Customers at the General Post Office (GPO) in Peshawar February 6 buy stamps commemorating the late computer prodigy Arfa Karim, who died of epilep...
China will extend Kazakhstan more than US$10 billion in credit in exchange for the right to acquire shares of Kazakhstan's largest oil company.
A senior official revealed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun preliminary work with laboratories to prepare a vaccine against swine flu if needed.
On April 26, the village of Petrovka in Kyrgyzstan's Chui region was the site of large-scale unrest when ethnic Russians and Kyrgyz youths violently persecuted local Kurds.
In the new school year, Tajik schoolchildren and students will study new topics in the field of international humanitarian law including human rights and introductory pre-service training.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban targets in the country's north-western region April 28, part of a wider military crackdown on militants inside its borders.
Chief of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Internal Affairs General Headquarters Kirkkeldy Kydyrbayev was attacked on April 22 by unidentified men who threw hydrochloric acid at him leaving 25 percent of his body with burns.
On April 27, the Taliban currently in control of Pakistan's Swat Valley declared a peace deal with the government there
A tender for the development of a technical, economic and environmental assessment of the Rogun Hydroelectric Power Plant will be issued soon.
Tajikistan Parliamentary Deputy Muhammadsharif Himmatzoda has resigned in protest against the recently enacted law on freedom of conscience and religious associations, which he claims conflicts with his religious convictions.
A Kyrgyz member of parliament called on the legislature to defend the country's domestic markets from Chinese entrepreneurs during a hearing of the Migration, Labour, Social Policy and Health Committee.
On April 24, most of Kazakhstan’s newspapers covered the parliament debate about draft Internet legislation.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher’s productive visit to Turkmenistan April 14-17 demonstrated that relations between the two countries are warming. These are not the best of times, however, for the country’s relations with its former “Big Brother”.
Losses incurred by the state that can be attributed to the national service provider Tajiktelecom totalled almost US$800,000.
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Tajikistan to supply water to neighbouring countries during the irrigation season to meet obligations under international agreements
The law on the subsistence level, which the Tajik government spent five years developing, defines the principles by which the government will provide support for the poor.
More than 100 followers of the banned organisation Tabligh Jama'at were detained during a sermon about their beliefs in a Dushanbe mosque.
Transit through Tajikistan of non-military freight for NATO troops in Afghanistan may begin by the end of June.
Kazakhs of Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan have, for the first time, gathered in Dushanbe for a small ‘kurultai’. The Kazakhstan Embassy in Tajikistan proposed the meeting jointly with Baiterek, a Kazakh social organisation in Tajikistan.
A job fair organised by the Tashkent Architectural Construction Institute was held in Tashkent where construction companies were seeking to fill vacancies.
A Women’s Development Centre has opened in the village of Metar in the Spitamen district of Tajikistan’s Sogdi Region.
The ombudsman’s office in Bishkek is developing draft legislation on preventing torture that will allow human rights activists to visit all closed institutions at any time of the day.
An analytical centre has opened at Tajikistan’s National Security Committee. The U.S. government provided US$710,000 for the project.
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Turkmen wrestlers captured three medals at the Ninth International Kurash Wrestling Tournament in Uzbekistan.
Pakistan News Business Sports Entertainment News and Weather - Central Asia News Afghanistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Turkmenistan-Sports Business and Entertainment
Pakistan News Business Sports Entertainment News and Weather - Central Asia News Afghanistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Turkmenistan-Sports Business and Entertainment
Pakistan News Business Sports Entertainment News and Weather - Central Asia News Afghanistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Turkmenistan-Sports Business and Entertainment
A landslide on April 11 in the village of Raikomol in southern Kyrgyzstan killed 16 people, 11 of them from the same family.
Professional Uzbek football clubs were exempted from paying tax for three years as of April 1.
The results of an “Analysis of the effectiveness of the policy for protecting children’s rights in Tajikistan” conducted by the Tajik government with help from UNICEF, have been announced in Dushanbe.
