Now it's back to business:
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.
Repression: an official sponsor of the summer Olympics!
UPDATE: More on the unrest pitting Han colonists against indigenous residents:
Mobs of Han Chinese wielding meat cleavers and clubs and groups of Muslim Uighur men beat people in the streets of the capital of China's Xinjiang region Tuesday. The government imposed a curfew as it tried to stem communal violence after a riot that killed at least 156 people.
While it is unclear how many deaths are directly the fault of the Chinese security forces, have no doubt that the efforts to overwhelm the Uighurs with Hans clearly has a big role as an underlying cause.
