Chinese dissident awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Oslo, Norway (CNN) -- An empty chair stood in for imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo as he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Friday amid protests and condemnation from China.

China has responded furiously since the Nobel committee announced on October 8 that Liu would be its peace prize winner. Officials have repeatedly called Liu a common criminal and declared the award a Western plot against China.

The rhetoric continued Friday with China calling the awarding of the prize to Liu a "political farce."

"The decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee does not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world, particularly that of the developing countries," said Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official.

Liu, a professor of literature, is serving an 11-year sentence in a Chinese prison for what the government called "inciting subversion of state power." He was not allowed to travel to Norway to accept the prize, nor was his wife, Liu Xia.

Past Nobel Peace Prize winners

Nobel Peace Prize politics

Jailed dissident wins Nobel prize

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, in awarding the prize Friday, likened Liu Xiaobo to Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who fought the apartheid regime.

After announcing the award, Jagland placed Liu's medal in the empty chair, the second time such a symbol has been used in the event.

Before the ceremony, some Twitter users who listed their location as Beijing had changed their profile pictures to an empty chair.

In his speech, Jagland commended China for lifting millions out of poverty, but said democracy and free speech must go hand in hand with its economic development.

"China, too, will grow stronger if its people are granted civil rights," Jagland said.

While Chinese officials have said the prize represents a Western perspective, human rights activists in China "represent the world's common values and standards," Jagland said.

He added that Liu has done nothing wrong and "must be released."

U.S. President Barack Obama also called for Liu's immediate release.

"Mr. Liu reminds us that human dignity also depends upon the advance of democracy, open society, and the rule of law," Obama said in a statement. "The values he espouses are universal, his struggle is peaceful, and he should be released as soon as possible."

As the awards ceremony was getting under way, a large number of officers stood guard outside the west central Beijing apartment complex where Liu's wife has been under house arrest since her husband's award was announced. Journalists were cordoned off in a small area next to the building.

The police presence outside the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing had also increased early Friday as groups of protesters gathered there and at the city's U.N. offices.

Jagland said Thursday that the award is not a protest.

"It is a signal to China that it would be very important for China's future to combine economic development with political reforms and it is support for those people in China who are struggling for basic human rights," Jagland told reporters.

Beijing also put pressure on its allies and other countries not to attend the peace prize ceremony, and it hastily announced its own honor -- the Confucius Peace Prize, which was awarded Thursday to former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan. That award was accepted by a 6-year-old girl on Lien's behalf. Lien did not know about the prize, his office said.

Amnesty International said it had received reports from "reliable sources" that Chinese diplomats in Norway have been pressuring Chinese residents into joining anti-Nobel demonstrations.

On Thursday, the U.N.'s human rights chief called for Liu's release from prison and criticized what she said were "recent restrictions placed on an ever-widening circle" of the dissident's associates.

"In recent weeks, my office has received reports of at least 20 activists being arrested or detained and more than 120 other cases of house arrest, travel restrictions, forced relocations and other acts of intimidation," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters.

Jagland said the committee expected a "harsh reaction" from Beijing.

But "we are very glad to see that two-thirds of the nations that have embassies in Oslo will be attending the ceremony, and most of them are very big, very important countries," he added.

Among those attending was U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was part of the official delegation on behalf of Liu and his wife.

Of the 19 countries that declined to come to Friday's ceremony -- including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran -- Jagland said Thursday that two had reconsidered: Ukraine and the Philippines.

But the state-run China Daily newspaper reported Friday that "most nations" had expressed their support for China's stance, citing a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said the award would not change the fact that "Liu committed crimes."

Friday's ceremony included songs by a children's choir -- a special request made by Liu through his wife, according to Lundestad. And Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was on hand to read one of Liu's "most interesting and beautiful texts," Jagland said.

Jagland predicted that keeping Liu, 54, in prison for the entirety of his 11-year sentence may prove impossible after the prize was awarded.

"The pressure from the outside world will be on China to release him. In today's world, it is totally impossible to close a country. We already know that a lot of Chinese know about the prize, and this is creating a huge pressure on China," Jagland said.

