August 2011

Tunsahan Umer sits quietly in her dark apartment, staring at the clock. Her small home, from the outside, looks like any in small-town China -- a non-descript square block of freshly-painted red apartment buildings. Its insides, however, are anything but ordinary.

Fears of violence have prompted a widespread deployment of security forces across much of China's far western Xinjiang ahead of a major trade fair, which opens here on Thursday and is aimed at boosting the region's fast-growing trade links with Central Asia.

China is sending a warning to Japan's new leadership, saying the incoming prime minister must show greater respect for China's core interests, including a disputed island chain in the East China Sea.

China proposes a change in the law that would allow the detention of suspects for up to six months in a secret location. The move would increase the risk of torture, activists say.