Harding, right, will appear next week in BBC Two drama Freefall

Doctor Who star David Tennant and Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding will join the cast of the new St Trinian’s film.

The pair will join Colin Firth and Rupert Everett - who both starred in 2007’s St Trinian’s - in follow-up The Legend of Fritton’s Gold.

Tennant, 38, will play villain Pomfrey in the latest instalment of the rejuvenated franchise.

Harding, 27, who made a cameo in St Trinian’s with her bandmates, will play “a cool new schoolgirl”.

Ashes to Ashes actress Montserrat Lombard will also appear.

The original 1950s St Trinian’s films - including The Belles of St Trinian’s and Blue Murder at St Trinian’s - featured stars including Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor as naughty schoolgirls.

The 2007 reworking, which also starred Gemma Arterton and Russell Brand, breathed new life into the franchise, and took £15m at the UK box office.

Crowds of Han Chinese and Uighurs were separated by riot police

As unrest continues in Xinjiang, people from the area and those with relatives there are continuing to send their accounts to the BBC.

Due to restricted means of communication, the BBC has been unable to speak to some of the people claiming to write from the region.

Huang Xiusheng is a businessman from Guangdong who just went back home from a trip in Urumqi.

I witnessed the troubles. It was terrible!

There were many many people in the streets, mostly Uighurs, but also many foreigners. The foreigners were taking photos with their phones.

The group of Uighurs were very angry. They would attack anybody who crossed their way. I stayed outside for about half an hour and I got scared and went back to the hotel.

The next day I stayed in the hotel, as I was afraid to go out. I was looking from the window and I could see many people in the streets and a heavy army presence.

Just before I came back they announced that people should stay indoors, and traffic of cars and vehicles would be stopped. I don’t know what to make of it. I am not a political person and I’ve no idea who caused it.

Peter is an English teacher living in Urumqi with his Chinese wife. They were out shopping on Sunday when the violence started.

The protesters’ route was blocked by the police, not in a menacing way, just as if to make it clear that they could go no further. The protesters stopped about 30m away for a few minutes, and then without warning some of them came forward and started throwing rocks at the police.

The police tolerated this for maybe a couple of minutes, and when it became clear the throwing of stones wouldn’t stop, they charged.

I have to say that the police dealt with the matter the same way our own riot police would. They were not excessively violent, nor did they attack unprovoked.

It was scary to watch all this kick off so close to where we were. Having managed to read your reports via my mobile phone (using services that are not blocked) I am amused that these overseas Chinese are trying to make political capital out of this, when, from what I witnessed, it was the protesters who brought this on themselves by attacking the police. Or maybe this was what they wanted all along?

Sharon from Beijing is currently on a business trip in Urumqi.

I arrived last night and all day today I’ve been staying in the hotel together with my other colleagues. Our team leader is not allowing us to go out because it looks very dangerous outside.
From the window of the hotel we can see a large group of Han Chinese all of them caring wooden sticks. They are all looking in one direction, waiting in anticipation.

We are watching TV reports and there was an announcement that they are restricting traffic in the streets from 9 pm to 8 am.

Ali says that the city of Urumqi has shut down.

The internet is down, there are no flights or trains in or out of the city. All schools, offices and organisations are closed until further notice.

The state media is covering up the truth, no reporting has actually happened. The state media is only showing a few Han Chinese beaten up, but they are not showing the police killing protesters.

The protest was peaceful from the beginning, but then the police started firing at protesters. As a result the protesters got angry and that’s how the violence began.

Where are the people killed in the protests and who are they? Why use armed force to suppress the protest in Urumqi and not use the same force when the incident at the toy factory in Guangdong happened?

Lee, from the Xinjiang city of Yining, is from the Hui Muslim minority. He now living in Beijing, but he is in touch with his parents who still live in Yining.

My parents own a restaurant. When I spoke to them they said that the government has ordered all businesses to close until further notice. So they closed the restaurant, waiting to hear further instructions.

Residents were also advised to stay at home. Riot police and PLA (People’s Liberation Army) are everywhere on the streets.

Everywhere there are lists of wanted people’s names. We don’t know who they are, but probably suspected Uighurs responsible for the riots in Urumqi.

I am pleased with the way the government has handled this unrest and I think they have covered the event truthfully.

