norwegian committee saying as it announced the prize winner. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." Congratulations for Obama has been pouring in from around the world; South Africa's Nelson Mandela Foundation was one of the first to react to Obama's victory. In a public statement, the organization said, "This award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty." Criticism and mixed reviews There is, however, doubt around Obama's victory, which comes days after the U.S. president denied to opportunity to have talks with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who wanted to talk about strengthening trade and diplomatic relations with China. Others say Obama yet has to prove himself as a peace builder in, for instance, the Middle East. Although his very first phone call after securing the presidency was to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, "Mr Obama has no concrete achievement to his credit," says David Blair, Diplomatic Editor from The Telegraph. "The Israelis and Palestinians are no closer to a settlement today than when he took office nine months ago. On the contrary, recent violence in Jerusalem raises the possibility of a new Palestinian uprising: an event that would force the "peace process" into reverse," "Although America and Russia have begun talks on a new disarmament agreement, no treaty has been concluded," he continues, underlining that the Committee's decision might have to do with Obama's potential on the peace building front. Others criticized the decision because nominations for the award closed just two weeks after Obama entered office. James Blitz from The Financial Times wrote that Obama still needs to find a solution for the war in Afghanistan and that "the award of the peace prize may be followed by a decision to send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan."