After months of pressure on Kazakhstan’s currency, the central bank has moved to allow the tenge to slide – but avoided the large snap devaluation that doomsayers have long been predicting. On July 15, the National Bank eased the corridor within which the tenge trades to allow it to drop by 5%, to 198 to the U.S. dollar.

After a three-month trial, an Austrian jury has found two Kazakh men not guilty of involvement in a brutal double murder committed thousands of miles away. Alnur Mussayev, a former Kazakh intelligence chief was cleared of all charges. Vadim Koshlyak, a former security adviser, received a two-year sentence for deprivation of liberty, but was cleared of murder.

Last week, during the lavish opening ceremony of Azerbaijan's European Games, Lady Gaga performed a unique, haunting rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine." The organizers behind the Games reportedly splurged $2 million on the performance, replete with a flower-decked piano and soaring score.

Aliyev soll Misshandlung Spaß bereitet haben: "Er hat gelacht, Scherze gemacht". Im Prozess um die Entführung und Ermordung der kasachischen Banker Zholdas Timraliyev und Aybar Khasenov ist am Mittwoch im Wiener Landesgericht mit Askan Bekmuratov ein Zeuge vernommen worden, der an der Verschleppung und Misshandlung der Banker beteiligt gewesen sein soll. Dafür wurde Bekmuratov in Kasachstan im Jänner 2008 zu zehnjährigem strengen Freiheitsentzug verurteilt.

Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has given his first public statement since carrying out the April 2013 terrorist attack.

Internal documents seen by the Guardian suggest the UK catering giant’s Kazakh unit made ‘facilitation payments’ for an unspecified period up to 2011.  An international subsidiary of Compass Group, the British catering giant that supplies more than 1,500 UK primary schools and 30 NHS Trusts, paid bribes to government officials in Kazakhstan, documents seen by the Guardian reveal.

Astana places severe restrictions on civil liberties, including freedom of expression, conscience, and assembly, a United Nations rapporteur says in a report published following a visit to Kazakhstan earlier this year.

In der Causa Rakhat Aliyev fand das Institut für Rechtsmedizin in St. Gallen keine Indizien auf äußere Gewalteinwirkung oder Intoxikation. Der ehemalige Botschafter dürfte Selbstmord begangen haben.

Germany's former political leaders grace the cover of this week's edition of the German news magazine Der Spiegel. But this isn't a tribute. Rather they are portrayed in fictional police mug shots, accused of being bought off to whitewash the reputation of an oppressive Central Asian government.