The July 2009 Ürümqi riots were a series of violent riots over several
days that broke out on 5 July 2009 in Ürümqi, the capital city of
Xinjiang, China. Protests calling for a full investigation into the
Shaoguan incident, a brawl in southern China several days earlier in
which two Uyghurs had been killed, escalated into violence. During the
first day's rioting mainly Han ("ethnic Chinese") were targeted; two
days later hundreds of Han people gathered and clashed with both police
and Uyghurs. Chinese officials said that a total of 197 people died,
with 1,721 others injured and considerable damage to property; Uyghur
groups say the death toll is higher than officially disclosed. Human
Rights Watch documented numerous cases of arrests and disappearances in
the wake of the riots. Rioting began when the police confronted the
march, but observers disagree on what caused the protests to become
violent. The Chinese central government alleges that the riots
themselves were planned from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress and
its leader Rebiya Kadeer, while Kadeer denies fomenting the violence in
her struggle for her people's right to self-determination. Uyghur
groups claim that the escalation was caused by the police's use of
excessive force. Chinese media coverage of the Ürümqi riots was
extensive.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_riots>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1687:
The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton was
first published, describing his laws of motion and his law of universal
gravitation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophi%C3%A6_Naturalis_Principia_Mathematica>
1950:
The Israeli Knesset enacted the Law of Return, granting Jews around the
world the right to migrate to and settle in Israel and gain
citizenship.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return>
1996:
A cloned sheep named Dolly, the first mammal to have been successfully
cloned from an adult cell, was born at the Roslin Institute in
Midlothian, Scotland near Edinburgh.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_%28sheep%29>
2004:
Indonesia held its first direct presidential elections; Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono would later be elected president during the second round of
the elections on September 20.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_presidential_election%2C_2004>
2006:
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting hours
after North Korea reportedly tested at least seven separate missiles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_missile_test>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
menagerie (n):
1. A collection of live wild animals on exhibition.
2. A diverse or miscellaneous group
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/menagerie>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
--Jean Cocteau
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Cocteau>