Reuters
The wife of an exiled Kazakh oligarch accused of embezzling millions of dollars from his former bank thanked Italy yesterday for helping her to overturn a travel ban, months after she was expelled from Rome. Alma Shalabayeva, the wife of exiled oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, thanked Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino in a phone call for helping to persuade the Kazakh government to allow her return to Europe, the Italian foreign ministry said
Rakhat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbaev, has applied for citizenship in Cyprus, MaltaToday has learnt. The multi-millionaire exile has been living in Malta since 2010 and claims he is being hunted down by the Kazakh secret service he once headed.
Rome prosecutors on Monday said they were investigating an alleged role played by Italian energy company Eni in the expulsion of the wife and daughter of Kazakh oligarch and political dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov earlier this year. The probe comes after Italian investigative TV program Report broadcast an anonymous interview in recent weeks with an alleged manager of Eni, which has extensive investments in resource-rich Kazakhstan.
The name "Ukraine" literally translates as "on the edge." It is a country on the edge of other countries, sometimes part of one, sometimes part of another and more frequently divided. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was divided between Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, it was divided between Russia and Austria-Hungary. And in the 20th century, save for a short period of independence after World War I, it became part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine has been on the edge of empires for centuries.
Bill Clinton was paid an estimated $275,000 to speak at the glittering Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation gala in Vienna — but the ex-president pulled out hours before the event after the organization's founder was convicted of international economic espionage.
The final withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan and Central Asia may result in an upsurge of narcotics trafficking, terrorism and other security challenges. So are the area's leading politicians working together to head this problem off at the pass? Not according to Richard Weitz.
A French public prosecutor recommended on Thursday that Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank, be extradited to Ukraine or to Russia, which wants to put him on trial. The 50-year-old, who denies fraud charges, has been in custody at the Aix-Luynes jail in southern France since he was arrested near the Riviera resort of Cannes in July after 18 months as a fugitive.
