Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo dies

Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate and activist Liu Xiaobo has died, Chinese officials announced Thursday. He was 61. The legal bureau of China’s northeastern city of Shenyang in a brief statement on its website said Liu died from multiple organ failure. He was diagnosed in May while in prison with late-stage liver cancer and had been receiving treatment at a hospital in Shenyang since last month. Chinese authorities in 2009 sentenced Liu to 11 years in prison after he wrote a manifesto calling for democratic reform. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year for his democracy and human rights campaign. Only his wife, Xia, was allowed to see him at the heavily guarded clinic where he received treatment. Foreign governments, including the United States, had urged the Chinese government to allow Liu to travel abroad for treatment.