Tension remains in Urumqi

URUMQI: There was tension in the air despite the calm on the streets yesterday as President Hu Jintao cut short a G8 summit trip to rush home in the wake of the bloody riots.

Hu arrived home yesterday from Italy "due to the situation" in Xinjiang, where the deadliest riots in the autonomous region in decades left 156 people dead and more than 1,000 injured on Sunday.

Helicopters dropped leaflets appealing for calm among Urumqi's 2.3 million residents as banks of helmeted paramilitary troops in riot gear saturated the city to establish order.