Hundreds detained after China protests

Hundreds of people have been detained in connection with ethnic riots in the northwest last month, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. Police in Urumqi, the capital of China’s remote northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region, said they had detained 319 people in connection with the July 5 riots, according to Xinhua. The detentions came in addition to the 253 detentions announced on July 29, the news agency said

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China says police killed 12 in Uyghur riots

China acknowledged Sunday that security forces shot dead 12 people during ethnic riots in the northwest earlier this month. Officials also said Sunday that the death toll from the violence in the Xinjiang region had risen to 197. The government had previously said the fighting killed at least 184 people and wounded more than 1,000

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Report: Major mosques close in Urumqi, China

Five major mosques near the center of violence last weekend in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-west Xinjiang region, were closed Friday morning, state-run media reported. Same smaller mosques in the city remained open, according to the Xinhua news agency. “Mosques in some sensitive areas were closed at their imams’ suggestion,” an official in charge of religious affairs with the Xinjiang regional government said Friday.

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Nigerian militants claim pipeline blast, tanker crew’s seizure

Nigerian militants said Monday they had blown up an oil pipeline and captured six crew members of a chemical tanker. The crowd of 200 to 300 — mostly women and elderly — quickly formed as local authorities were taking members of the media on a tour of a neighborhood that was heavily damaged during riots over the weekend, witnesses said.

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More Than 140 Dead in Clashes in China’s Xinjiang Province

Chinese authorities announced today that some 140 people had been killed and over 800 wounded in protests that roiled Urumqi, the capital of China’s far western Xinjiang province, on Sunday. According to the official news agency Xinhua, Urumqi police chief Liu Yaohua told a press conference that the number of dead was still rising and that there had also been extensive damage to property.

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