ALMATY (Reuters) -- Kazakh police have detained several regional officials in connection with a probe into floods last week that killed 34 people near the financial capital Almaty, the Interior Ministry said today.

ALMATY (Reuters) - China's insatiable demand for energy to power its economy has made it a serious contender in the fight for control over vast energy resources in its thinly populated and impoverished western backyard.

Wealthiest of the former Soviet republics promotes a glitzy image to foreign investors but struggles to maintain its ageing infrastructure and has been hit by a series of disasters in recent years as a result

The lawyer for a former head of Kazkahstan's state nuclear energy company says his client has been sentenced to 14 years in jail on charges of embezzlement and corruption.

March 11 (Reuters) - Energy-hungry China is stepping up its presence in former Soviet Central Asia by handing out billions of dollars in loans, snapping up energy assets and building a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan.

ALMATY, March 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state-run energy firm CNPC on Thursday said it complied with applicable laws in its 2003 purchase of a stake in a Kazakh oil company after Kazakh financial police said they were examining the deal.