Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have reportedly come to an agreement on some basic principles regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute that has been going on for almost 20 years.
While meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a ski resort near Sochi on Monday, the two leaders reached an understanding on the preamble to a new and improved version of the 2007 Madrid document, which outlined a step-by-step resolution to the conflict.
In Mongolia, where no coins are used, the country’s national currency, the tugrik (or tögrög), has slowly been making a comeback due to massive deflation and significant revaluation against the U.S. dollar.
As such, the humble 1 tugrik banknote – the smallest currency denomination in Mongolia, worth roughly US$0.0007 – has re-entered the daily lives of Mongolia’s citizens after being virtually unusable in recent years.
In addition, an end to the impasse between the Mongolian government and the worlds mining corporations looms on the horizon, which would likely ensure that the country comes out of the recession in better shape than it went in.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences have shortlisted nine foreign films, out of 65 contenders, for the prestigious Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards which will take place March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California.
Although the nine will be whittled down to just five final nominees by February 2, among the nine shortlisted include Bulgaria’s, “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner,” and Kazakhstan’s, “Kelin.”
If both films make the final cut, it would be the first Oscar nomination for a Bulgarian film and the second for Kazakhstan, after the country’s 2007 film, “Mogul.”
Here is the list of the final nine:
Argentina – “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”
Australia – “Samson & Delilah”
Bulgaria – “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner”
France – “Un Prophète”
Germany – “The White Ribbon”
Israel – “Ajami”
Kazakhstan – “Kelin”
The Netherlands – “Winter in Wartime”
Peru – “The Milk of Sorrow”
Less than four years after the death of Turkmenistan’s eccentric and repressive ruler Saparmurat Niyazov, President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has ordered the removal of the Arch of Neutrality from the country’s capital at Ashgabat.
The 246-foot white tiled tripod tower was built by Niyazov to glorify himself during his rule and is topped with a rotating golden statue of himself which rotates so as to constantly face the sun.
The decision to move the statue outside of the city and rename it suggests that Turkmens may be trying to forget the isolated and repressive years under Niyazov and his authoritarian rule.
The late leader was famously narcissistic and had airports, cities, streets, months, periodicals, publications, and even a meteor named after himself and his family.
His portraits were hung outside public buildings and his name was included in the country’s patriotic oath which had to be published in every newspaper and recited at the end of every news program.
Niyazov also renamed himself the Great Turkmenbashi, meaning the “Father of All Turkmen,” and wrote a two volume spiritual guide that was made mandatory reading.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met last week in Moscow to discuss the possibility of increasing the coalition’s collaboration on military training to combat terrorism, extremism, and separatism.
Although the organization – made up of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – has maintained that it is not a political/military alliance, it seems that they have been moving towards that direction since Russia took the SCO presidency in August 2008.
As part of the SCO’s “Peace Mission 2010,” military exercises will be conducted in Kazakhstan with the bulk of the armed forces participating in the drills hailing from Russia and China.
“Specific anti-terrorism activities will be practiced at drills in Kazakhstan. All previous and upcoming military exercises involving SCO countries are of a counter-terrorist nature,” said Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Kazakhstan’s state oil company Kazmunaigas have agreed to jointly purchase Kazakh oil company JSC Mangistaumunaigas (MMG) for US$3.3 billion.
This news comes following a US$5 billion loan-for-oil agreement between Chinese and Kazakh officials earlier this month.
“The transaction is an important step to develop long-term strategic partnership between China and Kazakhstan. It also helps our overseas expansion,” CNPC said in a statement on their website.
The purchase of MMG includes two oil and gas fields and the licenses to explore and develop 15 others in Kazakhstan and the Caspian region. It also includes all other oil and natural gas assets.
MMG’s crude oil output in 2008 was 40 million barrels and it had 41.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, according to China Daily.
The World Health Organization has issued a report stating that the spread of multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has reached “epidemic” proportions in many ex-Soviet nations and is now widespread in many provinces in China. Data collected during 2002-2007 showed that one in nine patients of the approximately nine million new cases of TB each year failed to respond to at least one anti-TB drug.
Cases of MDR-TB reached between 9%- 22% of all TB infections in ex-Soviet states, while nearly 20% of all cases in Eastern Europe were drug resistant. In countries such as the UK, France, New Zealand the rate is 1% or lower. Cases recorded in China are believed to show an average of 15% all TB infections being MRD-TB.
A pipeline blast along Turkmenistan’s border with Uzbekistan last Thursday has halted natural gas exports completely from Central Asia’s top producer.
Turkmen officials blame the sudden decrease in imports from Russia’s state-owned Gazprom for the explosion.
“This accident happened due to a unilateral and egregious violation by Russian company Gazprom Export of agreements and rules of natural gas purchases,” said the Turkmen Foreign Ministry in a prepared statement on Friday.
The Turkmen natural gas pipeline was exporting between 70 and 80 million cubic meters a day before the explosion brought transportation to a stop.
A coalition consisting of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia has agreed to establish a nuclear-weapons-free zone across their region.
The pact, which was signed this past Saturday by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, prohibits the nations from researching, developing, producing, or possessing nuclear weapons.
The treaty further stipulates that each nation must ratify the Additional Protocol to its nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and adhere to the requirements of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the United Nations.
“The secretary general trusts that the entry into force of the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia will reinforce efforts to strengthen the global nuclear nonproliferation regime, underline the strategic and moral value of nuclear-weapon-free zones, as well as the possibilities for greater progress on a range of issues in the pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons,” said United Nations Secretary General Ban Kim-moon in an issued statement.
The Obama Administration has maintained hope that Kyrgyz government officials would reconsider shutting down the Manas Air Base as the U.S. makes plans for an additional 17,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan. The Kyrgyzstan parliament, however, voted yesterday in favor of closing the base to U.S. forces, giving America six months to withdraw from the facility.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev first announced plans to close down the air base following a summit in Moscow, during which Russia pledged more than $2 billion in aid to the country. Nato and U.S. officials believe that this is a strategic move by Moscow to reassert their influence over the region and force foreign military presences to deal directly with Russia.
“What Moscow is after is the tacit recognition that Central Asia is Russia’s strategic area, so that the next time the U.S. wants to do something militarily with the people in the region, it will first come to Moscow,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.