For years, top college grads and ambitious middle managers sought fortune and upward mobility in places like California's Silicon Valley, London or Hong Kong. Today, the crème de la crème might be better off booking a flight to Kazakhstan or Canada.
It is a baking hot Saturday in southeast Kazakhstan, and I have joined a group of scientists, diplomats, businessmen and a ballerina aboard a Russian-built, nine-seater four-wheel-drive van to escape the city of Almaty and its mountainous backdrop.
Ruslana Korshunova, 20, leapt from the balcony of her New York apartment
Ruslana Korshunova, the 20-year-old supermodel whose face graced the cover of Vogue, committed suicide on Saturday when she fell from her ninth floor apartment in New York's financial district, according to the medical examiner's office.
A European Vogue cover model fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment building Saturday in an apparent suicide, published reports said.
No question: It's been a long time since the American public was fascinated by farm news. But with sticker shock at the checkout, the passage of a controversial $300 billion farm bill, and the increasingly skeptical coverage of the ethanol boomlet, people sure are interested now. Such news turns a spotlight on Deere & Co. Founded in 1837, it is the world's largest maker of farm equipment and a major builder of construction equipment (2007 revenues: $24.1 billion).
At the age of just 36, Hesham Al Emadi is at the helm of an ambitious plan to create up to ten "Energy Cities" around the world.
When a 'Yellow Dragon' roars, Beijing listens.
Russian space officials say the crew of the Soyuz space ship is resting after a rough ride back to Earth.
It's got all the makings of an international geopolitical thriller: World powers move their armies into a violent, remote, and politically fragile region brimming with valuable oil and natural gas resources; except it's not fiction.
For years, top college grads and ambitious middle managers sought fortune and upward mobility in places like California's Silicon Valley, London or Hong Kong. Today, the crème de la crème might be better off booking a flight to Kazakhstan or Canada.
It is a baking hot Saturday in southeast Kazakhstan, and I have joined a group of scientists, diplomats, businessmen and a ballerina aboard a Russian-built, nine-seater four-wheel-drive van to escape the city of Almaty and its mountainous backdrop.
Ruslana Korshunova, 20, leapt from the balcony of her New York apartment
Ruslana Korshunova, the 20-year-old supermodel whose face graced the cover of Vogue, committed suicide on Saturday when she fell from her ninth floor apartment in New York's financial district, according to the medical examiner's office.
A European Vogue cover model fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment building Saturday in an apparent suicide, published reports said.
No question: It's been a long time since the American public was fascinated by farm news. But with sticker shock at the checkout, the passage of a controversial $300 billion farm bill, and the increasingly skeptical coverage of the ethanol boomlet, people sure are interested now. Such news turns a spotlight on Deere & Co. Founded in 1837, it is the world's largest maker of farm equipment and a major builder of construction equipment (2007 revenues: $24.1 billion).
At the age of just 36, Hesham Al Emadi is at the helm of an ambitious plan to create up to ten "Energy Cities" around the world.
When a 'Yellow Dragon' roars, Beijing listens.
Russian space officials say the crew of the Soyuz space ship is resting after a rough ride back to Earth.
It's got all the makings of an international geopolitical thriller: World powers move their armies into a violent, remote, and politically fragile region brimming with valuable oil and natural gas resources; except it's not fiction.
China launched its Olympic torch relay in a controlled ceremony in front of invited guests at Tiananmen Square on Monday, starting a historic trek that was praised by the country's leaders and condemned by critics who are waiting to protest along the route.
The clock is chasing down 1 A.M. It's late for dinner - or for interviews - in Almaty, Kazakhstan's former capital. But self-made Kazakh uranium czar Moukhtar Dzhakishev is just hitting his stride. Between spoonfuls of Beluga caviar and bites of ruby-colored tuna flown in from Dubai, he is explaining that his small state-owned company, Kazatomprom, will soon rule the global nuclear energy industry. "I don't think there will be any competitors," he says softly. "I will eat them."
Each year, any country in the non-English speaking world that wants to be in with a chance of winning must choose just one film to represent the entire output of their country's filmmaking industry.
One of history's deadliest diseases has been making a comeback. Scientists want to know why
Fabio Capello's first competitive match as England coach will be away to Andorra in September after the dates were agreed for their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign on Monday.
