There's so much news and so many who report it well, it's difficult to hit all of the high points without a round-up. Afghanistan: –One of the South Korean hostages has been killed. Negotiations continue for the other 22 hostages, who are, according to the ROK government, safe for the moment. Reuters builds a Timeline […]
Yesterday, Stephen Blank of the US Army War College wrote at Eurasianet that U.S. aid and relations in Central Asia are likely to scale back further. Though U.S. interest in the region is high, financial constraints are appearing to dictate a lessening of aid and assistance to Central Asian states. For Central Asia watchers, there […]
Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's last king, was interred today. At al-Jazeera, the obituary notes that the King, who abdicated in 1973, presided over a forty-year period of stability and peace in Afghanistan. After the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, he returned briefly to his home state as a figure of unity. Not everyone found the king to be an […]
I was so sad to hear that the Kazakhstan-sponsored cyclists at the Tour de France, Team Astana, dropped out of the race. The team was led by Kazakhstani cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, was hit with charges of steroid abuse. (This picture is not of Mr. Vinokourov, but Mr. Bazaev). It looks as if the team's investors (or perhaps […]
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has signed a 30-year natural gas import contract with Turkmenistan. 30 billion cubic meters (cum) of gas will be exported from Turkmenistan via a newly-planned natural gas pipeline. Let's hope that CNPC trains and hires local Turkmenistani workers for this multi-million dollar infrastructure project, which should begin in 2009. Almost […]
President Berdymukhamedov announced that USD one billion will be invested in a vacation resort on the Caspian, in the city of Turkmenbashi. It will contain sixty hotels, a stadium, restaurants, sports facilities, and shopping centers. This idea first surfaced in May of this year, and developed further after a meeting between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. At the time, […]
Last Thursday, 23 South Korean aid workers, affiliated with an evangelical Christian mission, were abducted from a bus near Kandahar. Their mission was to develop hospital facilities. Fifteen of the 23 are women, and all are alive and said to be in good health. The Taliban is threatening to kill them today if some Taliban hostages are not […]
Last week, U.S. President Bush promulgated another Executive Order to contain terrorist funding for the Iraq insurgency, the “aid and support” of those who want to bring failure to the new government and reconstruction process. I have a more comprehensive, Iraq-focused post on this issue over at my other blog. Yet this Executive Order is equally relevant for […]
A triumph in the Rule of Law: Mr. Seidenfeld is acquitted on all charges!!! Over at the Save Mark Seidenfeld site, Derek Bloom has listed the findings of the court, which include: That in refutation of all allegations, Mr. Seidenfeld neither kept back money or equipment for his own personal gain. That he should be […]
There be dragons–or at least, living legends: swimming around in Scotland's Loch Ness and, as reported this week, in Lake Kanasi in Xinjiang Province. This definitely proves a theory that the initial uh, foundation for the species is somewhere in the vicinity of the, mmm, Barents Sea, but migrated south during the Ice Age–just ahead of those pesky […]
Over at Registan.net, Nathan is discussing a minor backlash in the blogosphere against Kazakhstan's potential investment in Westinghouse. Toshiba, which currently owns 77% of Westinghouse, will be selling this share for USD 486.3 million to Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstani nuclear agency. This is a good deal for the U.S.–protests notwithstanding–which is why the U.S. approved the sale. […]
Alisher Iminzhanov, a Kyrgyzstani leader of the outcast group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, was detained in Osh on July 17th. His arrest has been cast as a preventive measure for the festivities associated with the annual summer SCO summit, which starts on August 16th. Kyrgyzstan believes that at least 5,000 supporters of HuT within its borders. What is Hizb ut-Tahrir? Hizb-ut-Tahrir […]
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