News Roundup - August 12, 2007

Reuters: Kazakhstan Names New Economic Minister
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Bakhyt Sultanov, 35, as economy minister in the oil-producing Central Asian state on Friday...
BBC Monitoring Central Asia: Kazakh Prosecutor's Office Warns Against Calls for Protest after Elections
"The Prosecutor-General's Office states that the law-enforcement agencies will not allow any violations of law and order, and will take all the measures prescribed by law to ensure public security and stability in the country during the 18 August elections to Majlis (lower chamber) of Kazakhstan's parliament and maslikhats (local representative bodies of power) of all levels," says the statement circulated by the prosecutor's office on Saturday...
BBC Monitoring Central Asia: Ruling Party Supporters Double in Kazakhstan - Poll
According to the latest survey of the public foundation Institute for Central Asian Development [ICAD], the number of supporters of the ruling Nur Otan party among voters has almost doubled. "When questionnaires were completed at the first stage of the survey in May-June, 33.9 per cent of respondents were ready to vote for the Nur Otan party, 10.8 per cent for the Ak Zhol party and 1.2 per cent for the National Social Democratic Party [NSDP]," a leading expert of the ICAD, Valentina Kurganskaya, said at a news conference in Almaty today...
Sunday Telegraph: Kazakhstan election a 'foregone conclusion'
Faced with an international perception of Kazakhstan as a backward dictatorship - as lampooned by the fictional television reporter Borat Sagdiyev - Mr Nazarbayev brought this month's polls forward by two years as part of what is billed as a sweeping democratic makeover...
Washington Post: Kazakh Newspaper Supplanted
A popular Kazakhstan newspaper owned by the former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was forced to close last week, its editors said, and was replaced with a new, similarly styled weekly run by a man close to the president...
International Herald Tribune: Kazakhstan Calls for Criminal Proceedings Against Ex-Ambassador
Kazakhstan wants Austria to launch criminal proceedings against its former ambassador, a lawyer for the Central Asian nation said Friday, just days after the Alpine republic rejected an extradition request...
New York Times: Kazakhstan Says Austrians Erred in Extradition Ruling
The government of Kazakhstan accused an Austrian court on Thursday of ignoring irrefutable evidence in the court’s decision not to extradite Rakhat M. Aliyev, the former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and said it would seek an appeal...
MarketWatch: Toshiba in Talks to Obtain Kazakhstan Uranium Mining Stake
Toshiba Corp. said Friday it is in talks with Marubeni Corp. and others on the possible purchase of part of a uranium mine stake in Kazakhstan...
New Europe: Kazakhstan Has Talks with Jordan over Mideast, Terrorism
Kazakhstan and Jordan have called for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told a joint press conference with King Abdallah II of Jordan in Astana...
Kommersant: American Mortgage Crisis Hits Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has become the first country in the CIS to feel the impact of the crisis in liquidity on the world market. Between August 1 and 8, the interest rate on interbank credit jumped 1.8 percent, the Kazakh tenge began to wobble and capital began to flow out of the country...
RBC Daily: The Government of Kazakhstan Is Going to Deprive Italian Eni of the Status of Operator
The government of Kazakhstan is going to deprive Italian Eni of the status of operator of the huge oil project Kashagan. Analysts do not rule out that the project will finally be managed by LUKoil because the company has accumulated large experience working in Kazakhstan.
On August 8, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov announced that the government might deprive Eni of the status of operator of this project. Such a harsh reaction of the state official followed the official statement of the Italian company about postponement of beginning of commercial production at the Kashagan from 2008 until 2010, as well as about increase of the aggregate costs of the project from $57 billion to $137 billion.
Energy Business Review: KazMunayGas and Socar Strengthen Oil and Gas Co-operation
Kazakhstan's and Azerbaijan's respective state-owned oil companies, KazMunayGas and Socar, have signed a memorandum on joint implementation of the trans-Caspian project and an agreement to strengthen their strategic co-operation in the oil and gas industry...