An unprecedented protest action took place in Urgench, the largest city in the Khorezm region of Uzbekistan, on the last day of March. Local vendors numbering nearly 200 (mostly women) protested against transfer of the bazaar to the outskirts and

President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev returned from a nearly month-long course of medical treatment in Germany on March 28. Clearly healthy, he was met at the airport with applaud - with all of the country watching it on TV screens.

Uneasy water and energy relationship between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is growing even more complicated. After years of serious consideration on economical and ecological appropriateness of the project, official Astana decided to build the Koksaray reservoir on the Syr Darya river