On December 16, 2011, deadly clashes in the western Kazakh city of Zhanaozen left at least 16 people dead and 100 more injured. The riots between police and angry residents were the bloody culmination of a prolonged strike by local oil workers, and raised international concerns about the state of labor rights in Kazakshtan's remote energy-rich regions. As the anniversary approaches, the city is hauntingly quiet. But many residents say they remain distressed by the brutal clashes and the arrests and trials that followed.
The United Nations has welcomed as "an important step" the renewed commitment of the five states bordering the Caspian Seat to protects its marine environment.
A court in Almaty has fined the editor in chief of a banned opposition newspaper for using another newspaper's pages for her weekly's materials.
A court in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, has banned the opposition television channel K-Plus.
Kazakhstan's Bureau for Human Rights has condemned the sentence of a prominent activist and called his case politically motivated.
A state-controlled group in Kazakhstan is proposing that the Kazakh capital, Astana, be renamed after longtime President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
Vladislav Chelakh was convicted on December 11 for killing 14 fellow border guards and a forest ranger.
Kazakhstan and Russia are working toward a new agreement on the use of Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of efforts to roll back human rights in the former Soviet Union as she met with 11 activists from the region on December 7. RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel spoke with one of the activists, Oleksandra Delemenchuk of the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties, about her impressions of the meeting on the sidelines of the OSCE conference in Dublin, Ireland.
A prosecutor in Kazakhstan's southeastern city of Taldyqorghan is demanding a life sentence for Vladislav Chelakh, a young border guard accused of killing 15 people.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described efforts to promote greater economic integration in Eurasia as “a move to re-Sovietize the region.”
A rights defender who has filed lawsuits on behalf of the citizens claiming police abuse during last year's unrest in the western town of Zhanaozen has been sentenced to 12 days in jail.
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