The case of a former Uzbek spy who fled to Britain this week after accusing President Islam Karimov of personally ordering massacres has sparked heated reactions across Central Asia, with the intelligence agencies of both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan offering contradictory assessments of his allegations and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) also weighing in.
Pakistan has angrily condemned a raid on a tribal region village that officials say killed at least 15 people, including women and children. Islamabad claims that U.S.-led troops used helicopters to fly in from Afghanistan and carry out the attack.
A U.S. congressional delegation visiting Kazakhstan called on the country to speed up democratic reforms ahead of assuming the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010.
The deputy chief of the U.S. mission to the OSCE, Kyle Scott, has told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service after his arrival for the assembly meeting that there are lingering concerns over the implementation of those reforms.
When finished, the Nabucco gas pipeline will run from eastern Turkey to the heart of Europe, completely bypassing Russia. But while its route is established, its suppliers have yet to be fully determined. And therein lies the controversy.
The Caspian Basin energy export contest is often portrayed as one in which there can be only one winner either Russia on the one hand, or the United States and European Union on the other. Officials in Bulgaria, a country that is envisioned as a key transit hub in competing energy-export plans, say that burgeoning European demand for gas means that all sides can profit.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Washington needs to maintain "a valid nuclear deterrent" to counter a renewed effort by Russia to bolster its own arsenal.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Washington needs to maintain "a valid nuclear deterrent" to counter a renewed effort by Russia to bolster its own arsenal.
The government of Uzbekistan is carrying out a systematic policy of repression against people involved in the Andijan protests of three years ago, witnesses told a US congressional hearing on May 13.
Several times this year, the United States has sought to rally its allies in the Arab world against what it calls Iran's continued meddling in the region.
