JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to give the Kazakh language a boost, Kazakhstan said that it was planning on translating 30 of the world’s bestselling books this year. Kazakh is becoming the predominant language in Kazakhstan and is spoken by more people than Russian. Russian, though, retains its position as the language of business and government.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

ALMATY/JAN. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) — — A court in Almaty, the financial centre of Kazakhstan, found two men guilty of murdering Olympic bronze medallist figure skater Denis Ten last year when he caught them trying to steal the wing mirrors off his car.

Arman Kudaibergenov and Nurali Kiyasov were both given 18-year sentences and another woman, Zhanar Tolybayeva, was given a four-year sentence for failing to report the crime. Friends and family of Ten, though, have said that Tolybayeva should also be charged with murder. Some reports have said that she was the leader of the group; others that she was on look-out duty.

Earlier in the court hearing, Kudaibergenov had apologised to the family of Ten and said that they had had no intention of killing him.

“First of all, I would like to ask Denis’ parents and all the people of Kazakhstan to forgive me. I sincerely regret what happened,” he said. “We did not have any intention of killing. I just wanted to find money and chose to steal.”

The murder of the popular Ten, 25, shocked people in Almaty. He disturbed Kudaibergenov and Kiyasov trying to wrench the wing mirrors off his car when he came back from lunch with friends in the city centre on July 19 last year. He chased them when they tried to run away but one of the men stabbed Ten twice in his thigh, piercing his femoral artery.

After the murder, there were calls for the Kazakh interior minister to resign and allegations that the police were protecting petty criminals and profiting from an epidemic of petty crime in Almaty.

Ten, an ethnic Korean with angelic looks, was a Kazakh sports superstar and a household name in a country where tough boxers, weightlifters and wrestlers dominate. Ten won his bronze medal in figure skating at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Kazakhstan’s only medal.

Last year, Ten, who had struggled with injuries, competed for Kazakhstan in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, coming in at 27th place.
Ten had told the media that he planned to retire from figure skating and take up professional photography.

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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019

JAN. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ethnic tension spiked in the central Kazakh city of Karaganda after a Kazakh man was allegedly stabbed to death in a bar by a group of Armenians. Less than a week later on Jan. 6, a couple of hundred angry Kazakh protesters gathered outside the regional police HQ to demand the police find the murderer.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019