Turkmenistan is a multi-ethnic country and according to various estimates has up to 500,000 ethnic Uzbeks – making them the biggest minority at about nine per cent of the total population. Frontier regions in the north and northeast are densely populated
The Almaty mayor's office says many homes in outlying districts are illegal, but knocking them down will affect some of the city's poorest.
A remote region on the border between Karakalpakstan and Turkmenistan has become a stop on the flourishing – if unofficial – trading route between China and the Gulf states. The situation could change as the Uzbek and Turkmen authorities are taking steps
A Russian plan to create a new settlement for Ingush displaced in a conflict with North Ossetia is dismissed as a broken promise.
Central Asia’s two major states are being nicer to one another these days – but their motives for making friends are very different.
Convicts ask for review of cases as they await final decision on death penalty ban.
President Bakiev steps in after protesters occupy central square to demand prime minister’s resignation.
Plans to centralise mobile communications worry private phone operators.
Small Jewish community believe destruction of their place of worship leaves them facing a bleak future.
Officials in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan call for curbs on “politicised” non-government groups.