A new version of the nation’s Journalists’ Code of Ethics has been adopted at the second Republic Conference of Kyrgyzstan Journalists and Mass Media. It includes rules on respecting children's rights and items related to covering counterterrorism operations and natural and man-made disasters.
The Iranian army presented a low-key parade this year, a sharp contrast to previous years when the army put its latest weapons and equipment on show in what looked to be a challenge to the international community.
The Kazakh national ice hockey team took first place in the Top Division of Group A at the world championship tournament in Lithuania, which enables it to compete in the elite division of the world championships.
Taliban militants have extended their grip in north-western Pakistan, pushing out from a valley where the government allowed the imposition of Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as the Buner district no further than 100 km from the capital. Police and officials appear to have fled as armed militants there broadcast radio sermons and spread fear, officials and witnesses said April 22.
On April 18, Kazakhstan formally opened a digital library on human rights issues in Shymkent in South Kazakhstan.
Russian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Tajik citizen Saidzhon Radzhabov who is wanted in connection with the March 26 murder of three neo-Nazi skinheads.
Almazbek Atambayev, a former prime minister and the current leader of the Social Democratic Party, has been selected by the Kyrgyzstan United National Movement, which represents the leading opposition parties, as the candidate who will represent them all in the presidential election July 23.
Retired Kyrgyz officer Mukhammad Salimzode, an ethnic Tajik accused by Tajik authorities of spying and attempting a coup, went on trial in Dushanbe on April 17.
Tajikistan will stop using incandescent light bulbs by Oct. 1 and switch to energy-saving bulbs. President Emomali Rakhmon set the deadline for terminating reliance on the “granddaddy” of lighting.
Kazakhstan is planning to shift its 2009 grain exports southward, to Afghanistan, Iran and other Central Asian neighbours.
Organised by the UN Population Fund, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the president of Turkmenistan’s National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, a conference on “International standards in the development of gender politics” was held recently in Ashgabat.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are to set up a working group to search for documents on which to base the demarcation and delimitation of the border between the two countries.
An information campaign has been launched in Tajikistan to help prevent the spread of bird flu. It is aimed at changing common practices in personal hygiene and food preparation to ward off possible infection.
Special divisions from Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member countries were trained in Tajikistan as part of the Norak Anti-Terror 2009 exercises. Tajikistan considers the Uzbek Islamic Movement a terrorist group and called it the biggest threat to security in Central Asia.
In his annual parliamentary address, the President of Tajikistan called on the country’s media to defend national independence.
On April 14, powerful Afghan Shia cleric Mohamad Asif Mohseni ordered that members of his sect must not allow their wives and daughters to attend a demonstration in Kabul against a law the UN says legalises marital rape.
Construction has begun in Shymkent on an Asar housing complex for ethnic Kazakh immigrants who have returned to their historic homeland from foreign countries.
On April 10, the Tashkent municipal court sentenced director of Yetti Iklim (Seven Dimensions) Shavkat Ismoilova and editor Davron Tadzhiyev to eight years in prison for their involvement in the Nur religious movement. The imam of a Namangan region mosque, Mamadali Shakhabiddinov, was sentenced to 12 years.
The European WBA office determined the winner of the auction for the right to organise the rematch between Russian World Boxing Association champion Nikolay Valuev and “Champion in Recess” Uzbek Ruslan Chagaev.
In the first three months of the year, Tajik military courts have examined 165 criminal cases involving 190 people who have been charged mainly for involvement in illegal drug trafficking, hazing, abuse of authority and desertion.
An accident in Kyrgyzstan left Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, without power for three hours. The incident has drawn new attention to problems with power supply in southern Kazakhstan.
By presidential order, the Kyrgyz state patent service Kyrgyzpatent has received monopoly rights to the domain suffix “.kg”. The last word in settling the rights question, however, remains with the international organisation ICANN.