Several foreign news websites -- including CNN and BBC -- were blocked in mainland China Thursday and Friday.

Broadcasts of CNN International were blacked out intermittently, when news of the peace prize was reported. CNN reports about China's new Confucius Peace Prize were not blocked.

Internet companies in China are treating Chinese characters for "Liu Xiaobo," "Nobel," and peace prize as "sensitive words," said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of Danwei.org -- a website about Chinese media and Internet. Acting on government instructions, the companies are deleting text containing those words, preventing such text from being uploaded, or returning no results on searches for the words, he said.

"I think the main aim is to reduce the chances of Chinese citizens seeing that the Liu Xiaobo Nobel Prize is big news internationally, and to make it more difficult for articles sympathetic to Liu Xiaobo and photos of him to be copied and circulated inside China," Goldkorn said.

The last time an empty chair was used to represent an absent winner was when German peace activist Carl von Ossietzky won the 1935 award, according to Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute. Ossietzky was under "protective custody" in Nazi Germany and could not come to accept the award in person, nor was he represented by anyone.

Three other Nobel peace laureates were also unable to attend their ceremonies for political reasons -- human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Polish trade union leader Lech Walesa, and Russian Cold War dissident Andrei Sakharov -- but spouses or other relatives accepted the awards on their behalf.

Military bans disks, threatens courts-martial to stop new leaks

(WIRED) -- It's too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon's secret network.

But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media -- or risk a court martial.

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the December 3 "Cyber Control Order" -- obtained by Danger Room -- which directs airmen to "immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET," the Defense Department's secret network.

Similar directives have gone out to the military's other branches.

"Unauthorized data transfers routinely occur on classified networks using removable media and are a method the insider threat uses to exploit classified information. To mitigate the activity, all Air Force organizations must immediately suspend all SIPRNET data transfer activities on removable media," the order adds.

It's one of a number of moves the Defense Department is making to prevent further disclosures of secret information in the wake of the WikiLeaks document dumps.

Pfc. Bradley Manning says he downloaded hundreds of thousands of files from SIPRNET to a CD marked "Lady Gaga" before giving the files to WikiLeaks.

To stop that from happening again, an August internal review suggested that the Pentagon disable all classified computers' ability to write to removable media.

About 60 percent of military machines are now connected to a Host Based Security System, which looks for anomalous behavior. And now there's this disk-banning order.

One military source who works on these networks says it will make the job harder; classified computers are often disconnected from the network, or are in low-bandwidth areas.

A DVD or a thumb drive is often the easiest way to get information from one machine to the next. "They were asking us to build homes before," the source says. "Now they're taking away our hammers."

The order acknowledges that the ban will make life trickier for some troops.

"Users will experience difficulty with transferring data for operational needs which could impede timeliness on mission execution," the document admits. But "military personnel who do not comply ... may be punished under Article 92 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice."

Article 92 is the armed forces' regulation covering failure to obey orders and dereliction of duty, and it stipulates that violators "shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

But to several Defense Department insiders, the steps taken so far to prevent another big secret data dump have been surprisingly small. "After all the churn.... The general perception is business as usual. I'm not kidding," one of those insiders says. "We haven't turned a brain cell on it."

Tape and disk backups, as well as hard drive removals, will continue as normal in the military's Secure Compartmented Information Facilities, where top-secret information is discussed and handled. And removable drives have been banned on SIPRNET before.

Two years ago, the Pentagon forbade the media's use after the drives and disks helped spread a relatively unsophisticated worm onto hundreds of thousands of computers.

The ban was lifted this February, after the worm cleanup effort, dubbed "Operational Buckshot Yankee," was finally completed. Shortly thereafter, Manning says he started passing information to WikiLeaks.

Specialists at the National Security Agency are looking for additional technical ways to limit, disable or audit military users' actions.

Darpa, the Pentagon's leading-edge research arm, has launched an effort to "greatly increase the accuracy, rate and speed with which insider threats are detected ... within government and military interest networks."

