Fresh Protest Breaks out in Xinjiang

Protesters throw rocks at police on a street in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region July 5, 2009. More than 140 have been killed and more than 800 injured in distrubances in the most westerly of China's provinces.

Fresh protest breaks out in Xinjiang as demonstrators confront Chinese security forces

Protesters throw rocks at police on a street in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region July 5, 2009. More than 140 have been killed and more than 800 injured in distrubances in the most westerly of China's provinces.

The demonstration comes two days after at least 156 people were killed in ethnic violence in Urumqi.

The latest clash Tuesday came in front of a group of reporters who were being taken around the city to see the aftermath of Sunday's riots, when hundreds of vehicles and shops were attacked.

About 200 Uighurs, some screaming that their husbands and children had been arrested, blocked a road. Riot police were at one end of the road and paramilitary police were at the other end.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

URUMQI, China (AP) — Police have arrested 1,434 suspects in connection with the worst ethnic violence in decades in China's western Xinjiang region, which killed at least 156 people, state media reported Tuesday.

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The arrests come amid a security clampdown on the region, with hundreds of paramilitary police with shields, rifles and clubs taking control of the streets of the capital, Urumqi, where the riots took place on Sunday.

The violence does not bode well for China's efforts to mollify long-simmering ethnic tensions between the minority Uighur people and the ethnic Han Chinese in Xinjiang — a sprawling region three times the size of Texas that shares borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries.

Mobile phone service and the social networking site Twitter have been blocked, and Internet links also were cut or slowed down.

A nonviolent protest by 200 people was broken up in a second city, Kashgar, and the official Xinhua News Agency said police had evidence that demonstrators were trying to organize more unrest in Kashgar, Yili and Aksu.

It said police had raided several groups plotting unrest in Dawan township in Urumqi, as well as at a former race course that is home to a transient population.