Kazakh ambassador denies pushing Italy to deport dissident's wife. Pitt's medical school to help Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan develop its own. Okinawa: the Scotland of Asia? Shakhter finish the job against BATE

Orlando Sentinel - Kazakh ambassador denies pushing Italy to deport dissident's wife - Kazakhstan's ambassador to Rome on Wednesday denied his government had pressured the Italian interior minister to deport the wife and daughter of a dissident oligarch in a case that threatened to bring down the fragile coalition government.

Tengri News - Strange lake creature brought to South Kazakhstan rescuers - An unusual creature that looks like a tadpole shrimp of Branchiopoda class was found in one of the lakes of South Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of Emergency Department of the region. The animal is 5 cm length long, it has a long bifurcated tail, thin carapace and numerous pairs of legs.

Post Gazette - Pitt's medical school to help Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan develop its own - The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has entered into a strategic partnership to help Nazarbayev University in the Republic of Kazakhstan establish a medical school in the capital city of Astana.

UEFA.com - Shakhter finish the job against BATE - FC Shakhter Karagandy completed one of the big surprises of the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round by beating FC BATE Borisov 1-0 to secure a 2-0 victory overall.

The Diplomat - Okinawa: the Scotland of Asia? - A new flag flies in East Asia, as the Republic of Ryukyu becomes the world’s youngest sovereign state. Riding a wave of democratic independence movements that has already seen Catalonia, Quebec and Scotland calve from their respective countries, the people of Okinawa and its neighboring islands have just voted decisively in a referendum to break away from Japan.