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The United States has suspended contact between NASA and its Russian counterpart over the ongoing situation in Ukraine. Only ongoing International Space Station cooperation will continue through the freeze in relations. NASA associate administrator Michael O’Brien said in a memo sent Wednesday that all missions with Russia’s Roscosmos are on hold indefinitely, UPI reports.

The prime minister of Kazakhstan unexpectedly announced his resignation Wednesday and was swiftly replaced by his influential predecessor. All three parties in the oil-rich Central Asian nation’s parliament voted to approve Karim Masimov, 49, as the new head of government. …

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Akhmetov, who had managed Central Asia's largest economy since September 2012, said on April 2, 2014 that he had resigned. REUTERS Photo Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov and his entire government resigned Wednesday, the authorities in the Central Asian country said. Akhmetov told a cabinet meeting that his resignation had been granted by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the government of the oil-exporting country said. No reason was given for Akhmetov's abrupt dismissal, but President Nazarbayev has broad powers to change prime ministers at his choosing. His press-service said on Twitter that the Kazakh leader has already proposed...

Following the launch of the reliable Soyuz FG rocket – along with a successful orbital insertion shortly thereafter – the Soyuz TMA-12M was immediately tasked with performing the first two engine burns on its first orbit of the Earth, which were pre-programmed into the Soyuz’s on-board computer prior to launch. ... While the crew were expected to dock to the station’s Poisk module less than six hours later at 11:04 pm, a problem during the “Dv3″ burn resulted in mission controllers opting to move to a new flight profile that will allow for Soyuz to arrive in two days time....

In Kosovo and Honduras, Obama-ite foreign policy gave Putin effective precedent.‘Your independence is irreversible, absolutely irreversible.” So declared Vice President Joe Biden, thrilling a parliamentary assembly in Pristina, Kosovo. These were still the early months of the Obama administration, and the vice president was touring the Balkans to take a victory lap in the breakaway Serbian territory whose independence he’d done so much to champion as an influential senator. As Vladimir Putin tucks away Crimea, just as he clawed South Ossetia and Abkhazia back from Georgia five years ago, Kosovo is worth remembering. So is President Obama’s staunch support of...

Citing the right to intervene wherever Russians are deemed to be in trouble, Vladimir Putin has set a possible precedent for future Russian intervention across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.This map, from Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, highlights the regions in neighboring countries that have the highest concentrations of Russian citizens, ethnic Russians, and native Russian speakers. www.rferl.org Kazakhstan and Belarus, both countries with large Russian populations, are already within Russia's sphere of influence. Both countries are members of the Eurasian Economic Community and have strong ties to Russia.Still, according to Wikistrat senior analyst Mark Galeotti, Russia could take advantage...

STATE DEPARTMENT — With Russia's most vocal critics imposing economic sanctions over Crimea, some of Moscow's allies are also questioning its actions in Ukraine. In Syria's civil war, China and Russia have together blocked tougher action against President Bashar al-Assad, denouncing foreign support for the rebels as a breach of Syrian sovereignty. Now, China has quietly split from Russia over Crimea -- on the same issue of sovereignty. "China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states. The Crimean crisis should be resolved politically under the frameworks of law and order. We call on all sides to remain...

The search for MH370 enters a new phase based on new satellite data received, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He told a press conference on Saturday that the search and rescue operations at the South China Sea has ended and all assets will be focussed on two new corridors. “A northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean,” he said. Najib said based on satellite data, MH370’s last communication with the satellite was in one of two possible corridors. Najib said the...

Ukraine's Crimean parliament voted Monday to nationalize energy companies Ukrtransgaz and Chornomornaftohaz, according to a statement on the Parliament's website. A Crimean official said last week that the local authorities may sell the oil and gas company Chornomornaftohaz to a Russian firm "such as Gazprom" once the region assumes control of it. On Sunday, a Russia-backed referendum in Crimea demonstrated overwhelming support for joining the Russian federation. The US and its European allies are expected to announced sanctions against Russia on Monday after Crimea announced that just under 97% of voters in the region supported leaving Ukraine and becoming a...

