Kazakhstan’s acting border service chief was among 27 people killed in a military plane crash today near a southern city, another blow to the agency after he was appointed in June to deal with the aftermath of a mass killing involving a conscript.

Voters go to the polls today in the oil-rich Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan in elections that are expected to slightly broaden democratic representation in parliament’s rubber-stamp lower house.

THE publicity-hungry Central Asian state of Kazakhstan yesterday hosted the first summit of the OSCE in over a decade, seeking to revamp the organisation’s ability to react to security crises.

A group uniting the US, Europe and Central Asian nations is holding its first security summit in more than a decade, with Afghanistan and international terrorism high on the agenda.

David Cameron today hailed an agreement by Nato allies to return Afghanistan to the control of Afghan forces within four years, paving the way for the return of British combat troops.

Nato will start reducing troop levels in Afghanistan next year and hand over control of security to the Afghans in 2014 but will not abandon the country after that and let it slip back into chaos, Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today.

Two people were killed when a truck on its way back from delivering Nato supplies in Afghanistan was ambushed by gunmen in north-west Pakistan, a government official said today.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility today for a pre-dawn attack on tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for US and other Nato forces.

HEAVY arms fire rang out over the Kyrgyz city of Osh yesterday as authorities struggled to bring order to the Central Asian country’s south after days of deadly ethnic riots.

Heavy arms fire rang out over the Kyrgyz city of Osh today as authorities struggled to bring order to the Central Asian country’s south after days of deadly ethnic riots.

At least 17 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a key US transit base for the Afghanistan war.

OFFICIALS in Kazakhstan said 38 people were killed in a fire at a drug treatment centre in the south of the Central Asian nation.

China executed two people today for what a court described as an attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics with an attack that killed 17 police.

THE US has struck deals with Russia and neighbouring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory, the head of US Central Command said yesterday.

Pakistan suspended truck shipments of US military supplies through the famed Khyber Pass after launching an offensive against militants who are trying to cripple Washington’s war on a resurgent Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

David Petraeus, the American general who presided over Iraq’s pull back from the brink of all-out civil war, relinquished his command today to General Ray Odierno under a cascade of official thank-yous.

China and other members of an Asian security group were today being asked to sign a declaration of support today for Russia’s role in the Georgia conflict.

Sixteen police officers were killed today when an unknown group rammed a border patrol station on China’s Central Asian frontier before throwing in grenades.

RUSSIA and the European Union clashed yesterday over democratic freedoms in Russia at a contentious summit on the banks of the Volga River.

Ukrainians and experts worried today about a surge in consumer prices, a day after Russia and Kiev reached a deal to end a gas row that rattled Europe and roiled relations between both countries.

British comic Sacha Baron Cohen's bumbling TV alter ego Borat Sagdiyev is embroiled in a legal row with his native Kazakhstan for allegedly portraying the central Asian nation as a country of drunken fools and Stalinists.

The upper house of Uzbekistan’s parliament today backed the government’s order that the United States withdraw troops from the Central Asian nation.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld won assurances from top government officials today that American forces face no near-term deadline for withdrawing from an air base near the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek that they use to support combat and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

Kadyr Toktogulov Bishkek

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured Pakistan the US would help the predominantly Islamic nation meet its “legitimate” defence needs, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

THE United States has proved “bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle” in its fight against terrorism and invasion of Iraq, Amnesty International charged.

AN international conference on the menace of HIV and AIDS ended in Dublin last night with a declaration of international co-operation to combat the disease.

An international conference on the menace of HIV and AIDS ended in Dublin tonight with a declaration of international co-operation to combat the disease.

The US today confirmed reports that more than 1,000 troops have been sent to the Afghan border in the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.

The UN refugee chief said millions of Afghan refugees are vulnerable to hostility and intolerance in countries where they seek asylum in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld has said the new war on terrorism will be long and not start with a massive offensive.

President Vladimir Putin today met leaders of Russia’s parliament to discuss the country’s stance on fighting terrorism following the devastating attacks in the United States.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban are claiming to have shot down a North Alliance helicopter flying over its territory in the northern Samangan province.

Senior Russian and US officials began consultations in Moscow today that were expected to focus on potential terrorist threats coming from groups based in Afghanistan.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has warned America that it will not back an Afghan invasion.

The leaders of six nations led by China and Russia signed an agreement today on promoting trade and combating Islamic militancy.