China: Activist Can Study Abroad

Foreign reporters were roughed up this week as they tried to reach blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is under house arrest in eastern China, journalists said Wednesday.Chen, a self-taught lawyer who gained world attention by exposing abuses in China's "one-child" population control policy, has been under harsh restrictions since completing a more than four-year jail sentence in September."We were roughly pushed away from Chen's home" by about a dozen men, said Brice Pedroletti, a journalist with French newspaper Le Monde.

Chinese censors Monday blocked web searches of a host of terms related to blind activist Chen Guangcheng, from his name to "Shawshank Redemption", the prison-break film being compared to his case.Chen fled house arrest in eastern China a week ago with the help of supporters, slipping out under the noses of dozens of guards and into safety at the US embassy in Beijing, dissident Hu Jia and other activists have said.