But, like all Darpa projects, this one won't be ready to deploy for years -- if ever. For now, the Pentagon is stuck with more conventional methods to WikiLeak-proof its networks.

Twitter use strongest among US minority groups

 

Twitter use strongest among US minority groups.

African-American and Latino adults in the US who use the internet are twice as likely as whites to use the website Twitter, a survey has found.

The Pew Research Center, a Washington-based   think tank, found that 13% of Latino and 18% of African-American adult internet users use Twitter.
Of all US adult internet users, 8% use the micro-blogging site, Pew found.
Minority groups visit the site more because they are younger and use mobile technology more often, the centre said.
"Both of those groups, African-American and Latino adult internet users in the US, tend to be younger than white internet users, which helps to lead to their adoption of Twitter," said Senior Research Specialist Aaron Smith.
"Both of those groups are also very mobile populations in their use of cell phones in particular to access the web," he said, adding that "Twitter lends itself easily to mobile technology."
"Overall, non-whites are more likely than white cell phone owners to do a range of non-voice tasks on their cell phones - they are more likely to use instant messaging and social networking on their phones."
The study also suggested those who live in cities and were more likely to use the social networking site - which lets users post updates using up to 140 characters.
Twitter obsession Researchers found that 25% of active Twitter users checked the service several times a day, with 2% saying they were extremely active.
As Americans spend more of their time online, social networking technology as a whole is growing and starting to replace activities individuals once performed in physical spaces, Mr Smith said.
The Pew researchers noted in the report that they focused on Twitter because the service was "one of the most popular online activities among tech enthusiasts and has become a widely used tool among analysts to study the conversations and interests of users, buzz about news, products or services".
Twitter was launched in July of 2006 and now claims tens of millions of users around the globe.
The Pew study - part of an initiative to explore technology in the US - surveyed 2,257 adult internet users.

Google's hot searches for 2010: Chatroulette, iPad, Justin Bieber

CNN) -- Apparently the naughty bits on Chatroulette didn't deter Web surfers so much this year. And whether people agreed or differed with Steve Jobs about Apple's "magical" iPad, they still wanted to learn more about it.

Internet users quit worrying so much about swine flu this year, though, and the memories of Michael Jackson's death started to fade.

That's all according to the hottest Google searches of 2010.

The search giant on Thursday released a report, "Zeitgeist 2010: How the World Searched," which offers a snapshot of what computer users were most curious about these past eleven-plus months.

The annual report is the result of "the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed in," according to Google, and shows the year's hottest searches, along with those that fell from favor when compared with 2009.

The fastest-rising search term of the year? Chatroulette.

Launched in November 2009, the site lets people launch video chats with randomly selected fellow users. It got lots of publicity, largely due to the fact that a certain brand of internet user quickly adopted it as a tool for exhibitionism -- and more.

The iPad and pop stars Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry also made the Top 10.

Twitter and Facebook helped round it out, as did ringtone site Myxer and gaming sites Gamester and Friv.

Among the "fastest falling" searches -- those that dropped from prominence from the year before: the swine flu, which broke out in Mexico and a few parts of the United States last year; "New Moon," part of the title in the latest installment of the teen-vampire "Twilight" saga; and Susan Boyle, the British singer turned YouTube sensation whose career blasted off in '09.

Crashing bank WaMu, departing gadget chain Circuit City and Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire" were other hot 2009 searches that faded from the public's querying minds in 2010, according to Google.

The Google report breaks down hot searches in a number of other categories, from fastest-rising news stories (Haiti, Chile and "oil spill" all made the list) to fastest-rising people, where Bieber and Perry again appeared.

Of particular note is Google's "Quirky" category, which reveals such search morsels as top costume searches ("The Jersey Shore's" Snooki fist-pumped her way to the top of that list) and fastest-rising dance search (This reporter is personally pleased to announced "Dougie dance" came in at No. 1).

Team formed to probe into hacking of Pak websites

Team formed to probe into hacking of Pak websites

ISLAMABAD: The government has formed a high-level investigation team to check the hacking of several government websites allegedly by the self-styled “Indian Cyber Army”, sources in Federal Investigation Agency told Dawn on Tuesday.