A total of 1.71 tonnes of drugs seized by the Uzbek law enforcement agencies in their efforts to combat the illegal trade in drugs have been destroyed.
Kazakhstan's former prime minister and current political exile Akezhan Kazhegeldin has called on the opposition to stand behind Nazarbayev to weather the economic and financial crisis together. Instead, four opposition groups announced their intention to create a single unified democratic opposition party.
Dozens are feared killed by two strong earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan early April 17, officials said.
Kazakh National Security Committee officers arrested Deputy defence Minister Kazhimurat Mayermanov on suspicion of abuse of office and causing losses to the government of more than US$82 million.
Dubai's Chief of Police Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim announced that the investigation into Sulim Yamadayev's assassination has identified both his killers and those who hired them. Yamadayev, a former Chechen separatist who later became commander of Russia's Vostok battalion, was awarded the Hero of Russia medal.
Former Tajikistan servicemen have set up the Association of Servicemen Injured by Antipersonnel Mines to protect the rights of those injured by their detonations.
Tajik Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov announced April 13 that a new state school funding system will be introduced at the start of the next academic year.
Sanzhar Kadyraliev, a Kyrgyzstani parliamentary deputy of the pro-government “Ak Zhol” faction, was shot at his residence in the centre of Bishkek on April 14.
“Bekire 2009”, an operation targeting poachers fishing illegally on the River Ural and in the Caspian Sea, has begun in Kazakhstan’s Atyrau Province.
The president of the National Bank of Kazakhstan announced that the Kazakh banks’ foreign debt has fallen to just over a quarter of GDP.
Tajikistan has introduced a 45-day tourist visa and simplified the application procedure required to get one. A number of levies imposed on tourists also have been abolished.
Kyrgyzstan’s Spiritual Authority for Muslims has decided that all clergy will wear a standard uniform including muftis and heads of the seven regional affiliates.
A photo exhibit entitled “Hidden Japan” has opened in Tashkent as part of a year-long effort to promote cooperation between Japan and Central Asia.
An army spokesperson on April 9 denied media reports that claim Taliban militia are present in the frontier district of Kupwara, close to the Line-of-Control (LoC), in Indian administered Kashmir.
With the confrontation between Pakistan’s two major political parties, PPP and PML(N), at an end following the reinstatement of deposed judges and the Punjab chief minister, pessimism about the Pakistan’s economy and future as a democracy has begun to dissipate.
Mahmadali Kurbonov, a member of Nurek City Council and the former director of the Nurek hydroelectric power plant, has been relieved of his duties to allow investigators to establish whether he is guilty of serious economic crimes.
The press office of Kazakhstan's space agency announced that the planned flight of a Kazakh cosmonaut to the International Space Station has been cancelled because of financial constraints.
A new Walk of Remembrance for 17 Kazakh Interior Ministry troops who died in 1995 on the Tajik-Afghan border has been opened in Astana.
A Taliban firing squad killed a young couple in south-western Afghanistan for trying to elope, shooting them with AK-47s in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region, officials said April 14.
Western attention was recently focused on al-Shabab when in April Somali pirates seized a U.S. commercial ship in the Indian Ocean. The standoff ended Apr. 12 when U.S. Navy snipers killed three of the pirates and freed the captain of the U.S. ship, Richard Phillips.
The Days of Russian culture concluded in Turkmenistan on April 12. For the first time in the 17 years since Turkmenistan's independence, a substantial representative delegation of Russian cultural workers and artists participated in the multi-faceted event. .
Independent British auditing firm Ernst & Young has accused Murodali Alimardon, former chairman of Tajikistan National Bank and now vice-premier of the country, of inappropriate use of state funds.
Uzbekistan has refused to allow popular Russian novelist Boris Akunin to visit the country to do research for his next book, which was to be set in Central Asia.
An international seminar in Tashkent on “Implementing the UN Convention against Corruption by way of national legislation and in practice” organised by the Central Asian UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Uzbek Procurator-General has drawn to a close.
