China

The head of the European Parliament's human rights committee backed a call on Tuesday for an independent international inquiry into deadly riots in northwest China's Xinjiang region in July. "We have got some quite worrying information about events of July 5," Heidi Hautala told a joint news conference with Rebiya Kadeer, exiled leader of China's largely Muslim Uighur ethnic group who earlier addressed the parliamentary committee. She said such an inquiry should be conducted by the United Nations with the backing of the European Union. (Reuters)