President Nursultan Nazarbayev

ROME (Reuters Life!) - Italy's Silvio Berlusconi praised the virility of Kazakhstan's men during a visit to Rome by its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, saying this was the reason for the former Soviet country's population growth. The comment by the 73-year-old Italian leader, who often boasts of his own virility and has been in trouble for hosting parties with prostitutes, came at a meeting with Nazarbayev that Berlusconi said sealed business deals for "billions of dollars." The Italian prime minister, praising Kazakhstan's "great natural resources and huge demographic growth" at a meeting with Nazarbayev late on Thursday, added with a smile that the latter "demonstrates ... Read Full Story

Kazakhstan agreed Tuesday to allow military hardware for French forces fighting in Afghanistan to pass through its territory, and it signed a series of energy deals during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Facing criticism over its human rights record, Kazakhstan won a measure of support from Sarkozy, who said he discussed the issue with President Nursultan Nazarbayev but did not come to "give lessons." France is among the Western nations courting Kazakhstan, a giant ex-Soviet republic with rich oil and gas resources and a strategic location bordering China and Russia — long the dominant regional force — north of Afghanistan. Nazarbayev said ... Read Full Story

ALMATY (Reuters) - The Kazakhstan presidency said on Thursday a resident of a provincial city had asked President Nursultan Nazarbayev to stay in his post for life -- a report that could be a tactic to prepare ground on the issue. Nazarbayev, 69, has run the former Soviet state for 20 years with sweeping powers and has not announced his plans for the presidential election due in 2012. But the presidential press service said Nazarbayev had visited Aktau, a hub of Kazakhstan's flourishing oil industry, on Thursday. There, one Zakratdin Baidosov, a historian, told him: "Dear Nursultan Abishevich, the people always vote for you." ... Read Full Story

ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's most prominent uranium industry figure, whose arrest has alarmed foreign investors in Central Asia's biggest economy, is in poor health and requires urgent medical attention, his wife said on Friday. Mukhtar Dzhakishev, ex-head of state company Kazatomprom, is accused of illegally gaining control over uranium deposits in Kazakhstan, home to a fifth of global uranium reserves. He was arrested in May but has denied any wrongdoing. Addressing reporters after meeting her husband in a detention center, Jamilya Dzhakisheva said he had lost a lot of weight since she last saw him before the arrest. "His health is poor," she told ... Read Full Story

The wife of the jailed former head of Kazakhstan's nuclear energy company demanded Monday that an open trial be held for her husband, who is accused of large-scale theft. Mukhtar Dzhakishev is the highest-profile businessman to be arrested in a recent crackdown on executives that has alarmed foreign investors in uranium-rich Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy. He was jailed in May, just days after being fired as head of state-controlled Kazatomprom, and was charged with signing over more than half of the former Soviet republic's uranium holdings into his own name. Dzhakishev's wife, Zhamilya, also voiced concerns over her husband's worsening health in the ... Read Full Story