From ChannelNewsAsia.com:

OSLO – The head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee on Saturday defended its controversial decision to give the award to US President Barack Obama, saying his work so far justified the honour.

“He could have also had it too late,” Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters.

“Can someone tell me who did more than him this year? It is difficult to name a winner of the peace prize who is more in line with Alfred Nobel’s will.”

Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister, said “we are capturing the spirit of the times, the needs of the era.”

He and the committee’s four other members caused shockwaves on Friday by announcing that Obama had won the Nobel, praising his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

The committee attached “special importance to Obama’s vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Does anyone recall this much controversy over the Nobel Peace Prize since Yassar Arafat won along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994?