China plays down terror link as bus explodesChinese media are playing down reports of a third bus blast in southwestern Kunming tonight – exactly a week after two explosions killed two people in the city. A witness said he heard a loud blast shortly before 9pm local time and saw police and ambulance staff gathered around a damaged vehicle only 200 metres from the scene of one of the previous incidents. But a police officer contacted by the Guardian dismissed reports of an attack as "rumours" and the state news agency Xinhua said it was not terrorism-related. A local news site for Yunnan province Noun 1. Yunnan province - a province of southern China Yunnan Cathay, China, Communist China, mainland China, People's Republic of China, PRC, Red China - a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern Asia; the most populous country in the world blamed mechanical problems, adding that the engine of the bus appeared to have exploded. It is not clear whether anyone was injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. . Xinhua said the incident happened at the Liangjiahe bus stop in the city and the vehicle was on the "54 and K2" route. The two bus blasts last week were on route 54. The Chinese authorities dismissed a Uighur separatist sep·a·ra·tist n. 1. One who secedes or advocates separation, especially from an established church; a sectarian or separationist. 2. group's claims of responsibility for last Monday's incidents. Officials said those explosions were deliberate but that there was no evidence of terrorism. The authorities have repeatedly accused separatist Uighurs from the northwestern region of Xinjiang of planning attacks on the Olympic games Olympic games, premier athletic meeting of ancient Greece, and, in modern times, series of international sports contests. The Olympics of Ancient Greece Although records cannot verify games earlier than 776 B.C. , which begin on August 8. Uighur exiles and human rights groups accuse Beijing of exaggerating the threat as an excuse for repression in the region, where Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslims make up almost half the population of 19 million. In a video obtained by an terrorism watchdog this weekend, the little-known Turkestan Islamic Party An Islamic party is a party that works for promoting Islam while an Islamic political party is a political party that promotes Islam as a political movement by offering nominees for election in a democracy - of which there are several in the Islamic world. -- thought by some analysts to be another name for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement Noun 1. East Turkestan Islamic Movement - a group of Uighur Muslims fighting Chinese control of Xinjiang; declared by China in 2001 to be terrorists although there is a long history of cycles of insurgency and repression East Turkistan Islamic Movement -- claimed responsibility for last week's explosions and several other incidents. They included a bus blast in Shanghai in May, in which three people died and 12 were injured. It was blamed on a passenger carrying "flammable flam·ma·ble adj. Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; inflammable. [From Latin flamm materials". "The blast was indeed deliberate but had nothing to do with terrorist attacks," said Cheng Jiulong, deputy head of Shanghai's public security bureau. 
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion