• Kazakhstan: Dombra craftsman preserves soul of Kazakh music in every string
• Rare snow leopards spotted near Kazakh city amid lockdown
• Kazakh chess queens inspire new generation

• IT and technologies of consciousness - bringing Transcendental Meditation to more people in Kazakhstan
• Kazakhstan: Global Mother Divine Organization offers courses for women
• Tour for Consciousness-Based Education planned in Kazakhstan

• Kazakhstan's biggest city running out of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients
• UN says deadly Kazakh riots show rights abuses and growing inequality
• Kazakh Police Chief defends use of live rounds on demonstrators

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Kazakhstan: Dombra craftsman preserves soul of Kazakh music in every string
2 January 2024 - Zholaushy Turdugulov is one of a handful of traditional dombra craftsmen who preserve the traditional craft of instrument-making and know how to skillfully bring the best sound out of dombra, a two-string Kazakh instrument that is deemed the soul of Kazakh culture. Dombra is essential to the heritage of the Kazakh people. The dombra kui, which is a short solo composition performed on dombra, is known for its harmonious sounds, so much so that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. (more)

Rare snow leopards spotted near Kazakh city amid lockdown
25 May 2020 - Several snow leopards, including a mother and her cub, have been spotted near the Kazakh city of Almaty wandering through a usually popular hiking destination that is now mostly off limits due to the coronavirus lockdown. (more)

Kazakh chess queens inspire new generation
5 March 2020 - Kazakhstan is going through a chess boom whose poster children ... are young female players who have far outperformed men. The former Soviet republic is No.9 in world chess body FIDE's ranking of countries by their top 10 female players, up from 28 a decade ago. (more)

Kazakhstan: Central Asia's largest solar power plant opens in Karaganda region
23 February 2019 - The Karaganda region began large-scale transition to green technology by opening a solar power station in Saran, the largest such facility in the Central Asian region. 'The head of state set us a task to bring the share of alternative energy up to 30 percent by 2030. Today, we have taken a big step towards achieving this goal,' said Akim (Governor) Yerlan Koshanov on January 23. (more)

Here comes the Sun, to help power Kazakhstan
26 January 2019 - Kazakhstan has just launched operation of the largest solar power station in Central Asia, in the central Karaganda Province, the heart of coal country. Authorities in Kazakhstan have pledged to 'go green,' the theme of EXPO-2017 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, and the solar plant near the town of Saran that started operation on January 24 is a first step toward that goal. (more)

Kazakhstan brings online largest PV park in Central Asia
25 January 2019 - A 100-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) park in Kazakhstan, the largest one of its kind in Central Asia, has been switched on in the country's Karaganda region. The 100-MW solar park is Kazakhstan's second PV facility after a 2-MW plant in Munailin district kicked off operations in May last year. (more)

100 MW Saran solar park commissioned in Kazakhstan
24 January 2019 - The government of Kazakhstan's northern region of Karaganda has announced completion of the 164-hectare, 100 MW SES Saran solar project, near the city of Saran. The project was financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and built Solarnet Investment GmbH, an affiliate of German developer Goldbeck Solar. (more)

Kazakhstan goes organic in bid to build niche in grains market
19 July 2018 - Kazakhstan is tapping growing consumer demand for organic crops to help it better compete in the food-export market. The country wants to use much of its vast uncultivated lands to grow soybeans and other non-genetically modified crops for markets such as China and the European Union, Agriculture Vice Minister Gulmira Isaeva said. By offering non-GMO and pesticide-free produce, it hopes to carve out a niche in a crops market dominated by giants such as Russia, Australia, or the U.S. (more)

Singing dune draws visitors to Kazakh steppe
17 June 2016 - Rising incongruously above the steppes of southeastern Kazakhstan is a structure as famed for the myths that surround as for the sound it produces -- a single, singing dune. The dune generates a low-pitched, organ-like rumble in dry weather, and is one of the main attractions of the Altynemel national park. Adjacent to Altynemel isanother national park, Charyn. The part frequented by tourists is called the Valley of Castles, where some rocks are shaped like the towers of a mediaeval fortress. (more)

Kazakhstan-Mexico cooperation details unveiled
4 July 2014 - Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations with Mexico in 1992 but the two countries did not solidify their bilateral ties. Now, however, they are planning to exchange embassies. Currently, Martha Elena Barcena Coqui is the Mexican Ambassador to Kazakhstan, and, concurrently, to Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. The Embassy is located in Ankara, Turkey, but later in 2014 a Mexican Embassy will be opened in Kazakhstan. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

IT and technologies of consciousness - bringing Transcendental Meditation to more people in Kazakhstan
19 January 2011 - Throughout the past year, the Global Mother Divine Organization in Kazakhstan has been very active promoting Consciousness-Based Education, the Transcendental Meditation Programme, and other courses and programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the country. (more)

Kazakhstan: Global Mother Divine Organization offers courses for women
19 January 2011 - Throughout the past year, the Global Mother Divine Organization in Kazakhstan has offered a series of special one-day courses for women. (more)

Tour for Consciousness-Based Education planned in Kazakhstan
28 December 2009 - In Kazakhstan, planning has begun for the spring 2010 tour of Dr Ashley Deans, Global Ambassador for Consciousness-Based Education. More initiatives are also in the works for the expansion of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes in the nation. (more)

Kazakhstan sees increase of Transcendental Meditation Teachers, Yogic Flyers
21 July 2009 - Increasing numbers of Transcendental Meditation Teachers are being trained and certified in the country of Kazakhstan, and this trend promises to continue in the near future, bringing the nation closer to invincibility. (more)

