Liu Xiaobo gets sea burial

The ashes of China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo were scattered in the sea yesterday  after a controversial funeral, as his friends worried about the fate of the democracy advocate's widow.

Officials showed a video in which his wife, Liu Xia, and others lowered a white circular urn into the water, two days after the democracy advocate died of liver cancer aged 61 while in custody.

The sea burial deprives family and supporters of a physical place to pay respects to a writer whose calls for political reform angered the Communist regime and led to his arrest in 2008.

His older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, paid tribute to the Communist Party and thanked officials for their "humanistic care" as he spoke at a news conference orchestrated by the authorities in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where Liu Xiaobo died on Thursday.

Liu Xiaobo's body was cremated "in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs", said Zhang Qingyang, an official from the Shenyang municipal office.

China's government faced a global backlash for denying Liu Xiaobo's wish to be treated abroad, and the United States and European Union have called on the government to release Liu Xia and let her leave China.