The decision to investigate the hacking of official websites was taken after reports of a ‘cyber war’ between India and Pakistan appeared in media.

The team headed by FIA’s Additional Director Mian Idrees is collecting data from National Telecommunication Corporation to trace the hackers.

A senior FIA official said the agency’s team which included computer experts had checked the authenticity of the internet report with the National Telecommunication Corporation network which hosted a majority of the government websites.

“The FIA will also seek assistance of Interpol if involvement of Indian hackers is proved,” he said.

More than 50 websites of different government departments were attacked allegedly by Indian hackers over the past three months.

There are reports that the self-styled “Indian Cyber Army” reportedly hacked at least 35 government websites on Tuesday. The Pakistani government took immediate action to restore the websites.

The hacked websites carried a message reading “Hacked by Indian Cyber Army”. It was accompanied by a photograph of US soldiers raising a flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II, but the US flag has been digitally converted into the Indian national flag.

Some media reports said that Pakistani hackers who called themselves “the Pakistani Cyber Army” had allegedly hacked the website of India’s top police agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The group also sent a message to Indian hackers that the CBI site had been hacked to avenge their assault on Pakistani websites.

The CBI website was attacked on Friday and the hackers managed to keep it down till Saturday.

Suspect bailed in Imran Farooq’s murder probe

Suspect bailed in Imran Farooq’s murder probe

LONDON: A 34-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering Pakistani politician Imran Farooq in London was freed on bail Friday.

The suspect had been arrested Thursday at a residential address in Camden, north London, and taken to a nearby police station for questioning.

Farooq, 50, was a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a major force in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi.

He was on his way back from work on September 16 when he was ambushed. He was found with head injuries and stab wounds outside his London home and pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives recovered a kitchen knife and a brick used in the attack.

More than 200,000 mourners packed the streets of Karachi for his burial on November 6.

The 34-year-old suspect was “bailed to return to a north London police station in January 2011”, Scotland Yard police headquarters said in a statement.

Detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command have taken charge of the murder inquiry due to fears that the killing may be politically motivated.

They are hunting two other men of “Asian appearance” in connection with the killing.

Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over scores of charges including torture and murder related to the MQM’s activities but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

He had twice been elected an MP in Pakistan but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi.

MQM, a party representing Urdu-speaking people, is a partner in the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People’s Party in the southern province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital. – AFP

Student fees protest: Cameron condemns royal attack

Lessons must be learned from a security lapse which allowed protesters to smash the Prince of Wales' car window, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

Prince Charles, who was in a Rolls-Royce on his way to the theatre with Camilla, said he "totally understood" the difficulties police faced.

The Met Police is to launch a major criminal investigation into student disorder in London over the last month.

MPs pushed through plans to raise the maximum tuition fee level to £9,000.

But 21 Lib Dems voted against the proposals, slashing the government's majority.

'Thugs'

Thousands of students had gathered in London ahead of the vote before the demonstration turned violent.

Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the royal route was cleared in advance.
Protesters largely took over Parliament Square and pressed against police lines in front of the Houses of Parliament.Mounted police were used to control crowds, at one point charging a group of protesters. Hundreds were contained on Westminster Bridge for a time by officers.Protesters threw flares, sticks, snooker balls and paint balls, according to police. After nightfall, riot police forced back protesters who were smashing windows at the Treasury and the Supreme Court.

Then at 1915 GMT, protesters launched an attack on the royal couple's car as it passed along a busy Regent Street. The Rolls-Royce was kicked, splashed with paint and a window was smashed to chants of "off with their heads".

Met Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson called the attack shocking and said the couple should be commended for their fortitude.

He also said the route was thoroughly checked up to the last minute and his officers had shown "commendable restraint".

He said royal protection officers were put in a difficult position by the unpredictability of the "thugs" and said there would be an internal investigation.

Protest organisers from the Education Activist Network said there had been no call to attack the prince's car.

Mr Cameron called it a "very regrettable lapse of security" and said lessons must be learned.

