12 September 2009 / AP, BEIJING
Mystery needle attacks appeared to spread in China's far western region as authorities arrested nine new suspects in three cities, officials said on Friday.
The suspects were recently detained in the Xinjiang region cities of Hotan, Altay, and Kashgar in connection with alleged attacks involving hypodermic needles, a press officer at the Xinjiang government press center in the provincial capital Urumqi said on Friday. He declined to give his name as is customary or provide more details. Since last week, more than 500 people in Urumqi have reported attacks, though only about 100 showed evidence of being pricked. The bizarre stabbings led to mass demonstrations by tens of thousands of Han Chinese earlier this month against what they said was a government that can't guarantee their safety. The needle assaults have aggravated tensions in the restive western region of Xinjiang where ethnic riots in July left nearly 200 dead. The violence exposed the long-term rifts between Muslim Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority group, and the Han Chinese, who are the majority group in China.
