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BANGKOK, Thailand -- China's government sent more than one million majority ethnic Han Chinese to live uninvited in the homes of minority Uighur families in Xinjiang province and report if the Muslims display Islamic or unpatriotic beliefs which need to be forcibly reformed. "Had a Uighur host just greeted a neighbor in Arabic with the words 'Assalamu Alaykum'? That would need to go in the notebook," and reported to China's authorities, said American anthropologist Darren Byler. "Was that a copy of the Koran in the home? Was anyone praying on Friday or fasting during Ramadan? Was a little sister's dress...

The top story on the news in Canada today is either the blizzard in Quebec or this story about the arrest of four men in several countries, one of whom is a 22-year-old computer whiz and recent graduate living in Canada (near Hamilton, Ontario) and originally from Kazakhstan. Basically, the story is that he was hacking into e-mail accounts as an extension of the big Yahoo breach, and was in the pay of the Russian security service FSB. He was arrested and extradited to the U.S.A. on Wednesday. This link will provide more details. Other than the fact that I...

Bill Clinton just can't seem to keep his sleazy private dealings out of the news: This time, it's a 2005 dinner he shared with a wealthy mining mogul and Kazakhstan's president, after which the businessman wound up with a coveted contract in that country. The sordid story- about Clinton's meal with Kazakh strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev and UrAsia Energy Ltd. head Frank Giustra- ran on the front page of Thursday's New York Times. Reporters Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr. deserve kudos: They describe how Clinton praised the Kazakh dictator, absurdly, for "opening up the social and political life of...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Kazakhstan has decided to open its airspace to U.S. military aircraft ferrying supplies to American troops serving in Afghanistan, it was decided on Sunday at a meeting between President Barack Obama and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Washington. The permission granted by Kazakstan means that U.S. planes en route to Afghanistan can now use the polar route instead of flying along the indirect route through Europe, which would save precious time and fuel for moving supplies to forward locations in the war-ravaged country. The meeting, the first between the two leaders, took place on the eve of the Nuclear...

Here's a fascinating politics/energy/international relations story that's flying below the radar now, but feels as though it could get huge. The news starts with Uranium One (UUU), a Toronto-listed uranium miner, whose shares plunged 38% on news that the Kazakhstan government was probing whether certain Kazakh mines it owns were acquired illegally. Specifically, it's looking at potentially illegal asset sales by Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former head of state-owned uranium miner Kazatomprom, who later sought favors from the man who sold the assets to, Frank Giustra, and Bill Clinton. Reuters: [O]ne deal in question was the sale of a 30 percent...

ALMATY - Alarmed by the antics of a fictional TV reporter who portrays their country as a nation of horse urine-drinking misogynists, Kazakh authorities have invited the comedian who plays the character to come and see the truth for himself. Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh first deputy foreign minister and a powerful son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, asked comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to visit the vast, oil-rich steppe nation and meet normal human beings rather than the larger-than-life lunatics shown by Cohen's TV reporter Borat. "His trip could yield a lot of discoveries -- that women not only travel inside buses but...

White House gates shut to 'Kazakh reporter' comic Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:46am ET Borat goes to Washington:PLAY VIDEOBy Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn't get past the gates of the White House. Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Also invited...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - An outspoken critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was found shot to death in his home, his family's lawyer said Sunday. Zamanbek Nurkadilov was found lying face-down by his wife Saturday night, shot twice in the heart and once in the head, said the family lawyer, Serially Musin. Nurkadilov, 61, fired as emergency situations minister last year after criticizing Nazarbayev, was supporting the opposition candidate in next month's presidential elections in this former Soviet Central Asian nation. Police chief Moldir Orazalin ruled out any political connection in the death. "We do not consider such a theory," he told...

US scatters bases to control Eurasia By Ramtanu Maitra The United States is beefing up its military presence in Afghanistan, at the same time encircling Iran. Washington will set up nine new bases in Afghanistan in the provinces of Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia. Reports also make it clear that the decision to set up new US military bases was made during Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Kabul last December. Subsequently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accepted the Pentagon diktat. Not that Karzai had a choice: US intelligence is of the view that he will not be...

The Open Society Institute (OSI), financed by billionaire George Soros, has accused Kazakhstan officials of trying to close down its local office. A demand for unpaid taxes and fines of $600,000 (£425,000) is politically motivated, the OSI claimed, adding that it paid the money in October. The organisation has found itself in trouble after being accused of helping to topple Georgia's former president. It denies having any role, but offices have had to close across the region. Not wanted? The OSI shut its office in Moscow last year and has withdrawn from Uzbekistan and Belarus. In the Ukraine earlier this...

The village of Nura is a humble enough place, its rows of small houses lined up along muddy streets in the shadow of the Tien Shan mountains in the south-eastern corner of Kazakhstan. Most vehicles on the main highway drive straight past. But Nura has become a focus for the promotion of one of the Kazakh people's most cherished nomadic traditions. During the winter hunting season, a visitor to the empty plains around the village will often catch sight of one of the classic images of the Central Asian steppe - a hunter in a big fur hat, on horseback,...

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The presidents of China, Russia and four Central Asian nations met Thursday to breathe life into a security alliance and open an anti-terrorism center, part of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to counter the U.S. military presence in the region. The leaders were joined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who warned terrorists have continued infiltrating Afghanistan and that eradicating terrorism is a "long-term fight." The one-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, marked what Russian President Vladimir Putin said was the start of its work to become a vital international institution. He acknowledged the group...

Kazakh dam condemns most of the shrunken Aral Sea to oblivion Desperate step after water row with Uzbeks Paul Brown, environment correspondent Wednesday October 29, 2003 The Guardian (UK) A seven-mile dam is being built across a small northern section of the shrunken Aral Sea in Central Asia, which is described as the world's worst environmental disaster. The saline inland sea, divided between the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, has been drying out for 25 years, since the USSR began a vast irrigation scheme drawing water from its two tributary rivers to grow cotton and rice in the...

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