Nobel Prize, 2010 Nobel Prize | featured news

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 wife of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been detained in her apartment in Beijing, China, and is not allowed to see people or use her telephone, a human rights group citing her attorney said Sunday.

Imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo on Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize - an award that drew furious condemnation from the authoritarian government and calls from world leaders including President Barack Obama for Liu's quick release.

The Peruvian is the author of more than 30 novels, plays and essays, including "Conversation in the Cathedral." Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Spanish-speaking world, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday.

Richard Heck of the U.S. and Ei-Ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki of Japan are honored for developing a key synthetic technique to make complex organic molecules used in medicine and electronics. Two Japanese and an American who developed a key synthetic technique for making complex organic molecules used in medicine, agriculture and electronics have been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry.