Rumours had been rife that the needles contained radioactive substances, poison or even the HIV virus. Blood samples from 250 reported victims were examined in a Beijing lab, said state-run Xinhua news agency. The syringe attacks began in August, a month after riots between ethnic Uighur and Han Chinese left about 200 dead. Three people have received jail sentences over the needle attacks. The wave of attacks has raised tension in the region, amid long-standing animosity between the Uighur and Han communities. Security fearsA total of 531 people reported being attacked with hypodermic needles, with 171 showing “obvious syringe marks”,…
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China needle attacks ‘not toxic’
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Chinese Government Shuts Down Facebook
Facebook is being blocked in China over the Urumqi clashes.
Rediya Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress, explained “social media is critical to the Uighurs’ cause” in an exclusive AllFacebook interview earlier this week. Facebook wall posts were used to spread news after Twitter shut down in Urumqi, China, AllFacebook reported Sunday.
China’s shutdown of Facebook is part of a larger social media trend where citizens are denied access to Facebook and Twitter as a means of enforcing state control over media. Google was also targeted in dramatic fashion on Chinese TV recently, when Google’s “autosuggest” search functionality was…
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Rebiya Kadeer, Accused “Mastermind” Of Urumqi Protests, Speaks About Impact Of Social Media
Uighur women protested through the streets of Urumchi yesterday. According to the BBC, Uighur women and men were not armed and pleaded with the Chinese police force to release their sons, husbands, and fathers who were taken after Sunday’s riots. It’s reported that over 1,400 Uighurs were imprisoned in what has become the biggest protest in China since Tienanmen Square. Just hours after the Uighur protests, Han Chinese took to the streets. Witnesses say many carried knives, sticks, meat cleavers and wanted revenge.
What seems to have fallen through the cracks in main stream media is why these people are…
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Hundreds Die In Urumqi. Does The World Care?
According to the latest news reports from Urumqi, a far-flung city in western China, “calm” had returned to the streets as the death toll from Sunday’s protests hit 156, with 800 injured, and 1,434 protestors detained. Officials say most of the dead were Han Chinese, while Uyghur groups report that 90% of those killed were Uyghurs. Though reports about the ethnic background of those killed and accounts of the protest may vary, one thing is clear. The Chinese government has cracked down, enforced curfews, and rounded up protestors in an effort to stop future unrest. Meanwhile, wall posts from Uyghurs,…
