Chinese ambassador to Prague refuses gifts for Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo

The Chinese ambassador to Prague refused to accept a gift from Amnesty International for the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Liu Xiaobo. Four representatives of the human rights organisation attempted to hand in flowers and a card at the Chinese embassy after an awards ceremony in Oslo on Friday which Mr Liu was unable to attend. He is serving an 11-year jail term for voicing opposition to the country’s communist regime, and is a signatory of Charter 08, a human rights manifesto modelled on Czechoslovakia’s Charter 77. Elsewhere on Friday, which was international Human Rights Day, members of a Czech NGO held a lamp-lit procession to draw attention to Mr Liu’s case in Prague.