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Chemical plant explosion kills one injures three in Inner Mongolia
HOHHOT, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Fire fighters on Sunday morning put out the blaze in a chemical plant in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which has caused one dead and three others injured.The accident happened around 5 p.m. Saturday at Inner Mongolia 3F Fluorochemical Co. Ltd. in the city of Fengzhen. A huge amount of flammable gas has been leaked after the chemical plant ...
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Enemies not to create trouble in Azerbaijan-Iran ties
Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Board Allahshukur Pashazade is on a visit to Iran. Members of the Azerbaijan-Iran Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group are also part of the ...
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EM ASIA FX-Baht near 3-mth low after weaker growth Sing dlr rebounds
* Thai Q1 GDP down 2.2 pct q/q, up 5.3 pct y/y; both below expectations * Thai fin min says worried about growth, wants rate cut * Singapore dollar up on short-covering after worst week in a year (Adds text, updates prices) By Jongwoo Cheon SEOUL, May 20 (Reuters) - The Thai baht hit a near three-month low against the dollar on Monday as news the economy shrank in ...
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Azerbaijan exports over 2.3bn cu m of gas in January-April
In January-April this year, according to meters, Azerbaijan exported 2,345bn cubic metres of natural gas. Of this volume, 1.565bn cubic meters in the amount of USD 364.213m were exported on customs ...
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Ukraine looks to Turkmenistan
By Roman Muzalevsky On February 12, Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych paid a three-day visit to gas-rich Turkmenistan to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation and reiterate Kiev's interest in resuming direct imports of the Central Asian country's natural gas, which were suspended in 2006. The visit revealed Kiev and Ashgabat's strong desire to reduce ...
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Kazakhstan-Korea trade changes shape
By Richard Weitz Kazakhstan has become South Korea's (also known as the Republic of Korea - ROK) main economic partner in Central Asia, and powerful complementarities exist between Astana's desire for foreign capital and technologies, especially in order to develop its infrastructure and new high-technology sectors, and Seoul's need for natural resources, particularly energy ...
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Kyrgyzstan seeks to double its GDP
reforms and intends to spend US$13 billion to double gross domestic product (GDP) in five years, drawing on aid and investment to fund projects in agriculture, mining, transport, power and other sectors. Doubling the GDP will require an annual growth rate of at least 7%. Kyrgyzstan's GDP growth is projected at 8.5% in 2013, up to 7.5% in 2014, and up to 3.5% in 2015; inflation is ...
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Russias cash flight to gather momentum
By Pavel K Baev Last week marked the anniversary of the shocking performance staged by the Pussy Riot punk rock group in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. And this year saw a spectacular increase in the density of "patriotic" political noise silencing common sense in debates over such matters as separation of church and state, homosexual "propaganda" or the ...
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Nazarbayev brings in new blood
By Georgiy Voloshin Just two weeks into 2013, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the reorganization of the country's government. On January 16, he ordered the establishment of a new ministry in charge of regional development whose head, Bakhytzhan Sagintayev, had previously led the day-to-day activities of the ruling Nur Otan party in the capacity of its ...
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Kazakhstan seeks wider horizons
By Sergei Gretsky Kazakhstan is well known for the successful transformation of its economy following independence more than 20 years ago, and the leadership has consistently set ambitious goals to solidify the gains and diversify the economy to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The year 2012 ended on a high note - the 2012-2013 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic ...
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Tajikistan regions still at war
By Shavkat Kasymov Fifteen years have passed since a peace agreement which ended a five-year long civil war in Tajikistan. Fought between regional groups and the national government of president Rahmon Nabiyev, the conflict killed between 50,000 and 100,000 and displaced more than a million. Presidential elections scheduled for the fall offer an opportunity to reflect on the disastrous ...
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Xi may hold key to Moscow gas goals
By Sergie Blagov Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich traveled to China on February 25 to attend a first meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on energy cooperation. The commission was formed in December 2012 to replace the bilateral Russia-China energy dialogue. Dvorkovich held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to discuss ties in the ...
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Sino-Kazakh ties on a roll
China have started using the new railway crossing of Altynkol-Khorgos. It is expected cargo transportation will reach 10 million tonnes in 2015 and 15 million tonnes in 2020. Industry observers expect the Korgas Pass, which now connects China and Kazakhstan by a railway, a highway and an oil pipeline, to handle 20 million tonnes of cargo per year by 2020 and 35 million tonnes per year by ...