Well-wishers of peace in Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka fund students to learn Transcendental Meditation
21 February 2009 - A generous well-wisher of peace and invincibility in Kazaksthan will fund 400 students to learn Transcendental Meditation. This has given great inspiration to the Teachers of Transcendental Meditation in the country, who are now preparing materials to introduce Consciousness-Based Education in the local schools. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Kazakhstan's biggest city running out of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients
23 June 2020 - Kazakhstan's biggest city, Almaty, may convert two sports arenas into COVID-19 hospitals as existing facilities for patients with suspected and confirmed cases are nearly full, the city's healthcare chief said on Tuesday [23 June]. The Central Asian nation bordering China and Russia is struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus after lifting a nationwide lockdown in mid-May. (more)

UN says deadly Kazakh riots show rights abuses and growing inequality
12 July 2012 - The United Nations urged Kazakhstan on Thursday to allow an international investigation into deadly oil town riots that it said exposed rights abuses and growing inequality in Central Asia's largest economy. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the December riots in Zhanaozen, during which police opened fire on protesters, should serve as a 'warning' to Kazakhstan not to pursue financial prosperity at the expense of human rights. Pillay said the events of Zhanaozen, if properly investigated, could become a 'watershed' for Kazakhstan. 'It contains, in microcosm, many of the human rights concerns and critical gaps in the country's laws and rule-of-law institutions,' she said. 'These include allegations that torture is still practised in Kazakhstan.' The UN representative urged Kazakhstan to create an independent body with the power to inspect detention centres and to halt the common practice of failing to register people during their first few hours of detention. (more)

Kazakh Police Chief defends use of live rounds on demonstrators
18 December 2011 - Kazakhstan's Interior Minister said Sunday that live firearms will continue to be deployed against violent protesters if necessary, in defiance of the international outcry that followed the more than a dozen deaths caused by clashes over recent days. At least 15 people have been killed since the monthslong sit-in demonstration by oil workers in southwestern town of Zhanaozen descended into a violent confrontation Friday morning between police and protesters. The unrest is causing palpable tension among authorities in the energy-rich Central Asian nation, whose economy relies heavily on the oil extracted from the region affected by the disturbances. (more)

Police fire on rioters in Kazakhstan, 1 killed
18 December 2011 - Police opened fire on rioters in a town in the tense southwest of Kazakhstan, leaving one person dead and 11 wounded, authorities said Sunday. A statement from the Prosecutor General's office said the violence occurred Saturday in the town of Shetpe, in the same region as the city of Zhanaozen where 13 people died in a clash with police on Friday. The statement said about 300 demonstrators supporting the Zhanaozen victims blocked railroad traffic for several hours and after police tried to force them away, a group of about 50 set a locomotive on fire, then moved into the town where they broke windows and set the municipal Christmas tree ablaze. The statement did not specify at what point police opened fire. (more)

Kazakh leader orders curfew after oil city riots
17 December 2011 - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Saturday declared a 20-day state of emergency in a western oil city where at least 11 people have been killed in the deadliest outbreak of violence in the Central Asian state's recent history. Wounded victims filled hospitals in Zhanaozen and many oil workers stayed at home, fearing for their safety a day after violent clashes between riot police and crowds in a city where thousands of sacked oil workers have been protesting for months. The clashes marred celebrations across the rest of Kazakhstan to mark the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union and were a shock to a government that has put stability and economic growth over democratic freedoms. (more)

Seven killed in clashes in Kazakhstan
4 December 2011 - Five suspected militants and two security officers were killed in a shootout near Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty, prosecutors said on Sunday, in the latest of a series of attacks in the oil-producing Central Asian state. A string of blasts and shootouts have fractured Kazakhstan's image of stability this year. The long-peaceful, mainly Muslim nation had not until this year seen the outbursts of militancy seen in other parts of the vast region north of Afghanistan. Last month, a 34-year-old man killed seven people, including five members of security forces, in the southern city of Taraz in the most violent attack to date in Kazakhstan. Prosecutors then said he was a 'follower of jihadism'. (more)

China's crackdown affects Uighurs in Kazakhstan
19 July 2009 - Thousands of ethnic Uighurs rallied in the Kazakhstan city of Almaty on Sunday to protest against a crackdown against Uighurs in the neighbouring Chinese region of Xinjiang. In Xinjiang's worst ethnic unrest in decades, Uighurs staged protests in the regional capital Urumqi on 5 July after a clash at a factory in south China in June left two Uighurs dead. The violence left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 wounded, mostly Han Chinese who launched revenge attacks in Urumqi days later, according to China's government. About 1,000 people, mostly Uighurs, have been detained in an ensuing government crackdown. Uighurs are a largely Muslim Turkic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. The Xinjiang violence has stoked tension among Kazakhstan's Uighurs and lent a broader sense of instability to the vast region bordering Afghanistan. Many Uighurs, who deny they could use force to gain independence, have accused the West of ignoring their plight and appealed to global powers to condemn China's actions. (more)

Afghanistan: Taliban rebuffs Karzai's offer
30 September 2007 - President Hamid Karzai offered to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position, but a spokesman for the militant group on Sunday said it will 'never' negotiate with Afghan authorities until US and NATO forces leave the country. (more)

Kazakhstan: Hundreds of dead seals wash up on shore
4 May 2007 - Hundreds of dead seals have washed up on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea shoreline in the past several days, bringing the total number of the animals found dead along the shoreline in recent weeks to 832, the Emergencies Agency said. Environmental officials in the Central Asian nation are trying to determine what killed the seals. Last year, 350 seals and thousands of sturgeon died as a result of a heavy metal leak from an oil field. (more)

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister steps down
8 January 2007 - Daniyal Akhmetov, Prime Minister of oil-rich Kazakhstan in central Asia, resigned Monday in the wake of criticism of his performance by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Akhmetov had come under Nazarbayev's criticism for poor strategic planning, overspending, and other mistakes. (more)