China warns Nobel official: Don't honor dissident
The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Tuesday that a high-ranking Chinese official warned him that giving this year's peace prize to a jailed Chinese dissident would harm relations between Norway and China.
China denied Tuesday it was pressuring the Nobel committee, although the Foreign Ministry said dissident Liu Xiaobo would be a poor choice for the peace prize. Liu was the co-author of a document calling for stronger civil rights and an end to Communist party dominance. He was detained in 2008, and then found guilty of inciting to subvert state power. He was sentenced last December to 11 years in jail. (AP)
