Militants in Tajikistan's Rasht Valley ambushed a military convoy of 75 Tajik troops Sept. 19, killing 25 military personnel according to official reports and 40 according to the militants, who attacked from higher ground with small arms, automatic weapons and grenades.

Britain's new Bribery Act risks diverting a second wave of Kazakh companies seeking to raise money from the London Stock Exchange, according to bankers and businesses considering listing.

Kazakhstan's commercial bust-ups with Western majors such as Eni, BG and Chevron have grabbed the headlines in recent years, reflecting the rise of "resource nationalism" in the republic. But for sheer drama, these disputes cannot match the saga involving a Moldovan oil company, Ascom, which is preparing to challenge the Kazakh government in the international arbitration courts for "expropriating" its oil production assets and transferring them to state oil company Kazmunaigas (KMG).

A long-time confidant of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Vladimir Ni, died on Thursday after a long illness, leaving a gap in the inner circle that surrounds the veteran leader of Central Asia's largest economy. Ni, who was 77, was a board member of copper miner Kazakhmys . The group announced his death in a statement on Friday.

FORTUNE -- In May, less than a month after the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a key milestone was achieved with little notice: Total U.S. supplies of petroleum and products refined from it (including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) surpassed 1.8 billion barrels, reaching the highest level in the last 20 years. Since then the total has continued to edge upward, hitting 1.87 billion barrels in the week ended August 27, according to the Energy Information Administration.