MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan's president, who faced a bloody outburst of unrest early this year and then moved to marginalize some of the Central Asian country's longtime powerful figures, appears certain to win a new term against little-known challengers in a snap election on Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Devastated by Russia's invasion eight months ago, the Ukrainian economy will plunge 35% this year, the World Bank forecast Tuesday.
The war has destroyed factories and farmland and displaced millions of Ukrainians.
MOSCOW (AP) — Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan traded blame for fighting on the border Friday that killed at least 24 people, wounded dozens and prompted a mass evacuation.
Kyrgyzstan's Health Ministry said early Saturday that 24 bodies had been delivered to hospitals in the Batken region that borders Tajikistan.
BEIJING (AP) — Five years ago, Bekzat Maxutkanuly was a small-time clothes merchant in Kazakhstan, uninterested in politics but worried over rumblings of a brewing crackdown across the border in China’s Xinjiang region, the land of his birth.
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday started his first foreign trip since the outbreak of the pandemic with a stop in Kazakhstan ahead of a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other leaders of a Central Asian security group.
BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping is using his first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic to promote China's strategic ambitions at a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin and other leaders of a Central Asian security group.
BEIJING (AP) — China's leader Xi Jinping will travel to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan starting Wednesday in his first trip abroad since the early days of the pandemic two years ago.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday asked for prayers to accompany him this week on what he calls his “pilgrimage of peace” in Kazakhstan for a meeting of religious leaders.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during a visit to the neighboring Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan this month, in what would be his first overseas visit since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan says if you’re trying to smuggle its prized native dog breed out of the country, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
The government is now requiring that its celebrated Alabay dogs receive a passport before they can leave the country.
It has not been an easy week for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He took his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine to shore up relations with troublesome Central Asian allies.
MOSCOW (AP) — Voters in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan have given overwhelming approval to proposed constitutional changes widely seen as an attempt to repudiate the legacy of former strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the ex-Soviet republic for three decades.
MOSCOW (AP) — Voters in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan cast ballots Sunday on proposed constitutional changes seen as an attempt to repudiate the legacy of former strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the ex-Soviet republic for three decades.
LONDON (AP) — The World Bank says Ukraine's economy will shrink by 45.1% this year because of Russia's invasion, which has shut down half of the country's businesses, choked off imports and exports, and damaged a vast amount of critical infrastructure.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — The son of Turkmenistan's former president was inaugurated Saturday as the new leader of the authoritarian Central Asian country.
Serdar Berdymukhamedov, 40, took the oath of office a week after an election in which the central elections commission said he won 73% of the vote.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan established a political dynasty Tuesday, as authorities said the son of the Central Asian country's leader won its presidential election after an unusual vote-counting delay.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — There is an unexpected wait for the result of Turkmenistan's presidential election that is widely expected to cement a political dynasty after authorities said Sunday they needed more time to count the votes.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan citizens voted Saturday in an election that could mark the beginning of a political dynasty for the gas-rich Central Asian nation's sitting president.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, 64, announced the vote last month, setting stage for his 40-year old son Serdar to take over.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — The son of Turkmenistan's authoritarian leader will run in an early presidential election next month, a move that lays the foundation for a political dynasty in the gas-rich Central Asian republic.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India and five central Asian countries on Thursday decided to set up a joint working group for providing aid to Afghanistan to tackle the humanitarian crisis and the issue of recognition of the Taliban, an Indian official said.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — The mass protests in Kazakhstan began peacefully over the New Year's weekend, with marchers denouncing a sharp rise in fuel prices.
MOSCOW (AP) — A top law-enforcement official in Kazakhstan said Saturday that 225 people died during the violent demonstrations that shook the country this month, a significantly higher number than previously announced.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — With about 12,000 people arrested after anti-government protests in Kazakhstan last week, friends and relatives of those held by police waited outside a jail Wednesday, hoping to learn their fate.
MOSCOW (AP) — The president of Kazakhstan announced Tuesday that a Russia-led security alliance will start pulling out its troops from the Central Asian nation in two days after completing its mission.
MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan authorities said Sunday that 164 people, including a 4-year-old girl, were killed in a week of protests that marked the worst unrest since the former Soviet republic gained independence 30 years ago.
MOSCOW (AP) — The former head of Kazakhstan’s counterintelligence and anti-terror agency has been arrested on charges of attempted government overthrow in the wake of violent protests that the president has blamed on foreign-backed terrorists.
MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s president authorized security forces on Friday to shoot to kill those participating in unrest, opening the door for a dramatic escalation in a crackdown on anti-government protests that have turned violent.
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russia-led military alliance said Thursday that it will dispatch peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after the country's president asked for help in controlling protests that escalated into violence, including the seizure and setting afire of government buildings.
MOSCOW (AP) — Scores of opposition supporters in Kyrgyzstan rallied Monday to challenge the results of a parliamentary election that was swept by parties loyal to the country's president.
Sunday's election came just over just over a year after a forceful change of government in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation that propelled Sadyr Zhaparov to the presidency.
MOSCOW (AP) — Kyrgyzstan held a parliamentary election Sunday just over a year after a forceful change of government in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation and voters backed parties supporting the country's new president, according to early results.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan’s autocratic president has put his only son in charge of the Central Asian nation's energy sector, further expanding his clout in a move seen as laying the foundations for a political dynasty.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The ICC will review cricket in Afghanistan following the takeover of the country by the Taliban and a reported ban on women participating in the sport.
“The ICC Board is committed to continuing to support Afghanistan Cricket to develop both men’s and women’s cricket moving forward,” ICC chairman Greg Barclay said in a statement on Wednesday.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A top Taliban official on Wednesday urged former Afghan military pilots to remain in the country, saying they were protected by a national amnesty and would not face arrest.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid's assurances came after dozens of U.S.-trained Afghan pilots left Tajikistan in a U.S.-brokered evacuation Tuesday, three months after they sought refuge there from a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Wednesday hosted senior security officials from Russia, Iran and five Central Asian countries to discuss the ramifications of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in talks that were boycotted by rival Pakistan and its ally China.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) — Uzbekistan's incumbent leader has won a second five-year term in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, preliminary results showed Monday.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received 80.1% of Sunday's vote, the country's Central Election Commission announced.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia hosted talks on Afghanistan on Wednesday involving senior representatives of the Taliban and neighboring nations, a round of diplomacy that underlined Moscow's clout in Central Asia.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan marked the 30th anniversary of its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union with a military parade Monday that involved thousands of people and featured the country's leader mounting a horse to greet the participants.
BEIJING (AP) — In the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, China has seen the realization of long-held hopes for a reduction of the influence of a geopolitical rival in what it considers its backyard.
Yet, it is also deeply concerned that the very withdrawal could bring risk and instability to that backyard — Central Asia — and possibly even spill over their narrow, remote border into China itself and the heavily Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.
HANGEDIGI, Turkey (AP) — From above, the new border wall separating Turkey from Iran looks like a white snake winding through the barren hills. So far it only covers a third of the 540-kilometer (335-mile) border, leaving plenty of gaps for migrants to slip across in the dead of night.