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Clashes challenge Azerbaijan strongman
increasingly vocal opposition, many believe Azerbaijan is in for a lot more political turmoil in the year to come. "The opposition political parties hope to expand their electoral base by using these protests and win the presidential election in October 2013," says Baxtiyar Haciyev, a member of the youth opposition movement Positive Change and a graduate of Harvard University. ...
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... as Central Asia bracesfor militant returnees
By Jacob Zenn On December 4, 2012, the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, Kabdulkarim Abdikazymov, said that Jund al-Khilafa was a "real threat" to Kazakhstan's national security. Similarly, on November 26, 2012, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security of Kyrgyzstan, Tokon Mamytov, warned that "there might be ...
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Russia migrants kept to the shadows
By Tom Balmforth MOSCOW - Bek Takhirov knows all too well the problems that migrant workers face. The 38-year-old ethnic Uzbek came to Russia in 2004 and worked illegally, stacking cargo in a warehouse for alcoholic beverages. Two years ago, he completed a lengthy application for Russian citizenship in order to step out of the shadows. He now works legally in St Petersburg as a ...
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Afghanistan tries to lure investments
By Farangis Najibullah and Zarif Nazar Foreign forces are preparing to leave the country, capital is fleeing, and it's the Afghan government's job to stop it. To meet its objective, the Afghan Finance Ministry has drafted a package of incentives to assure companies and individual that their investments in Afghanistan will be safe after the expected withdrawal of Western troops ...
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Uzbekistan bids to save culture from popping
ensure students do not fall prey to supposedly subversive ideas. She's not thrilled about the task. "Students spend so much time playing games featuring violence, such as a [first-person shoot-'em-up] game called Counter-Strike, and chatting with complete strangers online. Parents don't seem to care, and the burden falls on us, poor teachers," Mahfuza told ...
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Cold winds from Janaozen
By Alexandra Kazakova Last year's violence in the town of Janaozen has created a significantly more oppressive environment in Kazakhstan, according to human rights defenders and analysts interviewed by IWPR. The activists were attending a conference in Almaty on December 13, three days before the first anniversary of the bloodshed. On December 16, 2011, police shot dead at 16 ...
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EU hopefuls face starkchoice on Customs Union
By Robert Coalson Moscow seems to be growing frustrated with Ukraine's efforts to pursue closer ties with the European Union while simultaneously seeking benefits reserved for members of the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union (ECU). "You cannot be a little bit pregnant," Russian Foreign Ministry official Aleksandr Gorban said on January 1, referring to the choice facing ...
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Russias gas grip worries US senator
By Margarita Assenova United States Senator Richard Lugar has urged the Obama administration to break Russia's energy monopoly in Europe and called on congress to lift limitations on deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies in Europe. His critical report, "Energy and Security from the Caspian to Europe", and ...
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South Stream start riddle
By Ron Synovitz and Rikard JozwiakRussia's Gazprom said construction would begin last week on the underwater section of its South Stream pipeline, which will carry natural gas beneath the Black Sea and into the European Union. But is this really the case? Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller announced last month that the final investment decision for the project had been reached. Miller ...
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Rate of US-Russian nuke disarmament slows
By Carey L Biron WASHINGTON - Although the United States and Russia have massively reduced their collective number of nuclear weapons since the heyday of the Cold War, the rate of that reduction is slowing, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warned on Monday. Further, these two countries alone continue to account for more than 90% of the worlds total nuclear arsenal, 15 times ...
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Russia plays alongwith Sakhalin pipeline project
By Sergei Blagov Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, has apparently ruled out the possibility of building a subsea Sakhalin-Japan natural gas pipeline. However, the continuation of talks on this ambitious project is thought to remain a valuable bargaining instrument in Russia's difficult negotiations with China on gas prices. On November 8, the head of Gazprom's ...
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Russia closes gates to Siberian gas city
By Claire Bigg Ever wanted to visit the northern Siberian city of Novy Urengoi, Russia's "gas capital"? You may have missed your chance. Novy Urengoi has slapped harsh new access restrictions on both Russians and foreigners, a dramatic move that has sparked mixed reactions. Officials say they want to protect the affluent city from unbridled immigration, a surge in crime ...
Afghanistan Feature
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Why should American troops remain in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is widely regarded, even by its own people, as a puppet state, and has little hope of breaking away from US influence in the foreseeable future, there is wide-spread resentment toward foreign troops, and increasingly loud calls in the states for a withdrawal of troops. But, like or not, these two countries have been tied together irrevocably, even before the war on terror.
Since the invasion of Afghanistan by allied forces in 2001, the country’s destiny has in many ways not been its own. Read more
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