All news about the announcement of the award was immediately censored in China. Foreign news broadcasters including CNN and the BBC were immediately blocked after mentioning the award in China. Web searches for Liu Xiabo were immediately deleted and no information can be searched about him in China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement that said, "The Nobel Peace Prize is meant to award individuals who promote international harmony and friendship, peace and disarmament. Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law. Awarding the peace to Liu runs completely counter to the principle of the award and is also a desecration of the Peace Prize." The state-run Xinhua News Agency later carried a report saying that awarding Liu Xiaobo the prize “defiles” (亵渎) Alfred Nobel's purpose of creating this prize and "may harm China-Norway relations". The spokesperson added that Liu had broken Chinese law and his "actions run contrary to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize."
Many world leaders congratulated Liu for the award. These included Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, The British Foreign Secretary William Hague, US President Barack Obama, and The Dalai Lama.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the Norwegian ambassador to the People's Republic of China to the ministry on 8 October 2010. The Chinese gave the ambassador an official complaint against awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. The Norwegian foreign minister replied that the Chinese government complaint was not needed because the group of people who decide the Nobel Prize is independent from the Norwegian government. However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee that gives the peace prize is appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
He is married to Liu Xia, who lives in the couple's apartment in Beijing.
In May 2017, Liu was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. On 10 July 2017, Liu was listed in critical condition in hospital in Shenyang.
Liu died at a hospital in Shenyang, Liaoning, China on 13 July 2017 of multiple organ failure as a set of complications of the disease at the age of 61.
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University is a public university in China, located in Beijing. It is one of the most highly ranked universities in China, and focuses on teaching humanities and sciences. It was first opened in 1902, which makes it one of the oldest universities in China. Its nickname is Beishida.
Originally, it was called a "normal school" because it was only a school for teachers, and all teacher schools were named the same way. It was attached to the Imperial University of Peking. Later, it became a university on its own, teaching subjects other than education, but kept its name the same.
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (, ) is the oldest and largest university in Norway. It is in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
The university began in 1811 as The Royal Frederick University (in Norwegian "Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet" and in Latin "Universitas Regia Fredericiana"). The university was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin, and originally named after King Frederick of Denmark and Norway. In 1939 it changed to the name it has now.
The university has faculties of (Lutheran) Theology, Law, Medicine, Humanities, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Dentistry, Social Sciences, and Education. The Faculty of Law is still located at the old campus on Karl Johans gate, near the National Theatre, the Royal Palace, and the Parliament. Most of the other faculties are at a modern campus area called Blindern. The Faculty of Medicine is split between several university hospitals in the Oslo area.
In 2019, the university had 30,505 students and employed 6,595 people.
Central Region, Singapore
The Central Region of Singapore is also known as the south of Singapore. It is a place where most commercial buildings are in. The Istana is also found in this area.
When Sir Stamford Raffles first arrived in Singapore in 1819, he signed a treaty with Tengku Abdul Rahman (the local Sultan) and Tengku Hussein (the Temmengong which became Sultan since he was the elder brother). The Sultan and Temmengong were paid money for allowing the British to set up a port in Singapore.
The British were given the southern part of Singapore to develop. Therefore, it was also recognised as the Central Region of Singapore, or also called Central Business District.
The Central Region of Singapore starts from the harbour all the way to Bishan as the north, Queenstown as the west and Marine Parade as the east. In total, it takes up 13,150 hectares of land area.
The Southern Islands are also part of the Central Region of Singapore.
Tuas
Tuas is a region in the far west of the island of Singapore. It is not reachable by the Mass rapid transit (MRT) of Singapore. The nearest MRT station is Joo Koon.
Tuas is mainly an industrial estate like Jurong and the Tuas checkpoint (called the Tuas Second Link) is found there.
Orchard Road
Orchard Road is a street in Singapore that has many shopping centres. It is in the south of Singapore.
Orchard Road got its name from the nutmeg, pepper and fruit orchards that used to grow on both sides of the street. It only started to develop in the twentieth century.
Flash floods occurred at the road junction with Scotts Road on 16 June 2010 after 100mm of rain fell from 8 am to 11 am that morning, it is the worst flood at the junction since 1984. Shopping malls along Orchard Road like Lucky Plaza and Liat Towers were affected by the flood. The flood had caused some shopping mall and underground car parks to be under the water. Rescuers had to pull out about 70 passengers from cars and buses, as flooding closed down Orchard Road, which is lined with high-end shopping malls and tourist attractions. No one was hurt.
Orchard Road has the Istana at the southern end of the road, which is the official house for the President of Singapore.
The first shop was Tangs which was founded in 1932 and got its shop at Orchard Road in the 1950s. Orchard Road also has many well-known restaurants, coffee chains, cafés, nightclubs and hotels.
There are three major MRT stations around Orchard Road. They are Orchard, Somerset and Dhoby Ghaut stations. These three stations are important placces for commuters, locals, students and tourists who travel to the Orchard Road shopping and business district. However, due to the construction of ION Orchard, the entrance of the Orchard entrance has been moved underground below the upcoming mall.
There are many bus services provided by SBS Transit and SMRT that go to Orchard Road. The major bus stops along Orchard Road are at:
Visitors can also travel to Orchard Road via taxi. There are taxi stands at Forum The Shopping Mall, all hotels, Lucky Plaza, Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City, The Paragon, The Heeren Shops, Centrepoint Shopping Centre, next to Specialists' Shopping Centre and Plaza Singapura.
Visitors accessing Orchard Road by road usually enter from the west via Napier Road, before exiting Orchard Road at Bras Basah Road. Coming from the north, vehicles can enter via Bukit Timah Road and Scotts Road which leads into Orchard Road. From the south, vehicles can enter through Orchard Boulevard and Paterson Road.
NewsBank
NewsBank, Inc. is a worldwide information provider worldwide. It is a database of published documents. These documents include such items as newspapers, magazines, business journals, obituaries, and government documents. The documents are available online by the Internet. The service is available through many public libraries, colleges and universities, and government and military libraries.