Kazakhstan, central Asia’s biggest energy producer, may sell Islamic bonds for the first time this year as it seeks to attract overseas money to finance its budget deficit. The government plans to become a “significant player” in the Islamic finance market by offering debt that complies with Muslim tenets as early as 2010, Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said in the capital Astana today (March 15, 2010). Kazakhstan has drafted a bill that will allow it to sell the so-called sukuk, he said, without providing details. (Bloomberg)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has begun a two-day working visit to Turkmenistan to discuss with the country’s authorities prospects for stronger economic and trade relations. On March 16, 2010, Lavrov will meet with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Turkmen counterpart, Vice Premier Rashid Meredov. (Itar-Tass)

Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov made new appointments in the police and prosecutor's office structures. Yazdurdi Soegov was appointed as Akhal Province Police Department Head. Earlier, he served as chief specialist at the presidential office's law enforcement and military agencies analysis department.  He replaced in this post Begli Arslanov, who was released for "serious shortcomings in the work." (Trend News)

In a government reorganization, Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev created a new oil and gas ministry and reshuffled the cabinet. Sauat Mynbayev , the former Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, was appointed to head the new Ministry of Oil and Gas. The new ministry will take over a regulatory role of the oil and gas sector; a role which had been largely exercised by the national oil company KazMunaiGas. (SRI)

Georgia's opposition accused the government on Sunday (March 14, 2010) of being behind a fake primetime news report that Russian tanks had entered the capital at the call of the opposition, causing widespread panic. For many Saturday night viewers, the 20-minute report on pro-government Imedi TV thrust the country back to its five-day war with Russia in August 2008. Imedi, which is run by a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, did not hide the fact the report was in response to two opposition leaders meeting separately with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin late last year and this month.(Reuters)

Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister, Kanat Saudabayev, has expressed grave concern over the international community's lack of political will to achieve complete global non-proliferation, and reiterated that this is an absolute must to ensure both nuclear security and the peaceful use of nuclear equipment and energy. Welcoming US President Barack Obama's initiative to convene a global summit on nuclear security in Washington in April and his decision to give a new impulse to an early ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in May, Mr. Saudabayev has once again reiterated Kazakhstan's determination to be a strong advocate in the global non-proliferation process. (ANI)

Iran has arrested 30 people suspected of belonging to a U.S.-linked cyber network gathering information on Iranian nuclear scientists and sending people abroad for training. It said the group sought to recruit people through the Internet for training in Iraq with the People's Mujahideen Organization, a leftist exile group which launched attacks on the Islamic Republic from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. (Reuters)

Some of the wealthiest people in Uzbekistan have reportedly been arrested or detained, or are being hunted down by Uzbek authorities. They include the president of one of Tashkent’s premier football clubs, the owner of the country’s largest wholesale market, construction magnates, and bankers, according to media reports. An official in the Uzbek government, however, speaking under condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that some of the country’s leading business officials are being investigated and that some have been arrested. But the official denied business elites in general are being targeted, just criminals. (RFE/RL)

Kazakhstan's president has called for the prosecution of anyone suspected of causing a flood which devastated a village when a dam burst. Officials say 35 people died in Kyzyl-Agash in the Almaty region this week. About 1,000 villagers were evacauted. The dam failed after a build-up of floodwater from melting snow and rain. President Nursultan Nazarbayev said if failure to carry out repair work caused the dam to burst, those guilty should be brought "to justice". (BBC)

Uzbekistan jailed political opponents, routinely tortured prisoners and committed other serious rights violations last year, effectively making it Central Asia's most authoritarian state, the United States said. In its annual survey of human rights in 194 countries, the U.S. State Department used considerably stronger language to describe abuses in Uzbekistan than in reporting on other nations in the ex-Soviet region north of Afghanistan and Iran. Uzbekistan's foreign ministry spokesman said he could not immediately comment on the report.(Reuters)

A stronger Chinese navy will not seek to build military bases overseas, a retired senior officer has said amid media reports that the country harbors such "ambitions". Zhang Deshun, who was till recently the deputy chief of staff of the PLA navy, said a naval force with advanced armaments and enhanced capabilities will contribute more to UN-led anti-terrorism, anti-piracy and disaster-relief missions. A larger navy with a greater reach does not mean it will seek to play the role of "world police", said the retired rear admiral, who is a deputy to the ongoing session of the National People's Congress. (Xinhua)