"Let's remember that this was not the fault of the police," he added.

"Responsibility for smashing property, for violence, lies with the people that perpetrate that violence and I want to see them arrested and punished."

Clarence House has refused to comment on reports that the Duchess was poked with a stick, but did say the royal couple were unharmed and attended the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium as scheduled.

Microsoft tried to buy Facebook for $15 billion

Microsoft has confirmed that it tried to buy Facebook for $15 billion.

 

Speaking at a panel entitled “How to get acquired” at the Le Web conference in Paris, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Strategy and Acquisitions Fritz Lanman answered a question from host Loic Le Meur by saying “Yeah we tried to acquire Facebook. Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day.”

The answer confirms a rumour that was first reported in detail in David Kirkpatrick’s book “The Facebook Effect”

Onstage, Lanman also speculated that Facebook’s valuation could in the future rise as high as Microsoft’s.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg rejected Steve Ballmer’s offers to buy the social network for $15 billion in 2007. Instead, Microsoft invested $240 million for a small stake, and the two companies now work together in a search partnership.
In The Facebook Effect, Kirkpatrick writes that Ballmer asked Zuckerberg ““Why don’t we just buy you for $15 billion?” He was told “I don’t want to sell the company unless I can keep control.”
Kirkpatrick goes on, “Ballmer took this reply as a sort of challenge. He went back to Microsoft’s headquarters and concocted a plan intended to acquire Facebook in stages over a period of years to enable Zuckerberg to keep calling the shots. But Zuckerberg rejected all the overtures.”

Facebook: Should parents 'friend' their children?

When Facebook was entirely dominated by people under the age of 25, things were simple. But now an important social question has arisen - should you "friend" your child, or accept a parent as a "friend"?

For a generation brought up on social networks, your "friends" can range from closest confidants to someone you met at a conference.
People you've "friended" for networking purposes are afforded equal status to your sister.

Your friends on social networks might also be your 20-something son who's travelling round Thailand or your 13-year-old daughter.

These are tricky waters for a parent to navigate, unsure of security settings and wary of others on the internet. If you are on Facebook, should you be friends with your kids?
"It's hilarious to say, isn't it? That my child is or is not my 'friend'," says Susan Maushart, author of The Winter of Our Disconnect, about her family's six-month detox from technology.
As well as spending vast amounts of time on Facebook, her children weren't making eye contact or talking to each other in person. Maushart attempted to claw back some parental presence and influence by "friending" her three children.
Two rejected her outright. One daughter accepted her request, but only after introducing strict boundaries, prohibiting her mother from commenting on photos or criticising.

London student 'struck by truncheon' has brain injury.

 

A student suffered bleeding to the brain when he was struck by a police truncheon during the tuition fees protest, his mother has alleged.

Alfie Meadows, 20, of Middlesex University, was hit on the head as he tried to leave Westminster Abbey area, his mother Susan Matthews said.
Mr Meadows had a three-hour operation and is now is a stable condition.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has begun an inquiry and is appealing for witnesses.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We are aware of a 20-year-old male with a head injury who is currently in hospital."
No 'martyr' The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is currently gathering evidence, including CCTV, police logs and working to trace witnesses.
A spokesman said: "The investigation will seek to establish the nature of any police contact that took place, and whether any police actions were lawful, proportionate and necessary."
Hundreds of protesters converged near Parliament on Thursday as MPs voted to increase university tuition fees to £9,000.
Several protesters and police officers were injured as the demonstration turned violent.

Protesters and police clashed during the demonstration

Mrs Matthews, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said her son had described being struck as "the hugest blow he ever felt in his life".
"The surface wound wasn't very big but three hours after the blow, he suffered bleeding to the brain.
"Basically he had a stroke last night. He couldn't speak or move his hand."
But Mr Meadows, a second-year undergraduate philosophy student, was now "talking and doing very well," she said.
He was attending the protest with friends, including two lecturers, Nina Power, his mother's colleague, and Peter Hallward, a philosophy lecturer at Kingston University.

 

'Liu Xiaobo must be freed' - Nobel prize committee

The chairman of the Nobel prize committee has called for the immediate release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Peace Prize.

