China: arrests in Xinjiang terror attack

Four people were detained Aug. 25 for a deadly attack on Chinese military police last week in the far western region of Xinjiang, state media reported. In the Aug. 19 attack, a member of the Uighur minority apparently rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a checkpoint at a highway intersection near the city of Aksu, some 400 miles west of the provincial capital Urumqi and 37 miles from China's border with Kyrgyzstan. Six police were killed and 15 injured in the first major terrorist attack in China since 2008. (Reuters, Aug. 25; CSM, People's Daily, Aug. 19)

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China: protest arrest of Uighur journalist

Uighur exile groups called on China's judiciary to make public documents concerning the trial of an ethnic Uighur journalist imprisoned for life after being convicted of inciting riots in Urumqi last year. Memetjan Abdulla, 33, a journalist with the Uighur language service of China National Radio, was sentenced during a closed-door trial in April in China's westernmost province of Xinjiang, said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress. (AFP, NYT, Dec. 24)