Kazakhstan

NUR-SULTAN, January 8. /TASS/: President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared January 10 a day of national mourning in the country, press secretary Berik Uali announced on Saturday.

"In connection with the numerous human casualties as a result of tragic events in a number of regions of the country, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev decided to declare January 10, 2022, a day of national mourning," he wrote on Facebook.

ALMATY, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Authorities in Kazakhstan have detained Karim Massimov, the former head of the national security committee, on suspicion of treason, the security committee said on Saturday.

Massimov, who was fired this week as protests raged across the Central Asian country, was detained along with several other officials, the National Security Committee said in a statement. It did not name them or provide further details.

Reuters was unable immediately to contact Massimov.

NUR-SULTAN, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- After days of stormy unrest, the constitutional order has been largely restored in Kazakhstan, according to a statement by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Friday.

"Local authorities are monitoring the situation, but terrorists are still using weapons, causing damage to civilian property," Tokayev said during a meeting with the leadership of the Presidential Administration, the Security Council, and law enforcement agencies.

ALMATY, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Fresh violence erupted in Kazakhstan's main city of Almaty on Thursday as Russia sent in paratroopers to put down a countrywide uprising in one of Moscow's closest former Soviet allies.

Police in Almaty said they had killed dozens of rioters overnight into the early hours of Thursday morning. Authorities said at least 18 members of the security forces had died, including two found decapitated. More than 2,000 people were arrested.

Moscow, Jan 7 (AP) The president of Kazakhstan on Friday declared that constitutional order was mainly restored after the country was engulfed in unprecedented unrest in recent days.

An anti-terror operation has commenced. Law enforcement agencies are working hard. Constitutional order has been mainly restored in all regions of the country. Local authorities are in control of the situation, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was quoted by his spokespeople as saying Friday.

NUR-SULTAN, January 5. /TASS/: The law-enforcement personnel have launched a special counter-terror operation in Almaty where looting continues, the Almaty commandant’s office reported on Wednesday.

"A special counter-terror operation has been launched in the city to establish order," the statement says.

The commandant’s office also called on Almaty residents "to remain calm and render assistance to the law-enforcement agencies in establishing the Constitutional order and public security."

NUR-SULTAN, December 22. /TASS/: Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) eliminated a commander of the Junud al-Sham terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told journalists on Wednesday.

"Very recently the Russian Aerospace Forces managed to eliminate one of the leaders of the Junud al-Sham group Murad Margoshvili (known as Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani - TASS). This is an odious individual who fought in Chechnya, with the blood of many civilians on his hands," he said.

BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, December 8. /TASS/: The Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft carrying cosmonaut and TASS special reporter Alexander Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his associate Yozo Hirano docked with the Poisk module of the International Space Station.

NUR-SULTAN, November 23. /TASS/: Kazakhstan’s first President Nursultan Nazarbayev has decided to hand over the leadership of the ruling party Nur Otan (The Light of the Fatherland) to incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Nazarbayev’s press secretary Aidos Ukibai said on Tuesday after a meeting of the party’s political council.

"During the meeting of the party’s political council, Nursultan Nazarbayev took a decision to hand over the leadership of the Nur Otan party, stressing that the party should be led by the country’s president," he wrote on his Twitter account.

ALMATY, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) has granted the Kazakh government access to its content reporting system, after the Central Asian nation threatened to block the social network for millions of local users.

The Nur-Sultan cabinet and Facebook said in a joint statement on Monday that the agreement, the first of its kind in the post-Soviet region of Central Asia, would streamline the process of removing content deemed illegal by Kazakhstan.