Kazakhstan is redoubling efforts to get two important holdouts - the United States and Uzbekistan - to endorse an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in 2010. Kazakhstan has made the convening of a summit one of its top priorities for its OSCE chairmanship, which began on January 1, 2010. The United States has expressed interest in the summit idea, but has yet to formally endorse a meeting. Washington wants to be sure that any such gathering tackles important issues, and doesn’t just end up being a photo-op. (EurasiaNet)

An arrest warrant issued for a financial manager in Kyrgyzstan with ties to the Kyrgyz government is stirring a media controversy in Bishkek. The trouble erupted March 09 (2010), after news became public that an Italian judge had authorized an arrest warrant for Eugene Gourevitch, an American citizen based in Kyrgyzstan, who is accused of being part of a conspiracy to defraud the Italian telecom of about US$2.7 billion. Shortly after posting reports on the Gourevitch warrant, several websites -- including Ferghana.ru and Azattyk.kg -- began experiencing access problems. A subsequent Ferghana.ru report alleged that Kyrgyzstan’s leading Internet Service Providers were deliberately blocking access to the independent news websites. On March 11, access to at least one of the affected sites, Azattyk.kg, had been restored. But the others remained inaccessible to readers in Kyrgyzstan. (EurasiaNet)

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom watchdog has criticized Kazakhstan for effectively banning an opposition newspaper, saying the move violated the core values of Europe's main democracy watchdog, chaired by Kazakhstan this year. Distribution of the main opposition Respublika newspaper was halted in February after a court ruled a story published by the paper last year had triggered a bank run on deposits of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank. The group released a statement on late Tuesday (March 09, 2010), described the ruling as "shameful." In another case, the OSCE has also criticized Kazakhstan for restrictive media laws and demanded it loosen its grip on the press.(Reuters)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Defense Secretary Robert Gates traded barbs on Wednesday (March 10, 2010) during briefly overlapping visits to Afghanistan, where Washington has troops at war but Tehran has growing clout. Ahmadinejad, who arrived as Gates was wrapping up a three-day visit, told a news conference alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. and Western troops would never defeat terrorism by waging war in Afghanistan. Gates said earlier in the week Iran was playing a "double game" in Afghanistan by being friendly to the government while trying to undermine the United States. He said he had passed those concerns on to Karzai. (Reuters)

Tajikistan's Supreme Court has sentenced dozens of people to prison terms for belonging to a banned Islamic organization. The court says 23 members of the Jamaat al Tabligh were ordered Wednesday (March 10. 2010) to serve from three to six years in prison, and another 33 were ordered to pay fines up to $16,000.Tajikistan designated Jamaat al Tabligh an extremist group in 2006. Its members say it's a nonviolent, apolitical missionary movement. (AP)

The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, voiced his support on Wednesday (March 10, 2010) for an ethnic minority in China's troubled Xinjiang province, risking further worsening his fraught relations with Beijing. In an address marking 51 years since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama referred to Xinjiang as "East Turkestan," the name given to it by proindependence exiles. The region is populated by the ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people. (Reuters)

U.S. and Russian arms control officials began on Tuesday (March 09, 2010) what both sides hope will be a final push to clinch a treaty cutting their strategic nuclear arsenals, officials said. Dozens of negotiators from each country were taking part in the START talks which resumed at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva after a 10-day break for consultations in their capitals, they said. The world's two largest nuclear powers are seeking a replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which could ease relations at a time when major powers are pressing Iran and North Korea to meet Western demands on their nuclear programmes. The Cold War-era pact expired last December. (Reuters)

China is spending £480 billion to expand its domestic railway network which will include links to Europe that will see 19,000 miles of new railways across China, and eventually trains travelling to Kings Cross. Under the scheme travellers from Beijing will be able to board high-speed trains going through Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France and then London. The total journey from London to Beijing is estimated to be two days, with a total of 5,070 miles; with the Chinese expecting trains to be as fast as planes. The plans to complete the project which will connect around 17 countries, is ten years, which will also allow China to transport raw materials more efficiently. (London Daily)

Pakistani security agents denied on Monday (March 08, 2010) that an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason had been arrested, saying there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect. Some Pakistani officials had said on Sunday that Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a US$1 million bounty on his head, had been arrested on the outskirts of the city of Karachi. (Reuters)