China restores texting in Xinjiang: state media

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More cold to compound misery in China's Xinjiang
Beijing (AFP) Jan 18, 2010 - Heavy snows in China's northwestern Xinjiang region have killed four people and left 100,000 homes collapsed or damaged, with still more icy weather on the way, state media said Monday. Temperatures over the next few days could fall to as low as minus 42 degrees Celsius (minus 43 Fahrenheit) in parts of Xinjiang, with blizzards forecast, the China Daily newspaper reported. A harsh cold front that has gripped vast regions of northern China has already affected a total of 530,000 people in Xinjiang, it said, without elaborating. More than 100,000 houses have been "flattened" or damaged amid the heaviest snowstorms there in a decade, and 15,200 livestock have been killed from exposure to the cold or lack of food due to the massive snowfalls, it said. Direct economic losses were estimated at 200 million yuan (29 million dollars).

More snow, rain and falling temperatures also will affect much of the rest of China this week, the report said. State media reports had said last week that three people had died in Xinjiang and six nationwide. In Xinjiang's northernmost Altay region, authorities were attempting to move more than 10,000 livestock out of difficult-to-reach mountain areas to save them. China has endured an unusually early and cold winter, reaching its height since January 1 with heavy snow across vast parts of the north, rare snowfalls further south and persistent sub-freezing temperatures. The situation has caused several provinces and regions to ration electricity or take other power-saving moves to reduce strain on electric grids as residents turn up the heat to stay warm. State media reports also have said birds were dying in large numbers in northern China due to the cold, and shipping has been disrupted by the worst sea ice in three decades in northeast China's Bohai Gulf.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 18, 2010
China further eased restrictions on communications in its troubled Xinjiang region, restoring text messaging services six months after deadly ethnic unrest, state media said Monday.

The move followed similar recent moves to reintroduce Internet access, with residents now able to access the websites of two state media outlets as well as two popular web portals, sina.com.cn and sohu.com.

Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed regional government official as saying text messaging services were "gradually" restored on Sunday. Some online banking services are now also available, the report said.

The report said the communications blackout put in place after the deadly riots in the regional capital Urumqi in early July, which left nearly 200 people dead, had proven "effective" in helping to maintain regional stability.

The official quoted by Xinhua did acknowledge the measures had also "brought inconveniences to people's lives".

Mobile users can send texts within China but not to international numbers, the China Daily reported, citing an official at China Mobile, the country's biggest operator by subscribers.

Users are also limited to 20 text messages a day, and cannot transfer unused messages to subsequent days, the newspaper said.

Riots erupted in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi on July 5, pitting mainly Muslim Uighurs against China's majority Han, in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.

Authorities quickly reacted by restricting the flow of information going in and out of the region.

The government says terrorists, separatists and religious extremists used the Internet, telephones and mobile text messages to spread rumours and hatred as the July violence erupted.

So far 22 people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, have been sentenced to death for the violence, drawing sharp criticism from the West and rights groups concerned that the accused were denied fair trials.

Nine executions have so far been reported by state press.

The government has nearly doubled funding for public security in the region for 2010 to 2.89 billion yuan (423 million dollars), as compared with last year, state media reported last week.

Users quoted by state media welcomed the return of texting, but said other communications services remained blocked

"We still can't contact people on the Internet by email. Online chat rooms such as MSN and QQ are still blocked," the Global Times quoted Urumqi resident Chen Chao as saying.

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