Women took to the streets wearing panties on their heads Sunday as they protested new laws banning lace underwear in Kazakhstan. The legislation - which includes provisions covering the required level of moisture absorbtion in the garments - will come into force this summer in Kazakhstan as well as Russia and Belarus, according to the Moscow Times. This sparked the so-called "Panties for the President" demonstrations in the Kazakh capital, Almaty, on Sunday. "It irritates me the most that the authorities want to decide what I should wear," Iryna Davydenko, a bank manager who travels regularly between Kazakhstan, Russia and...

The Lithuanian Foreign Minister says his country could block land transport to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad if Russia maintains its opposition to stronger trade ties between Ukraine and the European Union. "As you know, the Kaliningrad region is isolated, geographically isolated, so we could apply some measures also to cut something," the Reuters news agency quoted Linas Linkevicius as saying on Wednesday. "Transport, we could cut off trains, but not only trains, also the supply of goods, whatever. It is theoretically possible," the official added. The reporters raised the topic as Lithuania, which currently holds the rotating presidency in...

Explanation: With parachute deployed and retro-rockets blazing, this spacecraft landed on planet Earth on September 11 (UT) in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Seen in silhouette against the rockets' glare, the spacecraft is a Soyuz TMA-08M. Its crew, Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA were returning after five and half months aboard the International Space Station. The Soyuz retro-rockets fire very quickly and for an extremely short duration near touchdown. Capturing the moment, the well-timed photograph was taken...

BOSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury on Thursday indicted two students from Kazakhstan on obstruction of justice charges, alleging they helped hide evidence related to the April Boston marathon bombing that killed three and injured 264, the U.S. Attorney's office for Massachusetts said. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19, were college friends of surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They are charged with removing a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev's dorm room after the FBI released pictures of Dzhokhar and his older brother Tamerlan in an effort to learn the names of the bombers.

Feel free to send her our way, Ivan! The Russians are having an eventful year, preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi and slated to host this year's 'Miss Universe 2013' pageant in Moscow. And today's Russian Federation -like the Soviet Union- officially prides itself on being an ethnically-diverse country. Yet while there's fear of Muslim terrorism at Sochi, it's some Russians' own soccer-hooligan type racism has had them making terroristic death threats to Miss Russia 2013 -Elmira Abdrazakova- simply for not being of pure Russian blood. Miss Abdrazakova is half Tartar/half Russian- her father brought the young girl...

Our country and the world marked a great moment: 50 years since the flight of the first woman in space: June 16th, 1963, by Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. At the time of her space flight she was only 26. The first woman cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Tereshkova graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy with honors, and received a PhD in technical sciences. She was a professor and the author of over 50 scientific papers. She holds the rank of air force major general and was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Valentina Tereshkova has...

The things found in at the burial site certify that the woman was from a distinguished tribe. According to the archaeologists, the golden head wear that looks like Kazakh Saukele (national headgear of women) is the most valuable item for the research. “The pointed golden head wear with zoomorphic ornaments has the top that looks like the arrows and is decorated with a spiral made of golden wire and jewels. A similar head wear used to be part of the official costume of the Saka tribe chieftains. It is quite possible that the woman was a daughter of a king...

The Tsarnaev brothers’ brutal attack in Boston sparked renewed interest in terrorism in Eurasia. The subsequent disclosure that two students from Kazakhstan allegedly tried to hide incriminating evidence against Djokhar Tsarnaev has only heightened that interest. The not-guilty plea of Fazliddin Kurbanov, the alleged Uzbek terrorist in Idaho, underscores the new threat. And that’s a good thing. Understanding what was and is happening in Eurasia can help us better fight terrorism and prevent future attacks rooted in that region. Chechens and Uzbeks fought in Afghanistan with the Taliban, and fighters from the North Caucasus are involved in Syria on the...

(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.

Full Title:*****************************************************Owners of 'Terrorista #1' BMW license plate revealed as the SAME friends pictured with the Boston bomber in Times Square***************************************** Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev are from Kazakhstan They were classmates of bombing suspect Dzhokhar TsarnaevDzhokhar may have slept at their house on the night of the bombingThey've been in custody since last Saturday and a lawyer says they are 'shocked' by the allegations against their friend Friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrested last week who cruised around in a car with the ‘Terrorista #1’ license plate have also been revealed to be two of the group of friends recently...

ALMATY (Reuters) - NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a "dialogue partner" of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia. "This is really a historic day for us," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev. "Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries." China, Russia and four Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and...