Kyle Okposo was one of five different players to score as Team USA earned a 5 -1 victory over Kazakhstan today in the opening game for both teams of the preliminary round of the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
Russia has revoked the right of Lufthansa's cargo unit to fly over its airspace, forcing the German-based airline to divert its flights to Kazakhstan, a company spokesman said Friday, as government negotiators from both sides met to resolve the dispute.
Poland are scheduled to host the European Championships jointly with Ukraine in 2012 but, barring a disaster, the eastern European nation should be making their debut in the final stages of the competition next year in Austria and Switzerland.
Kazakhstan's nuclear orphans are a distressing sight.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party won every available seat in a new parliament on Sunday after a flawed vote that the opposition said turned the clock back to totalitarian Soviet rule.
An election heralded as the first step in liberalization somehow produces a one-party government for the energy-rich former Soviet republic
Kazakhstan voted on Saturday in a parliamentary election that is bound to return a big majority for President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party and is seen as a test of the Central Asian state's democracy.
The president's son-in-law is now a fugitive from the law and his all-powerful relative
Charles Simonyi, the software programmer credited with developing Word and Excel, has a billion Microsoft dollars to his name, squires Martha Stewart on his arm, and last month became the fifth so-...
Germany's Andreas Kloeden won the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Tuesday and said his main target for the year is a Tour de France triumph.
Serbia coach Javier Clemente has included a majority of young players including three debutants in his 22-man squad for Euro 2008 qualifiers against Kazakhstan on March 24 and Portugal on March 28.
Former world slalom champion Ivica Kostelic failed to qualify for the men's giant slalom at the world Alpine skiing championships, when he was disqualified during qualifying because a plate on top of his bindings was too thick.
The Briefing Room's insider guides have shed light on culture, politics, heavyweight issues and penguins. Here's an end-of-year selection of our favorites.
Mu Shuangshuang set a new world record in the snatch for the women's 75kg and plus superheavyweight category as China continued their domination of the weightlifting at the Asian Games on Wednesday.
For the past several years, the hottest thing on Wall Street has been mostly off-limits to Main Street: hedge funds.
Richard Quest takes a breather from life on the road to indulge in a trip down memory lane of highlights from the past year.
"Borat" is so gut-bustingly funny it should carry a health warning.
(CNN) -- With Borat fever sweeping cinemas everywhere, here is all you need to know about Kazakhstan, homeland of the world's most inept and offensive journalist.
Borat Sagdiyev is sexist, racist and anti-Semitic. He is also the main character played by Sacha Baron Cohen, in the recently released film, "Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
A first half double by striker Ebi Smolarek gave Poland a shock 2-1 win over Group A favorites Portugal in their Euro 2008 qualifier on Wednesday.
Anoush Ansari may have become the first female space tourist on Monday, but she is only the latest in a lengthy list of female pioneers to blaze a trail across the stars -- and that doesn't just mean Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhuru or Star Wars' Princess Leia.
Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov won a second successive stage at the Tour of Spain on Sunday ahead of Spaniard Alejandro Valverde who moved into the overall race lead.
Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov recovered from his disappointment 24 hours earlier to win stage eight of the Tour of Spain on Saturday.
It was a dark day for CubeSat builders. The seventh launch of the Dnepr launch vehicle hauling over a dozen spacecraft blasted upward into the night from its silo site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
German Fabian Wegmann took the overall lead in the Dauphine Libere race on Monday after winning the first stage.
Italy's Franco Pellizotti won the 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday and rocketed from 23rd place to fourth in the overall standings.
Russia scraped past Slovakia 4-3 in a scrappy game at the world ice hockey championship in Riga on Wednesday to secure top spot in Group C.
This is a sampling of comments from the past week.
American Bobby Julich made a great start to his defense of the Paris-Nice title when he won the opening prologue, a 4.8km time trial, in the French capital on Sunday.
Bundesliga club Hanover 96 sacked coach Ewald Lienen on Wednesday and appointed Peter Neururer in his place.
The detection of bird flu in Europe and further deaths from the disease in Asia have heightened health concerns for people visiting affected countries.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refuted claims by the opposition in Kazakhstan that Washington's primary concern is oil, followed by the war on terrorism, and not democracy as she claimed in a speech.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Kabul Wednesday, making Afghanistan the latest stop on her tour of Asia that has been expanded to include a stop in earthquake-damaged Pakistan.
European champions Greece kept their World Cup qualifications hopes alive with an injury time goal to defeat nine-man Kazakhstan 2-1 in Almaty.
