just listen to the gasps when the chairman of the nobel peace prize committee made the announcement in oslo. don't worry you'll get it even though he's speaking norwegian. >> good morning. [ speaking in native language ] >> even though nominations for this year's award closed on february 1st, only days after president obama took office, the nobel committee claims its decision was based largely on achievement, not expectations. >> we have -- we have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. we are awarding obama for what he has done the preceding year. and we do hope that it can contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do. >> mr. obama is in the middle of a major decision as you know on -- and we'll probably end up increasing troop levels in afghanistan. how does the committee feel about that? >> at this time, the conflict in afghanistan concerns us all and we do hope that the improvement of the international climate and the emphasis on the negotiations could help result that i do not claim that it must help or will help, but we could hope that this could help to