China arrested almost 1,300 people for terrorism, religious extremism or other state security charges in Xinjiang last year, state press said yesterday.
The vast desert area bordering Central Asia is home to the majority of China’s ethnic Uighur population.
The Procuratorial Daily said the arrests came as the government made “maintaining social stability” a priority last year, when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games in August.
A wave of unrest, at times resulting in violence, erupted in Xinjiang ahead of the Olympics. State press reports claimed the unrest was largely fomented by Uighur Muslim separatists.
The paper said 1,295 people were arrested on suspicion of endangering state security in the first 11 months of last year and that 1,154 were formally charged and faced trials or administrative punishment.
Judicial authorities were ordered to “strike hard on the three forces of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism that endanger state security,” it said.
Last month, two Islamic “terrorists” were sentenced to death for an attack on police four days before the Olympics that was intended to sabotage the Games, state press reported earlier, citing the Supreme Court.
The men were convicted of murder following the attack in Xinjiang that reportedly left 17 police dead and 15 injured.
The Aug. 4 attack was the worst in a wave of unrest in Xinjiang ahead of and during the Olympics.
Meanwhile, the country will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with a military parade showcasing its latest weapons, state press said yesterday.
General Chen Bingde (陳炳德), chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, has been put in charge of the Oct. 1 parade — which was last held on the 50th anniversary a decade ago — the People’s Daily said on its Web site.
“The National Day military parade can showcase the modernization, the build-up and the great success of China’s military and display its great strength in defending and reunifying the motherland and advancing world peace,” it said.
Soldiers, tanks and missiles will parade down Beijing’s Avenue of Heavenly Peace before gathering in front of the huge portrait of Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) on Tiananmen Square.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS