2010 Nobel Peace Prize | featured news

The blue-and-white upholstered chair reserved for him was empty, and his words were spoken not in his own voice, but by the Norwegian actress and movie director Liv Ulman. While the Nobel committee honored him with its prestigious Peace Prize in Oslo on Friday, Chinese dissident and intellectual Liu Xiaobo sat in isolation in a jail cell, some 4,000 miles away.

China will not yield to outside pressure on jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, striking a combative tone the day before the award is due to be formally bestowed.

Two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist have won a Nobel prize for a theory that helps explain why many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies.

The committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner will consider a record 237 nominations for the 2010 award, a Nobel official said Wednesday. Surpassing last year's record of 205 nominations, 199 individuals and 38 organizations have been nominated for the coveted prize, said Geir Lundestad, the committee's permanent nonvoting secretary.