European parliament delegation head Ona Jukneviciene expressed concern over the way Tajikistan is using financial aid during its visit to Tajikistan April 6 – 9 for the fourth inter-parliamentary meeting with Tajik parliamentarians.
The power outages experienced last winter by the Kyrgyz public are set to continue through April. The official reason for the blackouts is a water shortage. The amount of water in the country’s largest reservoir is now just half of capacity and 146 million cubic metres less than last year’s level.
April 1 was the deadline for Tajik citizens to file tax declarations. The degree to which government employees comply with tax regulations is now under review.
A project to reduce Tajikistan’s energy losses financed by the World Bank and the Swiss government has proven to be effective. After the installation of new types of electricity and gas meters and the creation of a laboratory to test and control the accuracy of their readings, the country’s electricity and gas providers have seen a reduction in energy wastage.
Election fever is building up in Kyrgyzstan, but the Revolutionary Committee that includes the radical opposition has called for an election boycott. Other opposition movements and parties are working to develop consensus on a single candidate.
Deputies in the Tajik parliament detected a lapse in the national budget, the inadvertent omission of an article on the ecology service. This lapse would have resulted in members of the ecology police force being left without salaries.
At the top of the Kazakh Security Council’s agenda is the development of new ways to guarantee nuclear security at storage and disposal sites for weapons and ammunition.
At a meeting of experts working on a national food plan for Kyrgyzstan, the World Bank announced a decision to provide the country US$10 million by 2010 for healthcare system reform.
The Drug Control Agency under the Tajik president reports that the flow of heroin and raw opium to Tajikistan from Afghanistan has dropped, but the import of cannabis drugs has increased.
The National Association of Nongovernmental Sources of Media Information in Tajikistan, or NANSMIT, celebrates its tenth anniversary this month. In recognition of its role in creating independent media in Tajikistan, its chairman was awarded a “Top of Class in Tajikistan's Press” lapel pin.
The Japanese government has provided US$500,000 to build greenhouses, restore crop storehouses and irrigate land in four mountainous regions of Tajikistan.
Two large banks will be created in Uzbekistan to service the country’s agricultural industry. They are being formed as part of the government’s “Year of Village Development and Improvement
The Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek on April 7 extended for another month the detention of former Foreign Minister Alikbek Dzhekshenkulov, an opposition leader accused by authorities of involvement in the murder of a Turkish citizen.
An unusual exhibition of the works of late distinguished Turkmen artist Izzat Klychev opened at Turkmenistan's Museum of Visual Art. Neglected for many years at the demand of the political leadership, the master's name is once again acceptable in Turkmenistan’s official cultural circle.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has made new appointments to the Justice and Interior Ministries, the Prosecutor General's office and the country's Supreme Court, sacking some directors and shuffling others.
From March 30 through April 2, large scale exercises by Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Committee of National Security special forces were conducted on liberating petroleum installations from terrorists.
The nomination of candidates for the July 23 presidential elections has officially begun in Kyrgyzstan. The Central Electoral Commission said three candidates submitted petitions to run as of April 7.
Turkmen Sambo wrestlers win nine medals at first championship in Central Asia organised by Asian Sambo Federation. Teams from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan competed.
Almaty District Public Prosecutor’s Office declared the activities of the Alla-Ayat religious movement illegal. Authorities intend to restrict an increase in the number of illegal associations in Kazakhstan.
During a visit to Astana April 6 and 7, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that his country supports Nursultan Nazarbayev’s proposal that an international nuclear fuel bank be established in Kazakhstan.
In a major departure from previous policy, the U.S. will join direct talks between the UN, European powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme, the U.S. State Department announced April 8.
A court handed down a verdict in a case against a drug kingpin and seven members of his multiethnic criminal group for operating a major drug trafficking organisation.
Transport and Communication Ministry will replace official vehicles with bicycles in a move to lower transport costs.
