Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images, file

A train passes on tracks running parallel with the Tian Shan mountain range on the outskirts of Korla, an oil town south of Urumqi, capital of China's far west Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, on October 10, 2006.

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Kazakhstan has launched a new transit railway linking China to Europe, aiming to beat rival routes for journey time in the competition to handle a growing flow of goods along the ancient Silk Road trade route.

"Kazakhstan is a virtual bridge linking the East and the West," Yerkin Meirbekov, deputy railway department chief at Kazakhstan's Transport Ministry, said in an interview. "You can actually say this is the revival of the Silk Road."

Centuries ago, it would take months for caravans of camels and horses from China to reach Europe across the sun-scorched steppes and deserts of Central Asia to exchange silk for medicines, perfumes and precious stones.

Now it takes just 15 days for trains carrying containers with electronic goods, construction materials and other cargo to cover the 6,750 mile route from Chongqing in southwest China to Duisburg in Germany's industrial Ruhr region.

Late last year, Kazakhstan completed construction of a 183-mile stretch from Zhetygen to Korgas at the Chinese border, looping it in to the existing national railway network and opening the second China-Europe link across its territory.

Meirbekov said that the annual volume of freight turnover along the new route, guaranteed by China, was set to total 2 million metric tons this year and would rise eventually to 15 million metric tons.

Zhi Jun / ColorChinaPhoto via AP, file

A train carrying 45 tons of liquefied petroleum gas imported from Kazakhstan arrives at the Alashankou (Alataw Pass) Port in Bozhou in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on June 14, 2010.

"The Chinese side, as well as the Kazakh side and European partners -- everyone is ready (to handle these volumes) already tomorrow," Meirbekov said.

"All railways, as well as customs and border guards, are ready to assist fast passage of cargo across their territories."

Europe-bound trains from China cross from Kazakhstan into Russia. Then they go via Belarus and Poland before reaching Duisburg in Germany.

Transit routes are a major earner for the fast-growing economy of Kazakhstan -- the world's ninth-largest nation by area but with a population of only 17 million.

Related:

• Russian train brings medical care to remote areas of Siberia
• Oasis on China's ancient Silk Road now draws tourists not traders
• A Silk Road culture pushed to the brink

A U.S. Air Force refueling plane crashed Friday in Central Asia, the military said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The plane, a KC-135, crashed in northern Kyrgyzstan and was based at the U.S. military installation at Manas, near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Its mission is to refuel combat planes on patrols over Afghanistan.

The KC-135 usually has a crew of three.

Military officials were investigating eyewitness reports that the plane was on fire before it crashed. They were also looking into the possibility that the plane blew an engine or struck a bird.

“I was working with my father in the field, and I heard an explosion. When I looked up at the sky I saw the fire. When it was falling, the plane split into three pieces,” Sherikbek Turusbekov, who lives nearby, told The Associated Press.

On Monday, seven people were killed when an American civilian cargo plane, a Boeing 747, crashed shortly after taking off from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It belonged to National Air Cargo, an upstate New York military contractor.

Six of those killed were from Michigan and the seventh from Kentucky, the company said. The Taliban claimed responsibility, but NATO quickly said that the claim was false and that there was no sign of insurgent activity at the time of the crash.

The United States leases the Kyrgyz installation for about $60 million a year. The contract is up in July 2014.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri May 3, 2013 8:01 AM EDT

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

Emergency and security personnel are seen through a heavy fog about 100 meters (328 feet) from the site of a plane crash near Almaty on Tuesday.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's commercial capital of Almaty on Tuesday, news agencies quoted SCAT airline as saying.

Twenty-two people were killed in the crash, Yuri Ilyin, deputy head of the emergencies department in Almaty, told Reuters from the scene of the crash near the village of Kyzyl Tu.

The plane had been en route from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast of the country when it crashed near the village of Kyzyl Tu, Interfax news agency said.

Almaty and the surrounding area were veiled in thick fog on Tuesday.

SCAT is based in Kazakhstan and operates extensive domestic services and some international flights.

It was the second plane crash in the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic in just a over a month.

On December 25, a military transport airplane crashed in bad weather near the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent, killing all 27 people on board.

Reuters

The remains of a military transport plane that crashed near Shymkent on December 25, 2012 are seen in this still image from a video.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A military transport plane crashed in southern Kazakhstan on Tuesday, killing all 27 people on board, including the country's acting border service chief.

The Russian-made An-72 crashed about 7 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) about 12 miles from the city of Shymkent near the border with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan's Committee for National Security said in a statement.

"The plane has burned up. Only some of its fragments remain," the news agency RIA quoted the head of the regional emergencies department as saying.

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Without specifying further details, authorities said an investigation was opened into the crash. No cause was given, but southern Kazakhstan over recent weeks has been buffeted by winds, heavy snows and low temperatures, causing widespread flight delays.

An eyewitness said he heard a loud explosion and saw flames at the crash site, the station reported.

The plane was carrying a crew of seven as well as 20 servicemen.

Kazakhstan's acting border service chief, Turganbek Stambekov, was appointed in June, after a mass killing of 14 frontier troops in a remote Kazakh outpost near China the month before.

The Kazakh-Uzbek border stretches across 1,350 miles of Central Asian steppes and deserts.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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What happens when the news of an international bribery scandal is published, then a legal threat makes a publication pull back the news, frightening others from touching the story?

The nonprofit investigative group called 100 Reporters has the story. It's a complex tale, involving riches in the ground in the Congo, an oligarch-owned company from Kazakhstan, an Israeli businessman, a Swiss conglomerate, and the formerly fugitive U.S. businessman Marc Rich (beneficiary of a pardon from President Bill Clinton).

Imagine that a gigantic corporation privately informs the government that it won an important deal overseas that might have involved the bribery of foreign officials. Journalists discover a confidential document written by the company itself that highlights its concerns. But they can’t write about the story because the corporation hires a white shoe law firm that threatens legal action against media outlets that make inquiries about the document.

You can read the full story, "Mining Copper, Burying Truth," by Ken Silverstein of 100 Reporters.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A hunter releases his tamed golden eagle during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan Dec. 9, 2011.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A hunter with his tame golden eagle sits on a stage during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on Dec. 9, 2011.

I would love to see these eagles in person. What beautiful creatures.

These hunters are continuing their country's ancient tradition that originated in using eagles to hunt for food. According to the BBC, the Kazakhstan government has been encouraging these eagle hunting competitions actually as a way to help the falcon population, which was facing extinction. The audience the golden eagles attract helps fund a falcon conservation center.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A tame golden eagle is seen during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on Dec. 9.

A hunter releases his tame golden eagle during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan Dec. 9.