2009 Nobel Peace Prize committee for a "hideous display of cynical politics". Stuart Rees, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation in Australia, questioned the award. "Perhaps the Nobel organisation wants to give him a magic wand. I think the guy is full of promise, but I don't think the promise has been realised yet particularly in regards the Middle East." In Asia and the Middle East: Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said that Obama was the "appropriate" person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. "His hard work and his new vision on global relations, his will and efforts for creating friendly and good relations at
2010 Nobel Peace Prize while residing in China. Liu was the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention after Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read "I Have No Enemies", an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech. The Nobel Committee disclosed there were a record number of nominations in 2010 – a total of 237, of which 38 were organisations. Although the committee has