Liu Xiaobo: China's mild-mannered political firebrand

By Steven Jiang, CNN

Despite being one of China's most famous political dissidents, Liu Xiaobo has rarely struck those who
know him as a firebrand.
His mild manners and gentle voice belie his conviction for his cause -- improving human rights in China.
"I feel that, in a dictatorship, if you want to be a person with dignity, if you want to be an honest person,
you must fight for human rights and fight for freedom of speech," the writer and activist said in an
interview in 2007.
"Going to prison is part of that, and I have nothing to complain about."
As news spread Monday that Liu Xiaobo had been diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in prison and
granted medical parole, many of his friends and supporters said they feared the 61-year-old activist was
close to death and risked being made into a martyr by the Communist authorities.
"Whether it was negligence or political murder, they have committed an unprecedented crime as no other
governments of the world have ever seen a Nobel Peace Prize laureate die in their custody," said Hu Jia, a
leading Chinese human rights activist who has known Liu's wife for years and has served prison terms for
his own activism.
Hu added that state security agents blocked him Tuesday from leaving home as he tried to drive to
Shenyang in northeastern China, where Liu has been undergoing treatment at a local hospital since late
May.
Liu has been allowed to see his wife and some relatives since being granted medical parole, sources close
to the Liu family told CNN.
The US government said it was gathering more information on Liu's medical and legal status.
"We call on the Chinese authorities to not only release Mr. Liu but also allow his wife Ms. Liu Xia out of
house arrest, and provide them with the protection and freedoms -- such as freedom of movement and
access to medical care of his choosing -- to which they are entitled under China's constitution and legal
system and international commitments," a spokeswoman with the US embassy in Beijing said.
"This issue is China's internal affairs," Lu Kang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said Tuesday.
"No country has a right to interfere and make irresponsible remarks."
Nobel winner
Liu was first jailed for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement after the bloody crackdown in
Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- and later for petitioning for political reform and co-writing a paper on
policy toward Taiwan that was at odds with the government stance.
His most recent conviction, on Christmas Day 2009, stemmed from his co-authorship of Charter 08, a
manifesto calling for political reform and human rights in China. He received a surprisingly harsh 11-year
prison term for "inciting subversion of state power."
In October 2010, while serving his sentence at Jinzhou Prison in northeastern China, Liu was named the
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in
China."
Liu's wife tweeted at the time that, upon hearing the news from her during a prison visit, he started to cry
and said: "This is for the martyrs of Tiananmen Square."
Literary critic
Liu was born in December 1955 in Jilin Province. He moved to Beijing to pursue graduate studies and
eventually became a university lecturer in the capital.
Even during his teaching days, however, the bespectacled intellectual was seen as a dark horse for his
sharp rebuke over traditional ideologies and official doctrines.
Armed with a doctoral degree in Chinese literature, Liu was a rising-star literary critic in the 1980s. He
spent time in the US and Europe as a visiting scholar, and turned his attention to the fight for democracy
and human rights back home.
After publishing numerous books -- on political and literary subjects -- overseas, Liu helped found the
Chinese PEN Center, a literary and human rights organization, and served on its board of directors in the
2000s.
After the Norwegian Nobel Committee selected him as the recipient of 2010 peace prize, an infuriated
Beijing tried to censor the news and boycott the award, insisting that Liu was a common criminal and the
prize was nothing more than a Western plot against China.

Empty chair
The government also quickly put Liu Xia -- whom Liu Xiaobo married in 1996 while serving an earlier
sentence -- under house arrest, rounded up his supporters and froze diplomatic relations with Norway.
Despite China's refusal to let Liu or a representative travel to accept the award, the Nobel ceremony
organizers placed his citation and medal on an empty chair in a poignant event held in December 2010 in
Oslo.
As Liu remained behind bars until recently, his wife -- an artist and a poet -- has paid a heavy price since
his Nobel win.
With her communication with the outside world almost completely cut, friends say she has been suffering
severe depression and nervous breakdowns, especially after the authorities sentenced her brother to 11
years in prison over what supporters call trumped-up charges of business fraud.
"I feel Liu Xia is in more danger than her husband," said Hu, the activist. "She didn't choose this life --
but she's been forced to live in purgatory."
As for his own fate, nearly eight years before his Nobel award, Liu Xiaobo pointed to Russian physicist
and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov -- who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 -- as an example of
the importance of individual responsibility in the fight for human rights.
"If China also has a dissident who becomes a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, it will be a big problem for the
Chinese government, he told CNN in an interview in 2002. "They can't imprison a Nobel laureate
forever."
How the UK's tower block crisis has spread in one graphic
By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

Fears over fire safety have spread across the UK since a deadly blaze engulfed Grenfell Tower in west
London earlier this month.
The fire, apparently stoked by the building's flammable exterior cladding, left at least 79 people dead or
missing.
In the days and weeks since, scores of high-rise buildings have been deemed unsafe after failing fire tests
-- leaving thousands of Britons on edge.
Hoping to prevent another disaster and assuage concerns, the UK government has urged local authorities
and landlords to send samples of external cladding for further testing. Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government, announced on Monday that, so far, every sample received as part of
the testing program had failed to meet fire safety standards.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Tuesday that cladding used on 95 high-
rise buildings in 32 local authority areas had failed combustibility checks, but did not give precise
locations. CNN has identified 46 of the buildings that have failed the tests.
But with an estimated 600 residential blocks fitted with similar cladding in England, that number is
expected to rise.
And the 100% failure rate has done little to comfort residents worried that their homes might go up in
smoke as they sleep.
Brazil prosecutors charge President Michel Temer with corruption
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Brazil once again has a president embroiled in scandal.

Brazilian prosecutors have filed criminal charges of "passive corruption" against President Michel Temer,
state-run news agency Agencia Brasil reported Monday.
The charges, which Brazilian Attorney General Rodrigo Janot filed with the federal Supreme Court, came
after a secret recording surfaced of a discussion between Temer and Joesley Batista, the president of JBS,
a food processing company. In the recordings, Batista can be heard talking about paying bribes.
Temer said the recording was doctored.
The complaint against the President says that Batista sent a $152,000 payment to Temer, which was
received in a briefcase by former federal lawmaker Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who also was charged in the
case. The passive corruption charge means that the President was to have received the payment through
an intermediary.
In a plea deal, Batista said Temer also condoned payments to imprisoned former House Speaker Eduardo
Cunha in exchange for his silence in a corruption investigation.
"I know what I did," Temer said following the release of the tapes. "And I know my actions were right."
Temer was originally vice president to Dilma Rousseff -- Brazil's first female president. He became one
of the key players that led the charge to impeach Rousseff for breaking budgetary laws.
He assumed the presidency after her impeachment in September.
So far, his presidency has been unpopular, with his approval rating in the single digits. The prospect of a
second Brazilian president being forced out of office in less than a year has unsettled markets and
investors.
Brazil faces one of the worst and longest recessions in recent history.
Two-thirds of the lower house of the National Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, would need to vote in
favor of Temer facing trial. If 342 legislators accept the charge, it will head to the Supreme Court for trial.
If the case proceeds that way, the President would be removed from office for 180 days, according to
Agencia Brasil.

CNN's Shasta Darlington, Alessandra Castelli, Natalie Gallón and Flora Charner contributed to this
report.