Four arrested in connection with blockade of Nobel lauerate's

Four people were arrested on Thursday for blocking the houseboat carrying Nobel laureate Michael Levitt in the backwaters here during the nation-wide strike against the Centre's "anti-labour" policies.

The arrests were made on Thursday morning, police said.

The four are said to be belonging to the ruling CPI (M)'s union outfit--CITU, one of the 10 trade unions, which were on strike on Wednesday.

Levitt, who won the Nobel prize in 2013 for Chemistry, was taking a houseboat ride across the scenic backwaters in Alappuzha when the four protesters stopped the boat near Kainakary here for nearly two hours.

"Kerala is beautiful. Backwaters are wonderful and the people are very good," he said this morning adding he had no issues with regard to Wednesday's incident when his boat was blocked by protesters.

However, in an email sent to his tour agent on Wednesday, Levitt had said "Being stopped by criminals on the backwaters sends a very bad message to tourists. It is as if a bandit stopped us at gun point and delayed us under threat of force for one hour."