Urumqi, China News

A cornerstone laying ceremony for Shanghai Volkswagen's new plant in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region takes place yesterday.

Leaders of the two separatist groups recently have staged an anti-China farce on two islands of Eurasia.

Sunrise over the Tazhong Oilfield in the Taklamakan Desert, in China's Xinjiang Province.

Jumping gamely into the steel cage clad only in army fatigues the young girl was happy to kiss, cuddle and feed the two-year-old predatory beasts like they were domestic puppy dogs.

It has been two years since Hawagul Ibrahim returned home to take a post as a village official in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region -- a decision that both surprised and divided her friends and family.

One of the exiled leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 got the cold shoulder from the Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday when he tried to turn himself in to return home.

In the open: Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kader delivers the opening speech Monday at the 4th World Uyghur Congress in Tokyo.

Georgian businessmen are given the opportunity to participate in the international 'China-Eurasia' exhibition, which opens in Urumqi on Sept.1. A delegation from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is on a visit to Tbilisi to promote the exhibition and meetings with Georgian businessmen.

A woman looks at souvenirs from Kyrgyzstan at the China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on Sept 1, 2011.

Diane Maurer, of Spring Mills, is a paper artist who makes elaborate collages. Her work is on display at the Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County.

Traditional lifestyle ... a boy trims sheep at the livestock market in Kashgar, China, at the feet of the Tian Shan mountain range.