Ethnic Violence in China's Xinjiang Region, 140 Dead

Chinese officials say 140 people have died in rioting in western China's Xinjiang region.

State-run Xinhua news agency says Sunday's fighting left more than 800 injured in the provincial capital Urumqi.  Reports say several hundred people have been arrested.

Witnesses say 1,000 members of the Uighur ethnic group demonstrated against what they say is unfair treatment by the Han, who make up the vast majority of China's population.

The Uighurs are largely Muslim.

Xinhua quotes officials in Xinjiang as blaming Sunday's violence on Uighur exiles and what they call "foreign instigators".   

China tightly controls Xinjiang province, where it refers to some Uighurs as "violent separatists" looking to create an independent country called "East Turkestan."

Uighur activists say Chinese authorities have exaggerated the threat to justify their cultural and religious controls on the Uighurs.

Tensions between the Uighurs and Han Chinese left two dead at a toy factory in Guangdong province last month.  Violence erupted out of a false rumor that Uighur workers raped two Chinese girls at the factory.