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We've entered into the fourth day of the Xinjiang incident, and it seems that - at least for now - Chinese officials have finally gotten everything under some semblence of control. Wednesday was marked by sporadic violence as Han mobs continued their Tuesday front, arming themselves with meat cleavers, shovels and other makeshift weapons for - depending what side you're on - protection or revenge killings. The body count for the last two days has not yet been released.

Because of the ethnic violence in Xinjiang, President Hu Jintao has cut his trip in Italy short, abandoning plans to attend the G8 summit and rushing back to Beijing this morning. State Councilor Dai Bingguo will sub for him at the summit. At this point, none of China's top leaders have come forward with statements about the incident yet, so it will be interesting to see what Hu has to say when he gets back. Meanwhile, Rebiya Kadeer of the World Uyghur Congress - who's been categorically denying orchestrating any of the unrest - has a ton of things to say on China's handling of the incident, including that 400 Uyghurs have died as a result of police shootings and beatings (according to her "inside" Uighur sources). Oh yeah, and Facebook's been blocked.

Those hoping that the Xinjiang riot death count would be contained once the day was over are going to be incredibly disappointed. It's day two over there and it seems that, at least for the Han Chinese living there, the fear has given way to rage.

Twitter has been blocked (as has Danwei, presumably because of their coverage) and Internet is allegedly down everywhere in Urumuqi - basically, it's information crackdown time since the proverbial shit has hit the fan.

Update: BBC News is now reporting that at least 140 are dead and over 800 injured. It also has video, which may be disturbing for some to watch.