US President Obama to Pick up Nobel Peace Prize

World | December 10, 2009, Thursday // 07:58
Bulgaria: US President Obama to Pick up Nobel Peace Prize A large sign reading "Welcome Mr. President" is displayed outside a shopping centre in Oslo, Norway, 06 December 2009, ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony awarding US president Barack Obama on 10 December 2009. Photo by EPA/BGNES

US President Barack Obama -- fighting wars in two countries -- will arrive in Norway on Thursday to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

The president will spend 26 hours in Oslo meeting the royal family, accepting the Nobel at an afternoon ceremony and attending an award banquet that evening.

At the ceremony, Obama will accept a USD 1.4 M prize check, a gold medal and a diploma.

The prize was awarded to Obama in October for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

The ceremony comes days after Obama announced he was sending 30,000 extra US soldiers to the war in Afghanistan.

US officials said he was aware of the "juxtaposition" and would refer to US wars in his acceptance speech.

Obama's Nobel Prize win, announced in October, elicited swift reaction -- some hailing the choice; others asking what he had accomplished to deserve it.

Nominations for the prize had to be postmarked by February 1, only 12 days after Obama took office. The committee sent out its solicitation for nominations last September, two months before Obama was elected president.

The Nobel committee said it recognized his efforts at dialogue to solve complex global problems, including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

"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 committee said.

The president said he saw the decision less as a recognition of his accomplishments and more as "a call to action."

Some analysts have speculated that the prize could give Obama additional clout as he forms a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and attempts to engage Iran and North Korea.

Obama, the first African-American to win the White House, is the fourth U.S. president to win the prestigious prize and the third sitting president to do so.

December 10 is the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the prizes.

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Tags: Nobel prize, Barack Obama

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