Gulmire, a Uighur from Urumqi, writes on behalf of her sister who still lives in the city.

When I spoke to my sister on the phone she said that around 10pm the previous evening there were many students gathered near a park close to where my sister lives.

The police were chasing them and when they couldn’t escape, they shot at them. One by one the students fell to the ground. There was a lot of blood. My sister was upset and was crying. It’s a dark day for all Uighurs.

Terry, a Han Chinese from Urumqi, now working in Shanghai, has been in regular contact with his family and friends back home.

After many attempts, I managed to get through to them on the phone. My parents say that there are many people on the streets. There are more protests, shops are being robbed, buildings being set on fire and innocent people attacked.

All of this is still happening. A friend of my friend got hurt on Sunday after being hit by a rock.

In order to protect themselves, Han Chinese people are now carrying wooden batons.

I’ve got Uighur friends, and they are in a difficult situation. Many of the ordinary Uighur people don’t agree with the protesters and they know that this riot was planned by the extremist groups to destroy the peace in Urumqi.

My parents told me that a shop owned by a Uighur was robbed and the owner was injured.

The protesters make me so angry. The economic situation in Xinjiang is getting better and better. These criminals must be punished for their crime against humanity!

Prince Charles has paid tribute to the families who lost loved ones in the 7 July 2005 London bombings, at a memorial in Hyde Park.

He said that their bravery “offered us hope for the future”.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Minister for London Tessa Jowell joined the Prince of Wales at the unveiling of the 52 steel pillars.

Fifty-two people died after suicide bombers detonated explosives on board three Underground trains and a bus.

The victims’ relatives at the unveiling said the permanent memorial, between the park’s Lover’s Walk and Park Lane, was a “fitting tribute”.

AT THE SCENE Peter Hunt, BBC royal correspondent “When the bombers struck”, one of the bereaved told me, “they took away my today and my tomorrow.” Four years on, the emotions are still raw, but mixed with the pain is a sense of pride that a national memorial now exists. What was very striking about this simple, sombre service was the sheer number of relatives gathered in front of the 52 stainless steel pillars. Hundreds of lives have been affected directly by the attacks. Their loved ones were of all ages, both sexes and many races. After Prince Charles had delivered a powerful and personal address, the relatives, in the pouring rain, moved forward and placed flowers beside the memorial. I saw a boy in shorts and a baseball cap next to an elderly woman in a wheelchair. They all brought roses. A red one symbolising love, a white rose for peace.

Prince Charles said the date of the bombings “would be etched vividly on all our minds as a brutal intrusion into the lives of thousands of people”.

He said: “The families of the victims, the survivors and the stout hearted emergency services remain very much in our thoughts and prayers.

“You are a moving example of holding together bravery in the face of such inhuman and deplorable outrage and you offer us hope for the future,” he added.

Architects Carmody Groarke said the 3.5m (11.5ft) tall stainless steel pillars symbolised the random nature of the loss of life - how it could have been anyone travelling in London that day.

Mrs Jowell said that each column represented “a unique person and a unique grief.”

She added: “Each one casts a shadow just as they do - each one standing tall and proud just as they did, and each one will in an individual way absorb and reflect light just as they did.”

Director Kevin Carmody said the firm worked closely with the families through monthly liaison meetings to ensure the finished product was what they required.

“It took a long time to get to the strong ideas like symbolising the single and collective loss of life,” he said. He said 26 of the stelae were grouped to represent those killed on the Underground near King’s Cross.

Other clusters represented Tube bombing victims at Aldgate and Edgware Road, with the remainder symbolic of those who died on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

“Hopefully people will have an almost magnetic propulsion towards it,” said Mr Carmody.

It’s an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us Saba Mozakka Families key to memorial design In pictures: Memorial unveiled

He said it could be viewed from afar as a single entity but that as they moved closer, people would discover the significance of the four groupings and individual columns.

Though the stelae are anonymous, they are inscribed with the date, time and location of the bombings they represent.

“We’re very happy that the families are pleased with the result,” Mr Carmody added.

A representative of the bereaved families’ group said: “The memorial is a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them.

“It represents the enormity of our loss, both on a personal and public level.

‘Horrific events’

“We hope this memorial will speak to visitors so they can understand the impact of these horrific events.”

