JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new visa-free regime came into effect in Kazakhstan for citizens of Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Finland, Monaco, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. They join nine countries which already have a visa-free arrangement with Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14/15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two top managers resigned from Astana EXPO-2017, the company charged with delivering President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s extravaganza. Both ex-managing director Saltanat Rakhimbekova and ex-deputy chairman Vera Kobalia left their positions voluntarily. An embezzlement case has dented progress on EXPO-2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An estimated 145 Kazakh and Chinese miners brawled in a canteen at a mine in eastern Kazakhstan on July 8, media reported. The brawl, which reportedly hospitalised 31 men, highlights the underlying ethnic tension at many Kazakhstan-China joint ventures.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia signed a tax agreement with the US that means US citizens living in Georgia will be liable to pay US income tax. After signing the agreement Georgian finance minister Nodar Khaduri said the deal would give Georgian banks more access to the US market.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a decree to pardon over 1,300 prisoners on the eve of a religious holiday. Mr Berdymukhamedov regularly issues presidential amnesties to celebrate official holidays.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank approved a $305m loan to Uzbekistan to update and modernise its motorway network and a second loan of $105m to improve the irrigation network in the Bukhara region, media reported. Human rights groups have criticises the world Bank for the loans.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The body of the final animal missing from Tbilisi Zoo after a flood swept into it in June has been found in central Tbilisi, media reported. Salima was an Ussuri tiger. Last year she gave birth to three cubs.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan said it had added Russian opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya to the list of people barred from visiting the country because she had recently travelled to the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Four construction workers in Tbilisi died when part of a building they were demolishing fell on them, media reported. The former Institute for Physics and Mathematics was being demolished to make way for a hotel. The accident highlights Georgia’s poor construction safety record.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 30% of the Kyrgyz population live in poverty, media quoted the National Statistics agency as saying. People are considered living in poverty if they survive on less than $45/day. Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)