MAY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under the slogan “Summer in Georgia”, the Georgian tourism board has started a $3.5m advertising campaign to attract more tourists from across the former Soviet Union, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Brussels focused on human rights, the EU criticised new legislation passing through Kyrgyzstan’s parliament that outlaws promoting gay relationships.
The legislation is similar to laws brought in by Russia two years ago. Analysts have said Bishkek may have been motivated to introduce the rules by a desire to cosy up to the Kremlin.
The criticism of gay rights in Kyrgyzstan came the day after anti-gay rights protesters in Bishkek attacked a pro-gay rights meeting being held in the garden of an upmarket Bishkek hotel.
Over the past few years, the West has watched as Kyrgyzstan, once its poster-boy in Central Asia, has moved increasingly towards Russia. This month it also joined the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
As well as criticising Kyrgyzstan over its gay rights record, EU officials also praised the country for trying to clamp down on torture in prison and improving women’s rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China Railway Group has signed a deal with the Kazakh government to build a light railway network around Astana ahead of the city’s high-profile EXPO- 2017, media reported. The light railway will be 22km long and have 18 stations. Kazakhstan is spending heavily on EXPO-2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a deal with the Tajik government to help it update and modernise its power network. The agreement is part of general modernisation linked to the CASA-1000 deal that will see Tajikistan export electricity to Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a potentially damaging hit to Kazakhstan’s hopes of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, 27 current or former Olympic athletes wrote to the International Olympic Committee to ask it to pressure the Kazakh government into ditching a new law that bans so-called gay propaganda.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Consumer prices in Armenia rose by 5% in the first four months of the year, media reported quoting the National Statistics Agency. This rise represented a steady, but not alarming, price inflation.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire ripped through a 16-storey apartment block in Baku killing at least 15 people and injuring 41 more. The fire highlights the often poor building practices in many Baku apartment blocks.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At an energy conference, Suleymanmurad Guladov, a senior Turkmen energy official, said the government expected foreign investors to pump $3b into looking for gas reserves on its Caspian Sea shelf, Reuters reported. This is a rise from the $2.5b invested last year, Mr Guladov said.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of Western tourists travelling to Kyrgyzstan has increased from 57,000 in 2013 to 86,000 last year, media quoted Kyrgyz government officials as saying. Officials said the introduction of a visa-free regime in 2012 had helped increase numbers.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has stopped issuing tourist visas to its southern Badakhshan Province because of increased fighting along its border with Afghanistan, the Dushanbe-based ASIA-Plus website reported. Badakhshan has been the scene of intermittent anti- government protests.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)