Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

The struggles of black citizens in South Africa to overcome a brutal government-imposed system of race separation are right out of a history book to a student like Robert Virgen. At 15, the Santee Education Complex sophomore hadn't been born when anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was released from decades in prison or when the country held its first multiracial elections. But when one of the heroes of that time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, came to this downtown high school for a Black History Month celebration Thursday, Virgen said he felt a kinship that transcended time, geography and race.

By all reports, when President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in California this week for their first summit, their most important task will be to establish a strong rapport so they can manage the increasingly critical and complex U.S.-China relationship. Although the focus of their conversations will surely cover such topics as North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs, cyber attacks and trade, it is critically important that Xi also hear from Obama directly about the importance of China curtailing its persecution of dissidents and their families.

The main pro-democracy party charged that intimidation and violence were being used against opponents of the military-backed constitution. The National League for Democracy of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said several party members and activists had been beaten. Critics of the regime say the charter to be voted on May 10 is designed to perpetuate military rule.

President Obama's decision to send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on a groundbreaking trip to long-isolated Myanmar next month signals U.S. confidence in a recent flurry of political reforms by the repressive regime that has ruled the country for five decades. For three months, administration officials have hailed signs of democratic change but questioned the motives of the ruling military elite, which has jailed its opponents and engaged in human rights abuses to maintain political control of the resource-rich but impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez said he is seeking the help of two other Latin American leaders in negotiating a solution to the crisis involving Panama's strongman, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega. Arias said he contacted President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo of Guatemala and Carlos Andres Perez, a former president of Venezuela. The Reagan Administration has imposed economic sanctions on Panama in an attempt to force out Noriega, who has been indicted on drug charges in Florida.

The defense team for Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivered its final arguments, closing the case days ahead of a verdict the Nobel Peace Prize laureate softly said would be "painfully obvious." The trial has drawn international condemnation, but the ruling junta appeared determined to find her guilty. Suu Kyi faces a possible five years in prison on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man who swam to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.

God bless Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa who, according to a news item from The Times (June 15), plans to send four members of her order to work with the American Indians around Gallup, N.M. She didn't need the promise of any political help from lobbyists for this humane gesture; apparently she is doing it because it is a decent thing to do. While too many of our congressmen are worrying about political help they will get for favoring some...

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel lent his voice Thursday to the U.S. campaign against Baghdad, urging Europe to unify and increase pressure on Iraq to disarm. "My only suggestion is ... if Europe were to apply as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as it does on the United States and Great Britain, I think it could prevent war," Wiesel said after a meeting with President Bush and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

The newest star of a Chrysler ad couldn't get arrested in this town. Aung San Suu Kyi is a 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese pro-democracy dissident who has spent most of the last two decades detained at her house at Inya Lake, outside of Yangon, Myanmar. Suu Kyi -- who was elected prime minister in 1990, before the military junta invalidated the election -- was again convicted in a sham trial in August after a deranged American, John William Yettsaw, swam out to her house, giving the junta the pretense to charge Suu Kyi with violating the terms of her house arrest.

The struggles of black citizens in South Africa to overcome a brutal government-imposed system of race separation are right out of a history book to a student like Robert Virgen. At 15, the Santee Education Complex sophomore hadn't been born when anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was released from decades in prison or when the country held its first multiracial elections. But when one of the heroes of that time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, came to this downtown high school for a Black History Month celebration Thursday, Virgen said he felt a kinship that transcended time, geography and race.

At 5:15 p.m., soldiers armed with rifles and tear-gas launchers pushed aside the barbed-wire barriers blocking University Avenue, and a swarm of supporters dashed the final 100 yards to the villa's gate. Twenty minutes later, a slight 65-year-old woman popped her head over her red spiked fence. Aung San Suu Kyi was free. The jubilant crowd roared, and chants of "Long Live Suu Kyi" filled the air Saturday night as her supporters greeted the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy activist who had defied Myanmar's military leaders and paid a monumental price that robbed her of her family and a normal life.

The notes from the Chinese Foreign Ministry to European ambassadors posted in Norway referred to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded last month to imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo. "We strongly hope that your country ? will refrain from attending any activity directed against China," read the notes, according to a diplomatic source who ? like most people involved with the issue ? did not wish to be quoted by name because of fear of Chinese retaliation. Behind the stilted language, the meaning was clear: Beijing was lobbying European governments to not attend the Dec. 10 awards ceremony honoring Liu, a dissident whom Chinese officials have denounced as a criminal.

In the first whisper of a comment since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 48 hours earlier, imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo sent word through his wife Sunday that he would dedicate the award to activists killed during 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square, according to a human rights organization. The writer's wife, who has been held under house arrest, was escorted by police to Jinzhou Prison in northern China's Liaoning province where she was able to speak with her husband.

The newest star of a Chrysler ad couldn't get arrested in this town. Aung San Suu Kyi is a 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese pro-democracy dissident who has spent most of the last two decades detained at her house at Inya Lake, outside of Yangon, Myanmar. Suu Kyi -- who was elected prime minister in 1990, before the military junta invalidated the election -- was again convicted in a sham trial in August after a deranged American, John William Yettsaw, swam out to her house, giving the junta the pretense to charge Suu Kyi with violating the terms of her house arrest.

Detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was escorted into surprise talks with a government official, a week after writing a letter to the military leader proposing a new era of cooperation. The unannounced meeting between Suu Kyi and Relations Minister Aung Kyi lasted 45 minutes and took place at a government guesthouse near her lakeside home in Yangon. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was driven to the meeting in a police motorcade, officials said. Details of the talks were not immediately known.