The United Arab Emirates postal service and KazPost have issued stamps dedicated to the heads of the two friendly states: President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of the UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A presentation ceremony for the new stamps was held on June 9 in Dubai.
Kazakhstan has confirmed that, so far, 27 countries and four international organisations will participate in EXPO 2017 in Astana, Expo National Commissioner and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Rapil Zhoshybayev announced in Paris on June 10, Kazinform reports. Zhoshybayev was taking part in the 157th session of the General Assembly of the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE), where reports on preparations for expos in Astana in 2017 and Dubai in 2020, as well as a horticultural exhibition in Antalya 2016, were presented.
An international crew of astronauts comprising a Russian, an American and an Italian woman astronaut who set a record for flight time in space by a woman landed safely in Kazakhstan on June 11 after being delayed because of the April failure of a Russian Soyuz rocket, after which launches and returns were postponed for an investigation. The Expedition 43 trio, Commander Terry Virts of NASA and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency were delayed in returning by nearly a month, leading to Cristoforetti’s record. The three landed near the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.
Kazakhstan will stop offering free lunches at secondary schools in the new school year, instead switching to more targeted assistance programmes, Radio Free Europe reports. The Almaty city administration said the money will instead be used to pay for lunches for orphans and children from low-income families. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev spoke about needing to cancel free lunch programmes in February, when discussing measures to be taken to avoid an economic crisis with his cabinet.
Talgat Yermegiayev has been relieved of his position as chairman of the Board of Astana EXPO 2017 National Company, Tengrinews reported on June 12. Today.kz reported the following day that Yermegiayev had been placed under house arrest on suspicion of embezzling more than $1 million of state funds set aside for the event. Yermegiayev has chaired the company, which is managing preparations for the exposition, since 2013. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Akim (Mayor) of Astana Adilbek Zhaksybekov as the new chairman of the board of Astana EXPO 2017 National Company.
A two-day regional workshop on combating cybercrime was held in Almaty on June 11-12. The event was co-organised by the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the OSCE programme office in Astana, in coordination with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Some 45 law-enforcement officers specialising in cybercrime investigations from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan took part in the event. Experts from Belarus, Russia, Turkey, the United States and the UNODC shared their experience with participants, including in the use of special units and cross-border exchanges of information. Participants discussed challenges in combating cybercrime and reviewed training opportunities and training modules, recruitment policies, data collection, budget allocation and logistics. They explored ways to enhance coordination among law-enforcement agencies, governmental structures, the private sector, academia and nongovernmental organisations. They also examined specific cybercrime cases and techniques used by investigative and forensic units. The workshop is part of the OSCE’s activities in combating transnational threats, money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the abuse of the Internet for criminal purposes.
