The state energy firms of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan agreed on Friday to begin shipments of Kazakh oil across the Caspian Sea from 2013, Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR said in a statement.

Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

Kazakhstan formally ended on Friday a long-running dispute with foreign investors over its vast Kashagan oil field, one of the world`s largest untapped deposits, the government said.

A final agreement on Kazakhstan`s vast and troubled Kashagan oil field will be signed this week by Kazakh and foreign oil companies after months of wrangling, an oil official told AFP on Wednesday.

`We expect the agreement will be signed on Friday,` an official with state oil firm Kazmunaigas told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday gave a Kazakh film and its director its top awards.

The festival, which chose the environment as its theme for its 21st year, awarded the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix to `Tulpan`, the story of a man who tries to marry a girl to start a nomadic family life after leaving the navy.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Kazakhstan and met the leader of the energy-rich Central Asian nation, the press service of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Sunday.

PRAGUE, Oct 23, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakhstan will be glad to supply gas to the Nabucco pipeline, an EU-backed project designed to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas resources, a Kazakh official said Thursday in Prague.

Russia on Wednesday test fired a 31-year-old intercontinental ballistic missile known by its NATO codename Stiletto from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan, Russian news agencies reported.

Kazakhstan on Tuesday pulled its small contingent of about 30 military engineers out of Iraq, the defence ministry of the ex-Soviet state said in a statement.

`On October 21, Kazakhstan`s engineering-demining detachment was withdrawn from Iraq,` the ministry said.

KARAGANDA, Kazakhstan, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Six miners have been killed in an accident at a copper mine in central Kazakhstan, prosecutors in the central Asian country said Monday.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - Richard Garriott, who is set to become the first American to follow his astronaut father into space on Sunday, hopes to be able to recoup the 30 million dollars he paid for the experience.

ASTANA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began talks in Kazakhstan Sunday expected to focus on security and energy cooperation with the strategic Central Asian state.

Rice met with Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin at the start of a brief visit in which she was also to hold talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

ASTANA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Sunday to pursue a drive to stabilise Afghanistan by linking its shattered economy more closely to that of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian neighbors.

ASTANA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday Kazakhstan would remain a linchpin of US policy in Central Asia amid security challenges around the region from Georgia to Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to India and Kazakhstan from Friday, including for talks in New Delhi about the landmark US-India civilian nuclear agreement passed by Congress, the State Department said Thursday.

ASTANA, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Russia's ally Kazakhstan has pulled out of business deals worth billions of dollars in Georgia, a state company official said Thursday, the month after a conflict between Russia and Georgia.

SEOUL, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - A Kazakh director's film depicting the tormented life of a Jewish boy living under Stalin's rule has been chosen to open this year's Pusan International Film Festival, organisers said Tuesday.

'The Gift to Stalin,' directed by Rustem Abdrashev, will be the first of 315 films from 60 countries to be screened from October 2-10.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakhstan understands Russia's actions in Georgia and urges the international community to stop raising the spectre of a new Cold War, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Thursday.

ASTANA, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A clutch of foreign leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, heaped praise on Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev Saturday during 10th anniversary celebrations for his country's capital.

ASTANA, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A clutch of foreign leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, heaped praise on Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev Saturday during 10th anniversary celebrations for his country's capital.

ASTANA, July 4, 2008 (AFP) - An orgy of song, dance and fireworks will envelop Astana on Sunday honouring the 10th anniversary of the Kazakh capital as well as the leader it symbolises, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, officials said.

ASTANA, July 3, 2008 (AFP) - The OSCE's parliamentary assembly on Thursday called on Russia to stop undermining the territorial integrity of Georgia in a resolution adopted at an annual meeting of the group in Kazakhstan.

ASTANA, June 29, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakhstan should use its OSCE presidency to strengthen its democracy, the head of the OSCE parliamentary assembly said Sunday, while President Nursultan Nazarbayev outlined different priorities.

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2008 (AFP) - A fashion model from Kazakhstan fell from her New York City balcony and plunged nine stories to her death in what police called an apparent suicide, New York newspapers said Sunday.

ALMATY, June 28, 2008 (AFP) - Production at Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field has been postponed for a further two years until 2013, the Kazakh government said Saturday, following an agreement with the consortium in charge of development.

ATYRAU, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday rejected the idea that the capital Astana be renamed after him, following a parliamentary proposal put forth to this effect.

'I am not partisan to changing the name of Astana, especially if it concerns my name,' Nazarbayev told media in the western city of Atyrau.

ASTANA, June 4, 2008 (AFP) - A senior member of Kazakhstan's parliament on Wednesday called for the capital Astana to be renamed after President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

'Considering the enormous role of our president in the construction of Kazakhstan, of the city of Astana, I propose the city be renamed Nursultan,' General Sat Tokpakbayev told the lower house, the Majilis.

KARAGANDA, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakh authorities on Tuesday declared that five miners missing since an accident Monday at a mine owned by Arcelor Mittal were now considered dead.

Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bojko said: 'We can't say they're dead until their bodies have been brought up to the surface, but we can already say that there's no chance of saving them.'

PARIS, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Five people are missing feared dead following an accident Monday at an Arcelor Mittal coal mine in Kazakhstan, the company said in a statement.

'Emergency services are at the scene and every effort is be made to locate the missing, but it is likely that they died following the accident,' said the statement issued in Paris.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law on Thursday ratifying the oil-rich state's participation in the strategic BTC pipeline to the Mediterranean, his office said on its website.

The law is based on an agreement signed with Azerbaijan in 2006 under which Kazakhstan is to deliver oil by ship to the starting point in Azerbaijan of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

CANNES, France, May 25, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakh movie 'Tulpan', in which an aspiring shepherd's big ears are compared with those of Prince Charles, on Sunday bagged its third prize at the Cannes film festival.

ASTANA, May 22, 2008 (AFP) - Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, declared a 'pragmatic' and 'open' foreign policy as he began his first foreign tour since taking office, holding talks in Kazakhstan before heading to China.

ASTANA, May 22, 2008 (AFP) - Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, embarked Thursday on an Asian tour taking in energy-rich Kazakhstan and giant neighbour China, his first foreign trip since taking office.

The symbolic first trip by the 42-year-old leader, who took over from Vladimir Putin earlier this month, underlined Russia's growing attention to Asia, analysts said.

MOSCOW, May 21, 2008 (AFP) - Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev travels to powerful neighbour China this week in the centrepiece of his first trip abroad since taking office.

The 42-year-old president, who took office in place of Vladimir Putin on May 7, will visit energy-rich ex-Soviet Kazakhstan on Thursday before travelling to Beijing on Friday, the Kremlin said.