中国网站品牌栏目（频道）
Authorities in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have restored partial access to 27 Internet sites, including the China Daily website, that had been blocked following last July's deadly riot in the regional capital of Urumqi.
"We chose the 27 websites because all of them are very practical and popular in China," a spokesperson of the regional government, told China Daily yesterday.
She said the regional government is preparing to restore access to more websites in the near future, but no fixed date has been set for the full restoration of Internet services in Xinjiang, because it will be "a step-by-step process".
To prevent further unrest after last year's July 5 riot in Urumqi, which left 197 dead and 1,700 injured, the government blocked access to the Internet and suspended international calls and text message services in the region 24 hours after the riot, because they were believed to be vital tools used to instigate the incident.
The regional government began to progressively lift the ban on the Internet in December by allowing access to a couple of official websites. International phone calls and mobile phone text messaging services were recently restored, though people can only send 20 messages a day.
However the spokesperson told China Daily yesterday that the regional government is considering increasing the daily allowance for the number of text messages that a mobile user could send because "many people are complaining that 20 messages a day won't be enough to send Spring Festival greetings to relatives and friends".
Beside websites providing news services, popular online shopping and trading websites as well as air ticket booking websites are also on the list of the latest websites returned to Xinjiang.
But full access to the websites has not been restored. Xinjiang residents are only allowed to view the contents of online discussion forums of two official media: People's Daily newspaper and Xinhua News Agency, but they are not able to leave comments or visit forums on other websites.
Xinjiang Internet users can also not use email or blog services of the websites.
Questions:
1. How many websites has been restored?
2. When was the Urumqi riots?
3. How many people died?
Answers:
1. 27.
2. July 5.
3. 197.
（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.
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