China democracy campaigner wins Nobel Peace Prize

BEIJING - China has long wanted a Nobel Prize. Now that it has one, its leaders are furious.

The Nobel committee awarded its peace prize to imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo on Friday, lending encouragement to China's dissident community and sending a rebuke to the authoritarian government, which sharply condemned the award.

In naming Liu, 54, the Norwegian-based committee honored his more than two decades of advocacy for human rights and peaceful democratic change - from the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989 to a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.

President Barack Obama, last year's peace prize winner, called for Liu's immediate release.

Anticipating the award, Chinese circumvented Internet controls and called friends overseas to learn the news.

Supporters and friends gathered outside Liu's Beijing apartment, where his wife was kept inside by police. At a park, about 15 people cheered and waved placards saying "Long Live Freedom of Speech." The demonstrators were later taken away by police.

Two years into an 11-year jail term for subversion at a prison 300 miles from Beijing, the slight literary critic was unlikely to have found out about the award. Prisoners are restricted to state media, which mostly ignored the news. - AP