Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network has taken up the cause of China’s Muslim Uighur minority with a pledge to attack Chinese workers in North-Western Africa in retaliation for mistreatment by Beijing of its largest Muslim minority in Urumqi. The Algerian based Al-Qaeda offshoot, the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has threatened to target the 50,000 Chinese nationals in North-Western Africa.It is the first time that any al-Qaeda group has threatened China or its interests and illustrates the high price that Beijing may...

Shootings follow inter-ethnic clashes in Urumqi in which government says 184 people died Chinese police shot dead two men and injured a third as the trio attacked a fellow Uighur in the riot-hit capital of north-western Xinjiang province today, officials have announced.The violence follows last week's inter-ethnic clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, in which the government says that 184 people were killed and 1,680 wounded. It has warned that the death toll could rise.Police fired warning shots today when they...

A Chinese-language daily newspaper is being published in Botswana. Chinese entrepreneur Miles Nan recently launched The Oriental Post - Africa's first paper in Chinese - to serve the 5,000-plus Chinese inhabitants living in Botswana, few of whom are able to read English."In launching the paper I wanted to improve relations between the Chinese and Botswanas. The Chinese could learn a lot about the culture and diversity in Africa. We also...