The stelae are grouped to represent those killed in each of the four sites Enlarge Image

Thanks to the open casting process used to make the columns, with molten stainless-steel being poured into sand moulds, each one has a unique finish.

Saba Mozakka, 28, from Finchley, north London, was one of six family members to sit on a liaison board during the memorial’s design.

Her mother, Behnaz Mozakka, 47, a biomedical officer, was killed on a Piccadilly line train near King’s Cross station while commuting to work.

Ms Mozakka described the memorial as “truly incredible”.

“I’m very happy. It’s very poignant,” she said.

“It’s an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us.”

Grahame Russell, whose 28-year-old son Philip died in the Tavistock Square bus bombing, said the ceremony had been “extremely moving, extremely poignant”.

He added: “The speakers were outstanding. You could see by their faces and the way they spoke that they understood the way we feel.”

In his speech, Prince Charles said he had some awareness of the loss felt by the relatives as he recalled his “deep despair” after his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was killed in an Irish Republican Army bomb blast almost 30 years ago.

After he and Mrs Jowell addressed the memorial service, the names of the victims were read out and a minute’s silence was observed.

The prince then laid a wreath on behalf of the nation while the Duchess of Cornwall left a floral tribute for the families.

In addition to the prime minister and London Mayor Boris Johnson, Conservative leader David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone and senior figures from the emergency services were present.

The dedication ceremony came on the same day that the Home Affairs Committee began its inquiry into the events of 7 July.

It is expected to seek evidence from senior intelligence officials as it examines the police and government response to the attacks.

The Sri Lankans celebrate the crucial wicket of Misbah-ul Haq

Spinner Rangana Herath grabbed four wickets as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 50 runs to win the first Test in Galle.

Pakistan started the fourth day needing just 97 to overhaul Sri Lanka’s target of 168 with eight wickets to spare.

But spells by paceman Thilan Thushara and left-arm spinner Herath left the visitors struggling at 80-6 within the day’s first seven overs.

And Ajantha Mendis claimed two late wickets as Sri Lanka wrapped up an impressive victory.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said: “We never expected it to happen so quickly. I think the way Rangana (Herath) and Thilan (Thushara) bowled was just spot on.

“I think until today Pakistan outplayed us and today in the morning we showed a lot of heart and character.”

Pakistan had been hot favourites to clinch the series opener after three days of domination with a century by Mohammad Yousuf guiding his side to a 50-run lead after the first innings.

Starting the fourth day on 71-2, all looked promising until Herath and Thushara created havoc with the ball.

Yousuf was trapped leg before for 12 from the first ball from Herath, closely followed two deliveries later with other overnight batsman Salman Butt also falling to Herath.

It was then Thushara’s turn to swing into action, removing Shoaib Malik for a duck - caught behind by Tillakaratne Dilshan - and a leg before bringing an early end to Kamran Akmal.

With 89 runs needed for victory and four wickets remaining, there was still hope for Pakistan with vice-captain Misbah-ul Haq at the crease, but he was brilliantly run out by Dilshan after only adding seven.

Mendis grabbed two more victims, while man-of-the-match Herath returned to finish off the dispirited Pakistan innings and end with figures of four for 15 from 11.3 overs.

The win gives Sri Lanka a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series, the first between the two countries since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore on 3 March.

To compound matters for Pakistan, they were fined for failing to maintain a suitable over-rate, skipper Younus Khan penalised 10% of his match fee and his colleagues punished with a 5% penalty.

Pakistan skipper Younis Khan praised his opposing skipper. “Sangakkara was fantastic,” he said. “He knew Yousuf was struggling with the spinner and suddenly we were under pressure.

“But we still have two test matches. If we play to our potential we will square the series or even win the series.”

The second Test begins in Colombo on Saturday.

India’s water table has dropped to alarmingly low levels

The authorities in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) have reduced water supplies by 30% as it faces one of the worst water shortages in its history.

The cuts will affect supplies to hundreds of thousands of households as well as hospitals and hotels.

Most lakes that supply water to Indian cities are heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall which this year has been intermittent, officials say.

Mumbai is India’s most populated city and its commercial and film-making hub.

But now correspondents say its 20 million inhabitants face an acute water shortage for the first time in living memory.

