US President Barack Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize just nine months into his Presidency for his "extraordinary efforts" to strengthen international diplomacy in a stunning choice that left the world divided whether the honour came too early. Hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee made the sensational announcement, a beaming Obama(48)accepted the honour but acknowledged he was "both surprised and deeply humbled" to bag the award. Appearing in the White House Rose Garden, Obama said he does not "view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments" but rather as a recognition of goals he has set for the United States and the world. "I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said, adding the honour is a "call to action."
The Norwegian Nobel Committe said "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 Stockholm-based Committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons. The first Afro-American President of the US is the third incumbent after Theodore Rossevelt and Woodrow Wilson to win the peace prize. Former President Jimmy Carter won the prize after his term in the White House.