Originally published by The Associated Press,February 23  2011

BEIJING — A government-run website says Chinese authorities have approved the executions of four men convicted of terrorist violence in the restive western region of Xinjiang.

 The four are accused of killing nine people and injuring 15 in three different incidents between August and November of last year.

 In the most serious incident, six men detonated a homemade bomb near where a security patrol was forming up, killing eight people including three civilians and two attackers.

 Xinjiang has been beset by ethnic conflict and a sometimes-violent separatist movement by Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group that sees Xinjiang as its homeland. Many Uighurs resent the Han Chinese majority as interlopers.

 All listed perpetrators had Uighur-sounding names.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022300249.html