The drought in Maharashtra in the west comes as half a million people have been stranded as rivers burst their banks due to flooding in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Alarming

If more rain does not arrive soon, the lakes which supply Mumbai will recede still further.

The BBC’s Prachi Pinglay in Mumbai says that rainfall figures are alarming compared with last year. In many areas of the state of Maharashtra and its capital, there has been only 25% of the rainfall received by this time last year.

Residents in several areas of Mumbai are now concerned about having to buy water from private water supply tankers as the five main lakes which supply the city now have levels between four to 10 metres lower than at this time last year.

The city corporation has urged citizens to save water and use it sparingly. They say one lake has enough water to last for the next three weeks, while two others have reserves for about two months.

Jayshree Ranade, a resident of Girgaum, south Mumbai, says that her household barely gets 45 minutes of water supply a day.

“We get water at about 4.45 am and it’s gone before 5.45 am. Earlier we used to get water for more than two hours,” she told the BBC.

“In my building all the families wake up at 4.30 am and everyone has to have a shower, wash clothes, utensils and fill up the water tank - all before 5.45 am. It’s a mad rush. Children wake up, get ready and go back to sleep.”

The authorities now say they are also considering seeding clouds to generate artificial rainfall.

The civic corporation has also reduced water supplies to swimming pools in five-star hotels and clubs.

Officials say that there are two ways to impose a water cut - one by reducing the number of hours of water supply and, second, to cut the supply at source.

India’s capital, Delhi, is also reeling from depleted water supplies, while many towns and villages across the country still have woefully inadequate safe drinking water facilities.

They depend largely on bore wells, which have seriously depleted the country’s water table.

The BBC’s Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says farm produce is also likely to be badly affected if the full monsoon does not arrive soon.

Tokyo has knocked Moscow off the top spot as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, a survey suggests.

The strengthening yen meant the Japanese capital now had the highest cost of living, followed by Osaka, said data firm Mercer.

A weaker pound pushed London, the third most expensive city in 2008, to 16th.

The survey is aimed at firms thinking of sending workers abroad and looks at more than 200 factors, including the cost of housing, transport and food.

The index uses New York as its benchmark for living costs.

MOST EXPENSIVE EXPAT CITIES (LAST YEAR’S RANKING) 1. Tokyo (2) 2. Osaka (11) 3. Moscow (1) 4. Geneva (8) 5. Hong Kong (6) Source: Mercer

Johannesburg was the cheapest of the 143 cities surveyed, driven by the sharp decline of the South African rand against the US dollar.

However, the BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Johannesburg says that for local residents, costs are rising, with even basics such as bread becoming more expensive.

Meanwhile in Japan, the BBC’s Roland Buerk said that Tokyo’s top slot in the ranking would not surprise locals, who could find themselves paying $15 for a watermelon and $25 for a mango.

‘Essential’

Currency fluctuations resulting from the economic downturn had led to a “significant reshuffle” in this year’s rankings, said Nathalie Constantin-Métral, a senior researcher at Mercer.

And she said that, as firms looked to control costs, keeping track of the factors that dictated the cost of living for staff it sent overseas was “essential”.

LEAST EXPENSIVE EXPAT CITIES Johannesburg, South Africa Monterrey, Mexico Asuncion, Paraguay Karachi, Pakistan Wellington, New Zealand Source: Mercer

“With significant exposure to multiple economies and currencies, multi-national companies continue to be greatly affected by the financial crisis,” she said.

“It is important for multi-national companies to continuously benchmark against their peers to ensure compensation packages are fair and in line with the rest of the market.”

European cities have seen some of this year’s steepest falls in the ranking system.

The Polish capital, Warsaw, plummeted from 35th to 113th, while Glasgow (129th) and Birmingham (125th) have fallen 60 and 59 places respectively.

Last month, a survey by human resources firm ECA International which looked at a wider range of cities, said Angola’s capital, Luanda, was the most expensive in the world for foreign workers.

It found that a meal there could cost more than $100 and a “decent” apartment could be as much as $15,000 a month, despite the fact that most Angolans live in poverty.

Sufferers feel impelled to pull out their hair and eyelashes

A simple supplement could help treat people with an impulse disorder that manifests in hair-tearing, say experts.

Trichotillomania suffers are blighted by uncontrollable urges to pluck the hair of the scalp and even eyebrows and lashes, often to the point of baldness.