There were two standing ovations at the ceremony in Oslo for Mr Liu, who was represented only by an empty chair.

China has been angered by the award and has waged a campaign in recent weeks to discredit it.

Nobel chairman Thorbjorn Jagland praised China for lifting millions of people out of poverty.

He called it an "extraordinary achievement" but warned China that its new status as a leading world power meant Beijing "must regard criticism as positive".

'Quest for freedom'

China condemned the ceremony as a "political farce".

In a statement, the foreign ministry said: "We resolutely oppose any country or any person using the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere with China's internal affairs or infringe upon China's legal sovereignty."

Actress Liv Ullmann read out a statement from Mr Liu which he made to a court at the time of his trial in December 2009.

Continue reading the main story

Why China considers Liu Xiaobo a threat

• 1989: leading activist in Tiananmen Square protests for democratisation; jailed for two years
• 1996: spoke out against China's one-party system; sent to labour camp for three years
• 2008: co-author of Charter 08, calling for a new constitution, an independent judiciary and freedom of expression;
• 2009: jailed for subversion for 11 years; verdict says he "had the goal of subverting our country's people's democratic dictatorship and socialist system. The effects were malign and he is a major criminal".

• Liu Xiaobo: 20 years of activism
• Charter 08: A call for change in China
• China's voices of dissent
• Liu Xiaobo: the right choice?

"I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China," his statement said.

"For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme."

The UN says it had information that China detained at least 20 activists ahead of the ceremony.

A further 120 cases of house arrest, travel restriction, forced relocation and other acts of intimidation have been reported.

The BBC's English and Chinese language websites have been blocked, and BBC TV coverage was blacked out inside China.

Mr Jagland said the Nobel committee was calling for Mr Liu to be freed immediately, saying: "He hasn't done anything wrong."

Mr Liu, one of China's leading dissidents, is serving an 11-year sentence in a jail in north-east China for state subversion.

Police are stationed outside his home in Beijing where his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest.

Mr Jagland compared China's anger at the award to the outcry over peace prizes awarded to other dissidents of their times, including South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Continue reading the main story

China press comments

China's English-language newspapers had big front-page articles about the Nobel Peace Prize - and China's objection to the award.

But the issue was given less prominence in Chinese-language newspapers.

The two most important stories on the front page of the Beijing Morning Post were about vehicle tax and private kindergartens.

There was, however, a commentary piece in the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper.

It ran an editorial attacking the Nobel Peace Prize committee, saying it faced an "unprecedented embarrassing situation".

But it also felt compelled to defend China's position in not allowing Liu Xiaobo to attend the prize ceremony.

"No country in the world that is governed by laws would allow a high-sounding criminal to leave and 'pick up an award'," said the commentary.

And the Chinese-language Global Times suggested there was great division among countries about whether the award was a good thing.

He said Mr Liu was dedicating his prize to "the lost souls from 4 June", those who died in the pro-democracy protests on that date in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

"We can say (Mr) Liu reminds us of Nelson Mandela," he said. The former South African president received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Of about 50 countries invited to the Nobel ceremony, almost a third have stayed away, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, many as a result of Chinese pressure.

However, Serbia - which had previously said it would not attend - announced on Friday that it would be sending a representative.

The Serbian government, which has warm relations with China, had come under pressure from within the European Union and from political parties and civil society groups in Serbia to attend.

Beijing has sought to prevent anyone travelling from China to Oslo to collect the prize on Mr Liu's behalf.

The BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Oslo says that to the Nobel Committee, Liu Xiaobo symbolises a message it was keen to send to China - that its growing economic strength and power do not exempt it from universal standards of human rights.

On the other hand, China says the committee has chosen a criminal convicted under Chinese law to serve the interests of certain Western countries, our correspondent says.

Continue reading the main story

Countries boycotting Nobel ceremony

• China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan
• Russia
• Venezuela, Cuba
• Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Algeria
• Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt
• Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka

• Who is staying away?
• Foreign websites blocked by China
• Media reaction to Nobel row

Liu Xiaobo first came to prominence when he took part in the 1989 protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

He was sent to prison for nearly two years for his role, and has been a critic of the Chinese government ever since.

