China jails syringe attackers

Xinjiang remains tense despite paramilitary troops being brought in after the July riots [AFP] A court in western China's Xinjiang province has sentenced four men to prison terms of eight to 15 years for stabbing a pedestrian with a hypodermic syringe, state media has reported. The attack was part of a wave of similar assaults that China's public security minister blamed on Muslim separatists accused of being behind recent ethnic violence between Han Chinese and Uighurs in the region. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/09/200991795555337727.html