Russia's Photon M-2 laboratory has safely returned to Earth with its crew of lizards, scorpions, snails and other animals.
Ukraine edged closer to their first appearance in the World Cup finals when they Kazakhstan 2-0 and maintained their unbeaten record in Group Two.
Bridging Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan has a complex cultural identity, which blends Mongol, Russian and Turkish influences.
Two trends will affect global practice over the next two decades: the need to pursue sustainable patterns of development; and the opportunities presented by developing economies.
Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin has ruled himself out of the Giro d'Italia just days before the prologue in Reggio Calabria, ANSA news agency reported Tuesday.
For the past year, hydrocarbons have provided most of the market's energy. While the Dow Jones industrial average has been essentially flat and the S&P 500 has inched up just 5%, since March 2004 t...
Kyrgyzstan's parliament has set June 26 as the date for a new presidential election following the ouster of President Askar Akayev.
Following is some background material on Kyrgyzstan.
"I am Chinese and work for a global software company. We are expected to communicate in English and sometimes German with clients and customers. That's sometimes a problem, not just because of the language barrier but because of cultural differences as well. Could you give me some advice on how to overcome these difficulties and communicate successfully?" -- Chunyan, China
At least 21 people were killed when an explosion ripped through a mine in Kazakhstan, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Striker Andriy Shevchenko scored twice as Ukraine upset Turkey 3-0 in their World Cup qualifier to move clear at the top of Group Two.
Panathinaikos defender Sotiris Kyrgiakos, who won praise for his displays in two Champions League ties with Arsenal, has been recalled to Greece's World Cup squad.
A late goal by substitute Vassilis Tsartas snatched a 1-1 draw for European champions Greece against Ukraine in their World Cup Group Two qualifier.
Britain's Amir Khan is now only one bout away from becoming the youngest Olympic boxing champion since Floyd Patterson won gold in 1952, after defeating Serik Yeleuov of Kazakhstan in the semifinals.
Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov has pulled out of next month's Tour de France after a fall during the Tour of Switzerland, his German T-Mobile team said Monday.
With oil hovering near record prices and OPEC saying it's out of their control, the question of whether the planet is nearing the end of its oil supply has again arisen.
Now that Royal Dutch/Shell has come clean about the games it was playing with its oil reserves, can it get out of the hole it's in? That's what investors want to know, and the prospects aren't good...
The crew of the international space station has touched down safely on the barren steppes of central Asia after six months in space.
The two-man crew aboard the international space station will stay in space one extra day, returning to Earth April 30, to enable the returning crew to extend its handover operations with the crew that will take its place, a NASA spokesman said.
Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu scored twice as Romania defeated Georgia 3-0 in a friendly tournament in Cyprus on Wednesday.
To the loving eye of Phil Meek, president of Chevron Corp.'s Kazakhstan subsidiary, the Caspian Sea city of Atyrau looks a lot like West Texas. "It's flat, alkaline, not many trees," he says.
A few years ago, Mark Mobius, president of Templeton Emerging Markets, saw a sign for a brokerage in Botswana's capital city, Gaborone, and ambled in to ask where he could find the stock exchange. ...
If Alan Greenspan can cause the Dow to plunge 145 points simply by questioning the "irrational exuberance" of the U.S. stock market, perhaps it is a propitious time to diversify into emerging forei...
Companies operating in dangerous regions need to cope with the security void left by the withdrawal of the Soviet and American empires. To stopper up the safety gap in far-flung locales from Kazakh...
-- Henry Kissinger, 71, ex-Secretary of State, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, on political prospects in the former Soviet Union: "In 500 years, no Russian leader has ever left office vo...
Smoking is a no-no in the Clinton White House, but word apparently hasn't traveled the globe. In Russia, Muscovites are hawking a flimsy, filterless smoke called Clinton, which comes wrapped in red...
I'm doing a lousy job, confesses the boss. "I stand up there before an audience, and I sound just like a big damn oil mogul. I sound like the tobacco companies ten years ago. I haven't figured out ...
The U.S. Senate's failure to pass a defense authorization bill in August is widely and properly viewed as a policy disaster. On the brighter side, the debate leading up to the disaster makes great ...
THE OLD SOVIET UNION is still a potential superpower -- in oil. The independent republics, particularly Russia, may well have up to a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil, about equal to what's ...
BORIS YELTSIN never actually said the words across the top of this page, at least not within earshot of this writer. But he might as well have. Everything the Russian President and his new partner,...

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