This vast Central Asian country, the size of western Europe with just 15 million inhabitants, proved an instructive vantage point for scrutinizing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and above all its enormous consequences for societies, business and politics.
China and Kazakhstan agreed on Saturday to build and finance a gas pipeline and deepen atomic energy ties, extending Beijing's influence in a region where it has used its financial might to access natural resources.
The U.N. has found evidence of bloody intent behind the chaos in Kyrgyzstan that killed hundreds, left the nation's second-biggest city a smoldering ruin and sent more than 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks fleeing.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev was declared Kazakhstan's Leader of the Nation on Tuesday, which could signal the start of his gradual departure from the political scene in the oil-producing Central Asian nation.
The Pentagon said Thursday it is in talks with Kyrgyzstan's provisional government about fuel supplies for its operations at Manas air base, a key transit point for US troops headed to Afghanistan.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev may become Kazakhstan's "leader of the nation," with immunity from prosecution and the power to dictate policy after retirement, even though he refused to sign a law that gives him this title.
A solution to such an important for Kazakhstan ecological problem as disposal of waste sulfur depends directly on the world prices for grain. According to specialists, block sulfur deposits that have formed as a result of aggressive oil extraction in Kazakhstan have reached 18.5 million tons. Stored under the open sky, they cause a serious ecological problem during the rainy seasons in the western parts of the republic. At present, there is no scientific way to effectively utilize the sulfur.
