CHINA SACKS PARTY CHIEF AS UNREST IN URUMQIDIES DOWN

       China sacked the top official of Urumqi, the strife-hit capital of far-west Xinjiang, yesterday, as the city crept back to an uneasy normality after days of sometimes deadly protests that have inflamed ethnic enmity.
       The brief announcement from the official Xinhua news agency did not explain why the citys Communist Party Secretary, Li Zhi, was dismissed and replaced by Zhu Hailun, the head of Xinjiang regions law-and-order committee.
       But Mr Li presided over the city during deadly ethnic unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighur residents on July 5 when at least 197 people died,most of them Han killed by Uighurs.
       The far-west city has been under heavy security after three days of fresh unrest last week, when thousands of Han Chinese residents protested over a rash of reported syringe stabbings they blamed on Uighurs, a Muslim people who call the region their homeland.
       Officials said five people were killed in protests on Thursday, but have given only fleeting details about them.
       The dismissal came as Urumqi returned to something like calm, topping a week that has seen crowds of Han Chinese protesters turn against the regions top communist officials.
       Troops used tear gas to break up a crowd of people, mostly Han Chinese by appearance, gathered near city government offices in Urumqi yesterday,footage from Cable TV of Hong Kong showed.
       But elsewhere in the city, shops, buses and roads began to come back to life,watched over by thousands of police and anti-riot troops, many of them barring Han Chinese residents from Uighur neighbourhoods.
       Talk of fresh syringe attacks persisted yesterday. Dozens of Han Chinese near the city centre complained that troops took away a Uighur man they accused of stabbing a child.
       The minister for police, Meng Jianzhu,has flown to Urumqi to oversee security.
       The needle-stabbing attacks of recent days were a continuation of the July 5 incident, Mr Meng said, according to the official People's Daily yesterday.Their goal is to wreck ethnic unity and create splits in the motherland.