Almaty

Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov has resigned, forcing the entire government to step down, a government source told Reuters on Monday. ”The prime minister has resigned,” the source said, giving no reason for Akhmetov’s resignation.

It felt like I had been chewing for days, yet the plate of stewed horse, lamb and unidentified liver, served on a bed of greasy dough, appeared to be getting no smaller. Determined to prove to the local officials hosting a group of foreign reporters that I would not spurn the Kazakh national dish, beshbarmak, I chomped on.

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 British comedian who plays the character to come and see the truth for himself. Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh first deputy foreign ministe, asked British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to visit the vast, oil-rich steppe nation.