A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Chile's mine rich north on Sunday, the US Geological Survey reported, but Chilean officials said there were no reports of any damage or injuries; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The quake was centered 49 miles (79 km) east northeast of Calama, at a depth of 61.5 miles (91 km). It hit at 20:11 local time (OO11 GMT).

"It was a quake of medium intensity. It caused some consternation among residents, but there are no reports of any damage,&qu...

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel plans to partake in a Kazakh-German Business Forum, Kazinform refers to the press service of the Kazakhstan Commerce and Industry Chamber.

 

The Forum is scheduled for July 18 in Astana Rixos President Hotel. German businessmen are expected to participate in it.

Source: KAZINFORM

India Monday launched five satellites, including its remote sensing Cartosat-2B, which were successfully placed into orbit just minutes after the lift off from Sriharikota spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said officials of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

ISRO launched at 09:22 a.m. local time the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C15, costing 2.6 billion rupees (52 million U.S. dollars), which carried Cartosat-2B and four others -- Alsat from Algeria, two na...

Switzerland has always occupied a special place in international relations. The Swiss Confederation has a long history of neutrality-it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815-and did not join the United Nations until 2002. Switzerland is home to many international organizations, including the World Economic Forum, the International Olympic Committee, the United Nations Office at Geneva and others. Zürich and Geneva are the two globa

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Fidel Castro for the first time in four years has appeared in public. The 83-year-old Cuban revolution leader visited the national scientific research centre in Havana last Wednesday, local woman reporter Rosa Baez said in her internet blog on Saturday; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.

When leaving the building, Castro warmly talked with workers and local residents who came to greet him. He stopped, greeted the people and sent them air kisses, the reporter said.

"He is thin, but...

One may believe in oracles or not, but Paul the Octopus's prediction proved to be true again: it's Vicente del Bosque's team who will take home the 2010 World Cup gilded trophy.

Red and yellow flags enveloped Johannesburg's Soccer City Stadium when Spain's midfielder Andres Iniesta scored the crucial goal in the 116th minute. The game went into extra time as both Spain and the Netherlands failed to score in regulation time.

Netherlands' defender Johnny Heitinga received a red card ...

To transfer the Kyrgyz capital from Bishkek to Osh, ostensibly to strengthen security in the country, is impossible and ineffective, experts said.

On Wednesday one of the leaders of the nationalist forces decided to once again raise the issue of transferring the capital from Bishkek to Osh. Once it was seriously discussed when the President was Askar Akayev.

"Our party will insist that all public authorities to be transferred to the south of Kyrgyzstan. The problem will ne...

US federal appeals court late Thursday rejected the US government's bid for temporary permission to enforce a disputed moratorium on offshore drilling, Kazinform refers to Trend News.

The US Court of Appeals for the fifth circuit, based in New Orleans, said President Barack Obama's administration had failed to demonstrate the "likelihood of irreparable injury" if the moratorium was not enforced.

The administration had asked the appeals court for permission to temporarily ...

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a US$ 29.2 million loan for the Technical and Vocational Education Modernization Project for the Republic of Kazakhstan in support of improved workforce productivity in key sectors and enhanced skills development capacity to meet the demands of key industries as well as the needs of small and medium businesses in Kazakhstan.

The Project with the total amount of US$ 33.23 million, including Kazakhstan Government co-financing of U

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An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richer scale hit off Taiwan at 0041 GMT, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday.

The epicenter is 24.774 degrees north latitude and 122.637 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 129.6 km, the U.S. agency said.

The agency also detected a magnitude-5. 2 quake striking off the east coast of Taiwan earlier on Friday.

Source: KAZINFORM

An experimental solar-powered aircraft launched on Wednesday has landed safely in Switzerland after successfully flying through the night; Kazinform refers to BBC News.

The feat is a step toward the makers' aim of circling the globe using the power of the Sun to fuel the plane.

The aircraft used super-efficient solar cells and batteries to stay in the air after the Sun's rays had faded.

The plane touched down at an airfield about 30 miles (50 km) from the Swiss capital Bern ...

South Korea's committee for the G20 Summit on Thursday unveiled the official symbol for the G20 Seoul Summit, to be held on November 11-12, 2010.

"The official symbol represents Korea's commitment to furthering the work of the G20, and helping to guide the world economy beyond the financial crisis," said Sakong Il, Chairman of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit.

The symbol, which incorporates two images of the sun rising over the East Sea and a traditional Kore...

Russian journalist Sergey Brilyev shot a documentary about Kazakhstan sponsored by "KazMunaiGaz" National Company, the press service of the Company reports.

The film is devoted to strengthening of the Kazakh-Russian relations within the formation of the Customs Union and establishment of the Single Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Besides, the author touched on such topics as Kazakhstan's presidency in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Euro...

Kyrgyz officials said Thursday that about a half billion U.S. dollars will be needed to rebuild the southern areas of Kyrgyzstan that were ravaged in rioting last month.

An estimated 500 million dollars will be needed to reconstruct the basic infrastructure, housing, and social facilities in Osh and nearby Jalal-Abad, Temer Saraef, the deputy prime minister in charge of financial affairs, told a press conference.

The funds should be in place within one and a half years, and the gov...

 Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva was sworn in as the violence-hit country's caretaker president on Saturday and will serve until Dec. 31, 2011, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

"The government will govern the country in a democratic way," she said, adding that the interim government will maintain its good neighborly and friendly ties with countries.