Although seen as a behavioural and psychological problem, scientists are hopeful that the problem could be solved with an amino acid pill.

Archives of General Psychiatry reports promising early trial findings.

A group of 50 people with trichotillomania were asked to take part in a 12-week trial of the pill containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine.

N-acetylcysteine could be an effective treatment option for people with trichotillomania The study authors Women who tear hair out

The same supplement has shown promise for treating people with compulsive disorders and is thought to work on the glutamate system, the largest nerve signal transmission system in the human brain.

Indeed, some studies suggest that abnormalities in the natural brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine may play a role in trichotillomania, although genes may also be involved.

In the trial, half of the volunteers were given the treatment and the other half a dummy pill.

After 12 weeks, patients taking the active medication had significantly greater reductions in hair-pulling symptoms than those taking placebo.

Overall, 56% of patients were considered to be “much or very much improved” with N-acetylcysteine use compared with 16% taking placebo.

Additional therapy

And N-acetylcysteine compared favourably with existing treatment options.

The magnitude of improvement seen in patients taking the amino acid pills was greater than that reported with other medications and was similar to that reported for cognitive behaviour therapy alone or combined with medication, such as antidepressants.

TRICHOTILLOMANIA Stress and genetics play a part Driven by a strong urge or impulse Ranges in severity - often to the point of baldness

Dr Jon Grant, of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, and his co-authors, said: “N-acetylcysteine could be an effective treatment option for people with trichotillomania.”

But they said the underlying causes of trichotillomania should still be tackled using cognitive behavioural therapy. And more work will be needed to prove that supplements, which can be bought in health shops, do actually work

Trichotillomania may affect up to 5% of the population, although getting a handle on the exact prevalence is difficult, partly because sufferers may hide their condition and be too embarrassed to seek help.

Hair-pulling most commonly begins in the early teens, although it can start at a much younger or older age, and in some cases can be linked to a stressful life event like the death of a family member.

For some, hair-pulling can be seen as a soothing behaviour that is driven by rising tension.

For others, hair-pulling is undertaken during times of relaxation and is a habit that is to some extent subconscious.

Once the hair has been pulled it is often played with or eaten rather than immediately discarded.

Trichotillomania shares some common features with obsessive compulsive disorder, and is probably linked to common genetic factors, but it is not the same condition.

Sergey Aleynikov was a programmer at Goldman Sachs

A former worker for Goldman Sachs, Russian programmer Sergey Aleynikov, has been released on bail in the US, charged with “theft of trade secrets”.

He has been accused of misusing computer codes owned by a former employer, unnamed in court papers but reportedly Goldman Sachs.

Mr Aleynikov was released on Monday, having met the $750,000 bail (£463,000) after his arrest by the FBI on Friday.

He left his job at Goldman, where he earned $400,000 a year, in June.

A transcript of Mr Aleynikov’s attendance before a US magistrate on Saturday showed that he worked for Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs said it did not comment on former employees.

The FBI arrested Mr Aleynikov, 39, as he disembarked from a flight in Newark on Friday, according to FBI documents.

Proprietary information

Sabrina Shroff, Mr Aleynikov’s lawyer, said her client did not plan to sell the information or use it “contrary to my employment agreement with Goldman Sachs”.

The case has raised issues about how safe such lucrative trading systems are.

As well as the $750,000 bond required as part of the bail, Mr Aleynikov was required to deliver $75,000 in cash and hand over travel documents.

Mr Aleynikov is accused of using proprietary information and uploading it to a computer based in Germany.

He argued that he had only meant to use open-source computer files, as opposed to propriety information, but later “realised that he had obtained more files than he intended”, FBI court papers stated.

According to the court documents Mr Aleynikov “shall not access the computer data that is the subject of this criminal action”.

As well as the accusation of stealing “trade secrets”, the documents from the Southern District of New York court cite a “scheme to defraud” as one of the complaints made against Mr Aleynikov.

The film has topped box offices around the world

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen kept its place at the top of the North American box office chart, taking $42.3m (£26.2m) over the weekend.

The robotic blockbuster sequel narrowly beat competition from animation movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs into second place.

The adventures of a woolly mammoth and his friends racked up $41.7m (£25.7m).

It is the third movie in the series of films voiced by stars including Ray Romano, Queen Latifah and Denis Leary.

