Free Republic

Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine. -snip- Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow. In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations...

As I walked into the department this bright brisk morning, coffee cheerily in hand, the live global seismogram display in the atrium caught my eye with an alarming event that had just happened during my bike ride into work. *gasp* that looks bad *gasp* that looks bad BIG earthquake, somewhere in the vicinity of Central/Southern Asia. Indeed, an earthquake deep (>200 km) beneath the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan had shaken a huge swath of Central and South Asia. The great depth of the earthquake meant less extreme shaking at the epicenter (nobody lives closer than 212 km from the...

"Waning Support for Defamation of Religion Resolution Undermines Defense of Islam, OIC Chief Says" PHOTO CAPTION: "In this photo released by the Saudi Press Agency, the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, welcomes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010. The new U.S. envoy to the OIC, Rashad Hussain, stands behind Clinton’s left shoulder. (AP Photo/HO)" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – As its annual “defamation of religion” resolution loses ground at the United Nations after a decade of successes, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is urging its members...

August 11, 2009 MEANWHILE, IN TAJIKISTAN Interfax reports on the recent conviction of five members of the Tablighi Jamaat "for making public calls for a forcible change of the constitutional system of Tajikistan, a crime enshrined by Article 304 of the Tajik Criminal Code." The individuals sentenced were identified as Tajiks Khidoyatullo Alimov, Zielukhak Khakdodov and Saidakram Khakdodov, and two Russian nationals, Nasriddin Murodov and Mahmud Makhmadzhodzhayev. Reuters and Interfax both report on the death of an alleged IMU activist outside of Dushanbe named Lutfullo Tursunov, while RFE/RL casts doubt on that report, instead saying that one Shavkat Yusufov was...

TWO BOMB BLASTS IN DUSHANBE, IMU SUSPECTED The explosions come ahead of a Pakistan, Afghan, Russian, Tajik security meeting.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 7/27/06 - Beirut, Bint Jbail, Lebanon, Byblos, Cairo, Dushanbe, Fassuta, Israel, Gaza City, Haifa, Khiam, Kiryat Bialik, Mogadishu, Multan, Nabatiyeh, Paris, Pittsburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Soer, Tehran, Tyre, Zefta BREAKING: Khiam - Precise Israeli air retaliation against missles coming from UN-protected terrorists "safe" house BREAKING: Beirut - Jordanian military planes arrive BREAKING: Soer - Precise Israeli air retaliation BREAKING: Tyre - Precise Israeli air retaliation BREAKING: Tyre - UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) ordered to remain in place as human shields by Annan BREAKING: Zefta - Precise Israeli air...

19 July 2005 -- Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov said today that since the threat of Afghanistan for Central Asia has declined, the presence of Western military in the region is not needed. Speaking to journalists in Dushanbe, Nazarov said there was no need for the permanent presence of military troops of the U.S.-led coalition in the region as Afghanistan is stabilizing. Some 200 French Air Force personnel and two transport aircraft are currently based at Dushanbe airport to support operations in Afghanistan. Elsewhere in Central Asia, the U.S. military is using the Khanabad air base near the southern Uzbek...

Matt Damon and George Clooney come back together for political thriller Matt Damon and George Clooney, who are currently working together on Steven Soder-bergh's Ocean's Eleven sequel - Ocean's Twelve, will reteam for the Stephen Gaghan-helmed political thriller Syriana. In addition, Amanda Peet is in final negotiations to join the project. Set up at Warner Bros., Clooney and Soderbergh's studio-based Section Eight will produce the project with shooting slated to begin during the summer. Gaghan adapted the script, which is loosely based on the Robert Baer non-fiction novel See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the...

DUSHANBE : At least one person was killed and four injured when a car bomb exploded in front of Tajikistan's emergencies ministry in the capital Dushanbe early on Monday, a ministry official told AFP. The blast shattered many of the ministry's window panes, as well as several vehicles in the vicinity. Police and rescuers were on the premises.