The swearing-in of Otunbayeva came one-day after the Central Election Commission announced that the country'

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Up to 200 people are thought to have died when an oil tanker exploded in a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, media reports said; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

The accident occurred when a truck coming from Tanzania crashed in the village of Sange in the east of the African state.

There is still no official figure on the amount of people killed, with figures ranging from 100 to 200. Some reports say many of those who died in the blast were children who h

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OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Secretary of State-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev has had telephone talks with foreign ministers of Russia Sergey Lavrov, Lithuania - Audronius Azubalis and Kyrgyzstan - Ruslan Kazakbayev, Kazinform refers to the press service of the MFA

The parties discussed the situation in Kyrgyzstan after June 27 referendum and the plan of further coordinated actions on ensuring stability and creating conditions for sustainable so

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The U.S. House of Representatives approved Thursday additional war funding that President Barack Obama requested for the military buildup in Afghanistan.

But the measure is unlikely to be signed into law by the president before the July 4 congressional recess as the administration had hoped, because the measure now needs to go to the Senate, which has gone into recess for a week and a half.

Obama asked Congress in February for 33 billion U.S. dollars to pay for his troop surge plan...

A Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress M-06M, will dock with the International Space Station as scheduled on Friday night, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control said; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

"The docking of the spacecraft with the port of the Russian Zvezda module is scheduled for July 2 at 20:58 Moscow time [16:58 GMT]," the spokesman said.

The Progress M-06M was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-U booster rocket on Wednesday n...

Representatives of the Customs Control Committee of Kazakhstan Finance Ministry took part in risk management forum at WCO Headquarters in Brussels on June 28-30.

The delegation held working meetings with the experts of the World Customs Organization on the issues of interaction and use of the organization's mechanisms for developing risk management system in Kazakh customs bodies.

The forum enabled the Kazakh side to analyze key components of the risk management and establish partn...

Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbayeva was officially declared on Friday the country's president for the transitional period until December 31, 2011; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

The official results of Sunday's referendum on a new Kyrgyz constitution were published on Friday in government newspaper Erkin-Too. The new constitution, supported by more than 90% of Kyrgyz citizens, converts Kyrgyzstan from a presidential to a parliamentary republic.

Otunbayeva will be inaugurated on...

US President Barack Obama will sign into law on Thursday a new sanctions bill against Iran, the White House said on Wednesday; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The bill, passed last week by the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively, contains sanctions targeting Iran's energy and banking sectors.

Under the bill, businesses that help supply Iran with refined petroleum or help develop the country's own refining capacity would be p

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 Hurricane Alex killed eight people in two separate incidents in Monterrey, the capital city of the northern Mexican state Nuevo Leon, civil protection authorities said Wednesday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

Hurricane Alex, which is now category two and has a radius of 110 km, has already killed 11 people across Central America and southern Mexico. Moreover, it has caused floods across southern Mexico. It has steady winds of 155 km per hour (kph) and gust

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The 17th-century painting The Taking of Christ by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, stolen from a Ukrainian museum in 2008, has been found in Berlin, Die Welt reported on Monday.

The masterpiece, also known as the Kiss of Judas, was stolen from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art in southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. The thieves intended to sell it to the German art collector.

The German newspaper said police in Germany detained th

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A third Russian spacecraft will lift off to the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonur on Wednesday, Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.

A source at Roskosmos, the Federal Space Agency, told Itar-Tass that 'Progress M-06M' would be launched at 19:35 Moscow time.

The spacecraft will deliver about 2.5 tons of various cargoes to the ISS, including fuel and special equipment for the station, oxygen, water, clothes and food for the astronauts as well as gifts and parcels from th

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"The OSCE is ready to continue rendering assistance to Kyrgyzstan in development of the democracy and provision of national reconciliation", Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the OSCE, Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council Kairat Abdrakhmanov said Tuesday in Bishkek, the press service of the Organization reports.

The Chairman of the Council met with Head of the interim government of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva, representatives of the civil society, diplomatic corpse

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Nicolas Hayek, the head of the world's largest watchmaker, Swatch Group, died on Monday at the age of 82, the company said in a statement on Monday, Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

"Mr. Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of The Swatch Group Ltd. unexpectedly passed away today due to heart failure while working at his beloved Swatch Group," the statement said.Swatch empire was founded in 1983 when the future of Swiss mechanical watches was threa

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 Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko suggested to Lithuania a number of joint steps toward the strengthening of independence of the two states. He made these suggestions at the meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius on Monday; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.

"In order to strengthen our independence, sovereignty, the might of our states, we must immediately take a number of steps to strengthen this independence," Lukashenko stated. He noted that Bel

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The total attendance of Expo 2010 has exceeded 20 million with more than 200,000 visitors flooding to the Expo site this morning despite rain; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The new high was hit at 10:13 am.

Visitor flow hit 10 million within only 36 days since the opening of Expo 2010 on May 1, and the total number surged to 20 million just 23 days later. A total of 481,600 visitors packed the Expo site yesterday, while the figure on Saturday was 552,100; Kazinform cites Chin

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Officials from Mexico's northern state Tamaulipas have found traces on the Gulf of Mexico beach which might be from the massive oil spill in U.S. territorial waters, Mexican media reported on Friday.

Officials from the Civil Protection Agency were quoted as saying that they had found solid lumps of crude along Miramar close to Ciudad Madero, one of the state's most famous tourist beaches.

The state authorities said they were investigating the source of the hydrocarbons and then wil...