Michael Mann’s gangster film Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp, debuted at number three, raking in $25.3m (£15.6m).

US AND CANADA BOX OFFICE 1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $42.3m 2. Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs - $41.7m 3. Public Enemies - $25.2m 4. The Proposal - $12.9m 5. The Hangover - $11.3m Source: Hollywood.com (formerly Media by Numbers)

Romantic comedy The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock, fell from second to fourth spot, taking $12.8m (7.9m) in its third week of release.

Big hangover

Stag night comedy The Hangover came in at fifth place with $11.3m (£7m), bringing its total revenue since its release four weeks ago to $205m (£126.7m) - a big gain on the $35m (£21.6m) it cost to make.

Weepy drama My Sister’s Keeper, starring Cameron Diaz, slipped from fifth to seventh place in its second week on the chart.

The actress stars as a mother who gives birth to a genetically-engineered second daughter to help save the life of her elder daughter, who has leukaemia.

Groups of ethnic Han Chinese have marched through the city of Urumqi carrying clubs and machetes, as tension grows between ethnic groups and police.

Security forces imposed a curfew and fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, who said they were angry at violence carried out by ethnic Muslim Uighurs.

Earlier, Uighur women had rallied against the arrest of more than 1,400 people over deadly clashes on Sunday.

The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence.

AT THE SCENE Quentin Sommerville, Urumqi There are many armed military police standing around, also a few remnants of those Han Chinese demonstrators, still people wandering around the city carrying poles and batons and some carrying knives. There’s a great air of trepidation here as to how this night will play out. I wouldn’t have thought today that I would have seen Uighur men and women acting so defiantly in the face of Han Chinese authority, but they did. I wouldn’t have thought that thousands of Han Chinese would be able to walk freely through a Chinese city and march and shout slogans. Xinjiang is one of the most tightly-controlled parts of the country. Those controls seem to have slipped quite considerably. Accounts of Xinjiang violence In pictures: Protests

Officials say 156 people - mostly ethnic Han Chinese - died in Sunday’s violence. Uighur groups say many more have died, claiming 90% of the dead were Uighurs.

The unrest erupted when Uighur protesters attacked vehicles before turning on local Han Chinese and battling security forces in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province.

They had initially been protesting over a brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks earlier in a toy factory thousands of miles away in Guangdong province.

On Tuesday about 200 Uighurs - mostly women - faced off against riot police to appeal for more than 1,400 people arrested over Sunday’s violence to be freed.

‘Heart-breaking’ violence

Later hundreds of Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi smashing shops and stalls belonging to Uighurs.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville, in Urumqi, says some of the protesters were shouting “down with Uighurs” as they rampaged through the streets armed with homemade weapons.

UIGHURS AND XINJIANG Xinjiang population is 45% Uighur, 40% Han Chinese Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan Since then, large-scale immigration of Han Chinese Sporadic violence since 1991 Attack on 4 Aug 2008 near Kashgar kills 16 Chinese policemen Q&A: China and the Uighurs China tells its own story

Police attempted to block access to the bazaar and other Uighur districts of the city and fired tear gas as the Han Chinese confronted groups of Uighurs.

One protester, clutching a metal bar, told the AFP news agency: “The Uighurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them.”

Urumqi’s mayor, Jierla Yishamudin, said a “life and death” struggle was being waged to maintain China’s unity.

“It is neither an ethnic issue nor a religious issue, but a battle of life and death to defend the unification of our motherland and to maintain the consolidation of all ethnic groups, a political battle that’s fierce and of blood and fire,” he told a news conference.

One official described Sunday’s unrest as the “deadliest riot since New China was founded in 1949″.

Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief Wang Lequan announced during a televised address that a curfew would run from 2100 until 0800.

State-run news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying any ethnic violence was “heart-breaking” and blaming “hostile forces both at home and abroad” for the trouble.

China’s authorities have repeatedly claimed that exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer is stirring up trouble in the region.

But she told the BBC she was not responsible for any of the violence.

“Last time during the Tibet riots, [the Chinese government] blamed the Dalai Lama, and now with the Xinjiang riot, they are blaming me,” she said.

“I will never damage the relationship between two communities and will never damage the relationship between people. For me, all human beings are equal.”