He was given an 11-year prison sentence in December 2009 for inciting the subversion of state power, a charge which came after he co-authored a document known as Charter 08.

The document calls openly for political reforms in China, such as a separation of powers and legislative democracy.

This year marks the first time since 1936 that the Nobel Peace Prize, now worth $1.5m, will not be handed out.

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The BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from the prison holding Liu Xiaobo

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday again called for Mr Liu to be released "as soon as possible".

The Chinese government has been furious about the award ever since it was announced in October that Liu Xiaobo had won it.

Beijing says that Mr Liu is a criminal, and insists that giving him a prize is an insult to China's judicial system.

As well as putting Liu Xia, the Nobel laureate's wife, under house arrest, the authorities have put pressure on other activists and dissidents.

Some have been prevented from leaving the country, while others have been forced to leave their homes for the next few days, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Camilla left in tears by student tuition fees riot attack on car as she travelled with Prince Charles

Camilla left in tears by student tuition fees riot attack on car as she travelled with Prince Charles .

CAMILLA gasps in horror as yobs attack her and Prince Charles’s car after student protests descended into violent mayhem last night.
The royal couple sat terrified as their Rolls-Royce was kicked, pelted with objects, shaken from side to side and splattered with paint.
Camilla began to cry and clasped Charles’s hand as masked thugs surged past police outriders, smashed a window and tried to overturn the limo.
The attack came after 20,000 protesters paralysed London as ConDem MPs voted to triple tuition fees to £9,000 a year.
Rioters vandalised Westminster in running battles with police that left 55 people injured including 12 officers.

 

It was a short journey from St James's Palace but it seemed to last a lifetime for terrified Camilla.
The Duchess looked ashen-faced as she stepped from a royal limo after getting caught in the violence that marred yesterday's student protests.
She and Prince Charles ran a gauntlet of fear as their Rolls-Royce became a target for the wild mob, who chanted "Tory scum" and "Off with their heads".

Camilla, 63, began to cry and squeezed his hand as a window was shattered and the car was kicked, pelted, rocked from side to side and spattered with paint.
Shouted Charles, 62, cradled her head in his lap and pushed her to the floor as he shouted at the driver to get them out of danger. At one point, it looked as if the yobs were about to tip the vehicle over.
The pair were surrounded as they were being driven a mile to the Royal Variety show's starstudded reception at the London Palladium in Westminster.
Student Matthew Brown, who saw the sickening attack, said all hell broke loose when a security car tried to force its way through the crowd as protesters shouted: "You can't knock people down!'" Matthew added: "Charles and Camilla eventually sped away unharmed but they looked shaken." Cool Charles is reported to have smiled and given a cheeky thumbs-up as the limo finally got clear.
Another witness, Katherina Chaffey, 17, said: "There were hundreds of protesters in Regent Street and when they saw the police escort everyone started getting something to throw.
"Someone yelled, 'It's Charles and Camilla!' and they threw bins in the road to stop the car."
Last night questions were being asked about how the mob was allowed to get so close to the royals - and Met police chief Sir Paul Stephenson is said to have launched an inquiry. Both Charles and Camilla managed a brave smile as they arrived at the theatre to meet stars including Kylie Minogue and Take That.
Camilla laughed off the incident, saying: "I'm fine, thanks - first time for everything."
PM David Cameron last night slammed the attack as "shocking and regrettable". He said: "People are entitled to protest peacefully. But this was unacceptable."
Charles and Camilla were forced to leave the Variety show in the back of a police van for their own safety.

 

Bloody riot in London as students rampage after tuitions fees vote goes through.

Bloody riot in London as students rampage after tuition fees vote goes through.

