Leaders axed after China rioting

A Communist Party leader and police chief in the troubled western Chinese region of Xinjiang have been sacked, the official Xinhua news agency says.

The moves follow days of ethnic unrest in the regional capital Urumqi in which at least five people have died.

No official reason has been given for the sackings.

Mass protests have followed a spate of stabbings with syringes blamed on Uighur Muslim separatists. Unrest in Urumqi in July left nearly 200 dead.

Xinhua first announced that Urumqi Communist Party chief Li Zhi was to be replaced by Zhu Hailun, the head of Xinjiang region's law-and-order committee.

A later statement added that Liu Yaohua, director of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Public Security Department, had also been dismissed.

Correspondents say that protesters who have marched in their thousands through Urumqi in recent days have demanded Mr Li's dismissal for failing to provide public safety.

The BBC's Michael Bristow in Urumqi says the sacking is unusual as it shows the Chinese authorities believe they may have made mistakes in the handling of the unrest.

Tight security

Security in Urumqi has been tight this week, after thousands of Han Chinese demonstrated over the alleged hypodermic syringe stabbings.

In fresh unrest on Saturday, angry Han Chinese rushed to the city's main square following reports that three Uighur men had attacked a child with needles.

Video of the incident showed police driving the boy away and the crowd being dispersed.

China's top security official, Meng Jianzhu, arrived in the city on Friday to try to restore order.

He was quoted by Xinhua as saying the syringe attacks were a continuation of the July unrest in which 200 people - mostly Han Chinese - were killed in ethnic riots.

Xinjiang's population is evenly split between Uighurs and Han Chinese - the country's majority ethnic group. But Hans make up three-quarters of Urumqi's population.

Tension between the Uighur and Han communities has been simmering for many years, but July's ethnic unrest was the worst for decades.

It began when crowds of Uighurs took the streets to protest about mistreatment - but their rally spiralled out of control and days of violent clashes followed.

Burial film irks Jackson brother

The Jackson family released some images from the ceremony

Source: BBC

Randy Jackson has criticised the "surreptitious" filming of his brother Michael's funeral in Los Angeles.

A live video feed of guests arriving at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park had been provided, but ceased as the star's body arrived for privacy reasons.

But a camera kept filming the ceremony on a hovering helicopter, leaving him "dismayed". It had "severely disrupted" the service, he said.

Jackson has requested the media stop showing that footage.

In a statement, the former Jackson 5 singer said: "I was dismayed last night and again today at the coverage I saw on television of our ceremony for Michael.

'Ignored wishes'

"We had asked the media to respect the privacy and the sanctity of this event; to give us one moment of privacy to mourn as a family out of the public spotlight.

"Unfortunately, despite a no-fly zone around Forest Lawn, many media organisations decided to ignore our wishes," he said.

Mourners arrive at Michael Jackson's funeral

"I therefore ask today that media organisations airing helicopter footage of the ceremony we held for my brother immediately pull that footage from their air and refrain from airing it in the future."

Around 200 mourners gathered at the cemetery to pay their respects to Jackson including the star's former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, actor Macaulay Culkin.

The service took place after dark in the open air outside Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum.

It came more than two months after Jackson died of a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs at the age of 50.

Last week Jackson's death was ruled to be a homicide by the Los Angeles coroner.