The Kazakhstan tycoon who bought Prince Andrew's house is being tipped as his country's next president – with glamorous London socialite Goga Ashkenazi as his possible first lady.

A wanted former top Kazakh government official sentenced to imprisonment for various crimes and ordered to pay damages connected with torture is currently living in an apartment in Amery Street, Sliema, The Sunday Times has learnt.

Leading opposition figures in Kazakhstan have urged Tony Blair to press for democratic reform in the oil-rich central Asian country or abandon his new role as adviser to the government.

Islamic militants disguised themselves as street cleaners to carry out two bomb blasts last month in Atyrau, the capital of Kazakhstan's biggest oil- producing region, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

ALMATY – Before May, Kazakhstan had never experienced a suicide bombing. Since then, the country's media have reported two, as well as a related explosion in a garbage bin.

Kazakhstan has a higher debt rating at Standard & Poor's than Russia for the first time since 2005 as the central Asian nation spends less of its commodities- fueled wealth than its northern neighbor.