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China's big cities are announcing large investment plans intended to boost slowing growth rates, but just how much of a lift they will give to the economy remains uncertain.

Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Communist Party official Bo Xilai, was found guilty and given a suspended death sentence on Monday for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, according to the Associated Press.

A group of Japanese activists swam ashore and raised flags early Sunday on one of a group of islands at the center of an escalating territorial dispute with China.

China's Yu Wenxia has been crowned the 2012 Miss World. This is the second time Miss China has been awarded the title. The last time was in 2007 when Zhang Zilin took the honor. The first runner-up is Sophie Elizabeth Moulds of Wales and the second runner-up is Jessica Michelle Kahawaty of Australia.

Japan on Friday sent home the first group of Chinese activists detained after landing on an island claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, a move China welcomed but at the same time warned its neighbor against any further escalation in tension.

China’s state-run news media are rapidly growing in Africa, hoping to bolster Beijing’s influence in a region rich in the resources needed to fuel China’s powerhouse industries.

China's economy is still facing big downward pressure and the foundation of a recovery is not yet solid, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said during a trip to the country's coastal Zhejiang province, state radio said on Wednesday.

Chinese officials say a strong earthquake has struck a remote area of the country's far-western Xinjiang region. The government earthquake monitoring center said the quake registered magnitude 6.2 and hit Sunday evening. It said it was centered 175 miles southeast of the oasis city of Hotan. The area is deep in the thinly populated Kunlun mountains.

China recently established a larger army garrison and expanded the size of an ostensible legislature to govern a speck of land, known as Yongxing Island, more than 200 miles southeast of Hainan. The goal of that move, Mr. Wu said, is to allow Beijing to “exercise sovereignty over all land features inside the South China Sea,” including more than 40 islands “now occupied illegally” by Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Stocks closed Friday higher even as a raft of weak data from China signaled a slowing global economy.