Maqpal Mukankyzy is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Kazakh Service.
A man who illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the United States reportedly admitted to having worked with the notorious Russian mercenary group Wagner. His arrest came just weeks after he appears to have been honored in Russia for his combat service.
Despite being Central Asia’s richest economy, environmentally damaging landfills are still the norm when it comes to waste management. But Kazakh activists and eco-entrepreneurs are doing what they can to create alternatives.
A biotechnologist in Kazakhstan has raised an army of trash-eating flies to help clean up the country's waste problems. In Kazakhstan, around 40 percent of food waste, is sent to landfills. This fly farm processes 15-20 tons of organic waste per month and turns it into fertilizer.
As fishermen on the shores of Kazakhstan's Lake Balkhash put their nets away to observe an annual fishing ban last month, they had a lot to think about. Fish are fewer, the shore is receding, and the prospect of a nuclear power plant in the region looms large.
One of the two men who appear to be executed in a video released by Islamic State (IS) militants appears to have ties to a village in southern Kazakhstan and Russia's restive North Caucasus region.
Social media is in Kazakhstan to stay, leaving Islamic leaders racing to get online to make sure the county's youth get their message.
A new social-networking site in Kazakhstan has taken the controversial step of categorizing its online users not according to their age or interests, but according to their tribe. Critics say the system, based on Kazakhstan's ancient clan structure, is unnecessary and may inflame tensions between the country's tribes.
