Kazakhstan: The ABCs of the Alphabet Debate. Kazakh citizens kept over a billion euros in Cyprus banks. The Great British Class Survey: which class are you?

Eurasianet - Kazakhstan: The ABCs of the Alphabet Debate - Kazakhstan has been mulling the alphabet change since the 1990s, and pursuing stop-start plans to switch since 2006. Last December President Nursultan Nazarbayev broached the sensitive topic again, announcing that written Kazakh will switch to Latin letters – but not until 2025. The change, he argued, would provide “an impulse for the modernization of the Kazakh language” and promote “our global integration.”

The Telegraph - The Great British Class Survey: which class are you? - A new survey thinks it’s got Britons squeezed into seven categories – but the glory of our class system is that it offers us endless opportunities to become whoever we want to be

Trend - Kazakh citizens kept over a billion euros in Cyprus banks - The total amount of savings of Kazakh citizens and companies in Cypriot banks, according to the media, may exceed one billion euros, MP Azat Peruashev said at a plenary session of the Majilis (lower chamber of parliament) of Kazakhstan, addressing a request to the country's Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov.

The Diplomat - One Soviet Leader China Could Emulate…and it’s not Gorbachev - The Andropov model seems to be an attractive option to China’s leaders. It won’t be long before they realize that it is a road to nowhere.

RIA Novosti - Fire in Chechnya’s Tallest Building Put Out - The fire that broke out in the tallest skyscraper of Chechnya’s capital Grozny on Wednesday evening was put out early on Thursday, a spokesman for the republic’s emergencies service

Deutsche Welle - Welcome to the Kurdish conflict in Germany - Germany is home to nearly a million Kurds, but not many support the Kurdish Worker's Party, PKK. The guerilla group stresses non-violence, but whether it stays that way is closely linked to the Kurdish conflict.