The wife of an imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who was awarded this year's
Nobel Peace Prize says she was able to visit him in jail and he broke down in tears.
Liu Xia said in a Twitter message that she had seen her husband on and that his jailers
had informed him a day earlier of his prize.
In naming Liu on Thursday, the
Nobel committee honoured his more than two decades of advocacy for human rights and
peaceful democratic change. China has sentenced him to 11 years in prison on charges
of subversion. President Barack Obama, last year's peace prize winner, has called
for Liu's immediate release.
Speaking to Vatican Radio, Richard Rouse from
the Pontifical Council for Culture says the awarding of the Peace Prize to Liu is
"a call to attention to what is going on in China, both the problems and the progress."
"It's
always important to recognise achievements", Rouse adds. "The Church itself for a
long time has had its own prizes, its own way of recognising and rewarding people."
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