The US president, Barack Obama, said today he was “surprised and deeply humbled” after being awarded the 2009 Nobel peace prize, a decision that stunned international experts.
To gasps from those assembled, the Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland, said “only rarely has a person such as Obama captured the world’s attention and given his people hope for a better future”.
The choice of Obama for the prize from a field of more than 200 candidates astounded international commentators, in part because he took office less than two weeks before the February nomination deadline.
Speculation over potential winners had focused on Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan women’s rights activist.
The first African-American to hold the country’s highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and attempted – so far without success – to restart the stalled Middle East peace process.
“I believe the Nobel prize will strengthen President Obama’s ability to contribute to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” the defence minister Ehud Barak.
The original article contains 883 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The US president, Barack Obama, said today he was “surprised and deeply humbled” after being awarded the 2009 Nobel peace prize, a decision that stunned international experts.
To gasps from those assembled, the Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland, said “only rarely has a person such as Obama captured the world’s attention and given his people hope for a better future”.
The choice of Obama for the prize from a field of more than 200 candidates astounded international commentators, in part because he took office less than two weeks before the February nomination deadline.
Speculation over potential winners had focused on Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan women’s rights activist.
The first African-American to hold the country’s highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and attempted – so far without success – to restart the stalled Middle East peace process.
“I believe the Nobel prize will strengthen President Obama’s ability to contribute to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” the defence minister Ehud Barak.
The original article contains 883 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!