THEY came in their thousands to vent their fury at turncoat Lib Dems who betrayed them with broken promises on university fees.
But the peaceful student protests quickly turned to bloody violence yesterday as hundreds of hardcore demonstrators brought terror to the heart of government with riots in streets around ­Parliament.
Thugs fought pitched battles with police, mounted officers charged groups of ­protesters, blood flowed on the pavements and fires glowed in the night air as MPs inside the Commons narrowly voted to triple university fees, sparking wide-spread anger.
At least 22 people were arrested on charges including violent conduct, assaulting police and criminal damage.
Twelve police officers were injured with six requiring hospital treatment.

One officer was hurt when he fell from his horse and was ­trampled by the animal.
Footage showed another lying motionless on the floor with a brace on his neck before he was taken away on a ­makeshift stretcher.
The march planned by the National Union of Students turned nasty when thousands broke away from the intended route to get into ­Parliament Square.
After pushing through metal barriers to get on to the lawn, some protesters surged against police lines in front of Big Ben.
Barriers were passed over heads in the crowd and hurled at officers who ­retaliated with batons.
Snooker balls, flares, sticks, paint and smoke bombs were also lobbed at police as anarchists urged students to break through. One girl, around 20, was left lying motionless on the floor after one frightening surge.
Fireworks were set off and make-shift bonfires lit, including one started by burning wooden benches. A plume of black smoke spiralled into the air after an empty security guard shelter was torched.
There were fears the mob would try to storm the Commons.
A massive No was written in red on the Parliament Square lawn. Winston ­Churchill’s statue was daubed with ­graffiti and many students were trapped by police using “kettling” techniques to prevent violence spilling further into Whitehall.
After the Commons vote, a group of protesters breached police defences intent on ­vandalising the Treasury on Whitehall. Reinforcements had to be rushed in to bolster the ring of steel, with officers donning riot helmets and shields.
Two men carrying a rock and a steel bar smashed a window on the side of the Treasury building. As they shattered one pane, the blinds were lifted to reveal riot police inside. Outside, officers surged forward using batons and shields.

At Trafalgar Square protesters tried to set the Christmas tree alight and pull it down, before police moved in to repel them. As the violence spread through central London, tourists and workers on their way home were caught up in it.
Students from all over the country had flocked to the capital for the third time in just over a month to protest at the fee rises.
The bulk of their anger was directed at Lib Dem MPs, and especially leader Nick Clegg after his embarrassing U-turn on his pre-election pledge to oppose any hike in tuition costs.
It wasn’t just students who came to express their anger at the coalition’s unfair plans. Terry Hult, 76, of Cambridge, said: “I’m disgusted by what they are doing. Money should be no barrier to ­education.”
Former teacher Madeline Osborne applauded demonstrators as they filed past her elegant mansion.
She said: “They are spot-on. What the coalition plans for ­education is a disaster.”
Last night there were ­accusations that police were over-zealous in dealing with the protesters.
Student Sophie Down, 19, from University College London, said: “The police were backing off and we were trying to work out what was happening and didn’t know what was going on. Then they all just started charging.
“I’m worried about my friends. I saw a guy who was sitting on the ground and I could see something was wrong with him.
“Everyone was in a good mood, it was like a carnival, but there are people clearly looking for a fight.”
Sussex Downs College student Savannah Barbra, 17, added: “We’re not going to take the tuition fees scandal lying down. There’s so much pressure on us to get good jobs but the amount of debt we would face is huge.
“The ConDems are only supporting the rich. My mum can’t afford to pay for me so I’ll have to fund myself. They’re making the gap between the workers and the rich even bigger.”
Nigel David, 18, from Preston, Lancs, a student at Imperial College, said: “Obviously this action is about tuition fees but I feel there’s huge unrest about what the Tories are doing to this country.
“Their idea of cutting things, removing key components of the welfare state, making it harder for people from ­underprivileged backgrounds to move up the social ladder, is unfair.”
Late last night there were still pockets of protesters in and around the Parliament area. Many had been moved on to ­Westminster Bridge where they were contained by police.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said last night: “I have witnessed at first hand the violence and ­disobedience of a number of protesters determined to undermine the peaceful actions of the majority of students seeking to legitimately express their views outside Parliament.
“The response from our officers has been one of bravery, professionalism and determination to control a challenging situation.”