China Blocks Travel for Nobel Winner's Lawyer

A lawyer who represents jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo has been blocked from leaving China. Mo Shaoping, one of the country's most prominent human rights lawyers, says police at Beijing's airport prevented him from boarding a flight to London, where he was to attend an international legal conference, AP reports.

Police gave only vague reasons for their actions, but the attorney believes they suspected he might attempt to collect the award on Liu's behalf in Norway next month. He says many other people have been prevented from leaving the country for the same reasons. Liu's wife and dozens of other dissidents have been placed under house arrest in an apparent effort to prevent them from attending the Nobel ceremony.
(More Liu Xiaobo stories.)