Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has sought to distance himself from his predecessor, but his family has its own secrets: Moscow apartments, Swiss bank accounts — and a money trail that goes far offshore
Africans living in China want to be evacuated
Selling weapons systems to Saudi Arabia is not incompatible with charity work, argues Ivor Ichikowitz
From the Ganges River to Ghana, drones are delivering vaccines, HIV tests and blood transfusions and cutting waiting times for life-saving healthcare
The average quality of elections around the world is much lower than most people realise
Rapper Kanye West has been paid millions after performing at the wedding of controversial President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s grandson, says reports.
Do you know your Kazakhstan from your Kyrgyzstan? Read on to avoid singing happy birthday to a despotic ruler in this region.
A Soyuz capsule with two Russians and an American on board has touched down safely in mild weather on the sweeping steppes of central Kazakhstan.
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/ 24 December 2010
Although the Kazakh people have a long and storied history, the country was part of the USSR until its breakup in the early 1990s.
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/ 24 December 2010
The first Session of Inter-Governmental Consultations was concluded between SA and Kazakhstan.
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/ 24 December 2010
An excerpt from the Address of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev to the People of Kazakhstan.
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/ 29 January 2009
President Kgalema Motlanthe is no different from former president Thabo Mbeki in his position on the Zimbabwe issue, Cosatu said on Thursday.
South Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon, blasted off into space on Tuesday, prompting her mother, apparently overwhelmed by the occasion, to scream and fall to the ground. In another historic first, one of her fellow cosmonauts, Sergei Volkov, followed in the footsteps of his father, celebrated cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.
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/ 12 January 2008
The death toll in a Kazakh coal mine explosion rose to 30 on Sunday when authorities gave up hope of rescuing 23 trapped miners and said they could not have survived. ”The high temperatures and the high concentration of carbon oxide … have made their survival impossible,” the Emergencies Ministry said.
The party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won all seats in Kazakhstan’s new Parliament, according to preliminary results announced on Sunday by the Central Elections Commission. The results were quickly condemned by the country’s two largest opposition groupings, which said the figures were manipulated.
A Kazakh court jailed more than a dozen health workers on Wednesday for infecting 78 babies with HIV/Aids, but provoked parents’ outrage for sparing senior officials. A group of medical workers went on trial in the southern city of Shymkent in January on charges of criminal negligence for allowing the children to be infected.
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/ 10 January 2007
Oil-producing ex-Soviet state Kazakhstan on Wednesday appointed Karim Masimov, a technocrat who studied at a United States business school, to the post of prime minister. Both houses of Parliament voted unanimously to approve Masimov, who until now served as deputy prime minister. He was nominated for the job by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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.
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/ 20 October 2006
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.
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/ 19 October 2006
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.
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/ 20 September 2006
At least 41 people were killed on Wednesday when an underground explosion tore through a coal mine in Kazakhstan belonging to Mittal Steel, a senior company official said. ”According to preliminary but almost certain data, 41 people have perished,” Grigory Prezent, deputy coal department director of Mittal Steel Temirtau, told reporters at the scene.
Firefighters in the Kazakh capital Astana were on Tuesday battling to put out a blaze at a 32-storey skyscraper dubbed the "cigarette lighter". Flames and smoke could be seen pouring out of the building, which houses the ex-Soviet Central Asian state’s transport and communications ministry.
Brazil’s first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, was launched into space aboard a Soyuz space craft from the Russian base at Baikonur in Kazakhstan early on Thursday along with his Russian and United States colleagues. The Soyuz FG rocket took off at 2.30am GMT on its way to the International Space Station with Pontes, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams aboard.
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/ 9 November 2005
Europe’s first mission to Venus was successfully launched on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and emitted its first signal at the start of its 163-day journey to the turbulent planet. Venus Express will explore the unusual stormy atmosphere and runaway global warming on Venus.
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/ 11 October 2005
United States millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a two-man, Russian-American crew returned from the International Space Station to Earth early on Tuesday in a lightning-swift, bone-jarring descent. The Russian Soyuz space capsule touched down on the cold, wind-swept steppes of northern Kazakhstan.
A Soyuz rocket carrying United States millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a Russian-American crew lifted off on Saturday from the Central Asian steppes, launching the world’s third space tourist on a two-day journey to the international space station. The rocket streaked into the blue sky with an ear-splitting blast.
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/ 30 September 2005
Complete with epic battles, fancy camerawork and breath-taking stunts, "Nomad" could be the latest, blood-drenched historical blockbuster coming to a cinema near you… from Kazakhstan. In its bid to take on Hollywood, the film from the ex-Soviet Central Asian state boasts international stars, spectacular crowd scenes and a $33-million production budget.
Forget images of germ-free processed space rations. The crew of the international space station will now be able to feast on a range of Italian delicacies, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori revealed in Kazakhstan on Thursday as he prepares to blast off. "One of the particularities of this mission is that we’ll be taking Italian food with us," he said.
A Soyuz rocket carrying United States astronaut Edward Michael Fincke, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and Russia’s Gennady Padalka blasted off for the International Space Station early on Monday. The rocket successfully entered orbit nine minutes after taking off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:19am.