Tashkent, Uzbekistan - For the first time in a generation, Tashkent has an outward-looking foreign policy.

United States federal prosecutors charged on Tuesday the owner of a Venezuelan news network with money laundering and bribery for his role in a billion-dollar currency exchange scheme to which a former Venezuelan official and a former owner of a bank in the Dominican Republic pleaded guilty.

Uzbek TV says billionaire Alisher Usmanov - once named as Britain's richest man - is helping to rebuild his country with huge investments. Yet a paper trail leads to a Scottish shell firm. Chief Reporter David Leask investigates.

Mishcon de Reya advised British Virgin Islands company owned by Zamira Hajiyeva

Astana buys Beijing's talk of ethnic Kazakhs serving as a "living bridge."

Kazakhstan is an Asian country with an important role to play in the region, thanks to its geographical position and to the energy rich soil. Located in the heart of Central Asia, between two powerful neighbours with geopolitical ambitions, Russia and China, this young Republic is trying to maintain an equilibrium and defend its independence.