Chinese security agents launched a wide-ranging clampdown on dissidents today, hours before the award Nobel Peace Prize award to imprisoned democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.

IMPRISONED Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for using non-violence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland.

Two Russian art curators who angered church leaders with an exhibition that included images of Christ as Mickey Mouse and Lenin were convicted today of inciting religious hatred, but escaped prison sentences.

Two Moscow art curators are facing prison after being accused of staging a show that allegedly mocked religion.

Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich today received the EU’s top human rights award – the Sakharov Prize – in recognition of his fight for democracy in the ex-Soviet republic.

RONALD REAGAN stunned the Soviet Union with his tough rhetoric, calling it an “evil empire” whose leaders gave themselves the “right to commit any crime”.