Arab World Befuddled by Obama's Nobel

DAMASCUS - Arabs were taken completely aback on Friday morning, when Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland announced that United States President Barack Obama was the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Obama had been nominated for the prize in January, just days before he began his term at the White House. The US said that he would donate the US$1.4 million that comes with it to an unnamed charity, confirming that the president would go to Oslo to receive the award in December. As the news ripped throughout the Arab world, reactions were mixed and caused more than a stir in the online world, in print journalism, on the streets of Arab