Urumqi

More Chinese cities including Urumqi in the far west announced easing of coronavirus curbs on Sunday, as China tries to make its zero-COVID policy more targeted and less onerous after extraordinary protests against restrictions last weekend.

China's western Xinjiang region eased some Covid restrictions in its capital Urumqi on Monday, after a deadly fire in the city blamed on virus controls sparked protests across the country.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit China's far western region of Xinjiang on Thursday, the China Earthquake Administration said, with tremors shaking buildings near the epicentre about 100 km (60 miles) west of the regional capital of Urumqi.

A woman sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region evaded prison for ten years by getting pregnant 13 times before she was finally sent to jail by a court.

China opened the first stretch of a new high-speed railway in the western region of Xinjiang on Sunday, a milestone in the central government's efforts to promote economic development in restive hinterlands and bind them closer to the rest of China.

A coal mine shaft collapsed in northwestern China, killing 16 miners, China's official news agency said on Saturday.

A Chinese court has sentenced two people to death and another to life imprisonment for the murder of a state-backed imam in China's restive western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency has said.

China has executed eight people for "terrorist" attacks in its restive far western region of Xinjiang, including three who "masterminded" a dramatic car crash in the capital's Tiananmen Square in 2013, state media said.

Amid an upsurge in separatist violence, a city in China's restive Xinjiang region has banned those in Islamic headscarves, burqas and with long beards from public transport.

A city in China's mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from travelling on public buses, state media said, prompting outrage from an overseas rights group Wednesday.

An outspoken Chinese minority scholar was indicted on separatism charges amid a renewed flare-up of bloody anti-government violence in the country's far west.

China sentenced 32 people in its western Xinjiang region to prison terms for downloading or sending "violent terror" videos, state media said, as authorities crackdown on people they say are Islamists and separatists behind recent attacks.

China has taken down more than 40 groups it calls "violent terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in its restive western region of Xinjiang since authorities began a crackdown in May, state media said on Monday.

Authorities in China's restive Xinjiang denied food for 10 days to a prominent Uighur academic detained on separatism charges, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday, as nine in the region were sentenced for terror offences.

Police shot dead 13 attackers in China's restive Xinjiang region after they rammed a car into a police station and detonated explosives, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, in the latest of a series of attacks to worry Beijing.

More Chinese cities including Urumqi in the far west announced easing of coronavirus curbs on Sunday, as China tries to make its zero-COVID policy more targeted and less onerous after extraordinary protests against restrictions last weekend.

China's western Xinjiang region eased some Covid restrictions in its capital Urumqi on Monday, after a deadly fire in the city blamed on virus controls sparked protests across the country.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit China's far western region of Xinjiang on Thursday, the China Earthquake Administration said, with tremors shaking buildings near the epicentre about 100 km (60 miles) west of the regional capital of Urumqi.

A woman sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region evaded prison for ten years by getting pregnant 13 times before she was finally sent to jail by a court.

China opened the first stretch of a new high-speed railway in the western region of Xinjiang on Sunday, a milestone in the central government's efforts to promote economic development in restive hinterlands and bind them closer to the rest of China.

A coal mine shaft collapsed in northwestern China, killing 16 miners, China's official news agency said on Saturday.

A Chinese court has sentenced two people to death and another to life imprisonment for the murder of a state-backed imam in China's restive western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency has said.

China has executed eight people for "terrorist" attacks in its restive far western region of Xinjiang, including three who "masterminded" a dramatic car crash in the capital's Tiananmen Square in 2013, state media said.

Amid an upsurge in separatist violence, a city in China's restive Xinjiang region has banned those in Islamic headscarves, burqas and with long beards from public transport.

A city in China's mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from travelling on public buses, state media said, prompting outrage from an overseas rights group Wednesday.

An outspoken Chinese minority scholar was indicted on separatism charges amid a renewed flare-up of bloody anti-government violence in the country's far west.

China sentenced 32 people in its western Xinjiang region to prison terms for downloading or sending "violent terror" videos, state media said, as authorities crackdown on people they say are Islamists and separatists behind recent attacks.

China has taken down more than 40 groups it calls "violent terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in its restive western region of Xinjiang since authorities began a crackdown in May, state media said on Monday.

Authorities in China's restive Xinjiang denied food for 10 days to a prominent Uighur academic detained on separatism charges, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday, as nine in the region were sentenced for terror offences.

Police shot dead 13 attackers in China's restive Xinjiang region after they rammed a car into a police station and detonated explosives, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, in the latest of a series of attacks to worry Beijing.