Chinese police shoot dead dozens after attack in Xinjiang

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police shot dead dozens of knife-wielding attackers on Monday morning after they staged assaults on two towns in the western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

A gang armed with knives had first attacked a police station and government offices in the town of Elixku, in Shache county, it said, quoting local police. Some moved on to the nearby town of Huangdi, attacking civilians and smashing and setting fire to six vehicles.

"Police officers at the scene shot dead dozens of members of the mob," the brief report said.

An initial investigation showed that it was an "organised and premeditated terrorist attack", Xinhua added.

The dead and injured include not just Uighurs but members of China's majority Han Chinese population, the report said.

The U.S.-based Rebiya Kadeer, president of the exiled World Uyghur Congress, called for restraint, saying in a statement that she was worried "China will use this incident to step up repression, causing more people to lose their freedom."

The attack took place at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which officials had tried to get Muslims in Xinjiang to ignore, in an indication of what rights groups say is discrimination targeting the Uighurs.

Shache, also known by its Uighur name of Yarkant, is located in Xinjiang's heavily Uighur southwestern part, close to the borders of Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Xinjiang, home to many Turkic-speaking Uighurs, has for years been beset by violence, which the government blames on Islamist militants or separatists who it says are bent on establishing an independent state called East Turkestan.

China says Uighur militants have based themselves in countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years, and this week China's special envoy for the Middle East said some had also likely been trained in Syria and Iraq.

It was not clear why the attack was only being reported on Tuesday, more than a day after it took place, though China's ruling Communist Party, which values stability above all else, had a habit of suppressing or delaying bad news.

Haskell collapses in Texas court as details of Texas murder read

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The man accused of fatally shooting four children aged 4 to 14 and their parents after entering their suburban Houston home while looking for his former wife collapsed when details of the murder scene were read in court on Friday.

Ronald Lee Haskell, 33, who is being held without bond, was in court for a procedural hearing after being charged on Thursday with capital murder and multiple murders. Capital murder can bring the death penalty in Texas.

Haskell said "Yes, sir" after his rights were read and then collapsed as details of the crime were listed in the court. Bailiffs had to pick him up and wheel him out in an office chair.

Haskell is accused of killing two boys ages 4 and 14, two girls ages 7 and 9, and their parents Stephen Stay, 39, and Katie, 33. Five of them were found dead and one of the children died after being flown to a hospital for treatment. A 15-year-old daughter survived the attack, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

Authorities said he went to the Stay home looking for his former wife, who is related to the victims, and held the children at gunpoint until their parents returned. He then brought all seven family members into a room and shot them, killing all except the teenage girl, police said.

The suspect's former wife did not live at the house and was not harmed in the incident.

FedEx said in a statement that Haskell was once employed by a contractor used by the shipping company but had not worked for that company since January.

Tragedy Gives The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning

by LINTON WEEKS

James Gilchrist of Orlando, Fla., attends a rally for slain teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., on Thursday. Trayvon was wearing a hoodie when he was shot.

From the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, a symbol emerges: the hoodie.

A simple hooded sweatshirt has become emblematic of certain assumptions in America. And of a desire by many to overturn those assumptions.

To a neighborhood watch volunteer in a Sanford, Fla., gated community, the young man in "a dark hoodie, a gray hoodie" was a "suspicious guy." That's what George Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher before he shot and killed the 17-year-old. Zimmerman, 28, says he acted in self-defense; he has not been charged with a crime.

On Friday, Geraldo Rivera said on the Fox & Friends TV show that "the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was." Rivera warned parents not to let their children wear hoodies — unless it is raining or they are at a track-and-field event. He said it sends a sinister signal.

"You cannot rehabilitate the hoodie," Rivera said. "Stop wearing it."

jbd: I have watched security guards and store detectives "perk up" when "blacks wearing hoods" have entered the store. Bank robbers have worn hoodies. Robbers have worn them also, generally when we see video of robberies or break ins, the thieves are wearing hoods. The KKK wore hoods. I guess that hoods and "hoodies" are a signal that the wearer does not want to be recognized. They are a statement of being "bad." A child in Columbus, Ohio, or anywhere, being shot in "crossfire" is just as tragic, but those shootings are soon forgotten, and quite possibly, the shooter, was wearing a hoodie. In some ways, wearing a hoodie is like wearing a mask.