reuters.com. “Kazakhstan to keep current tenge trading band if Brent stays around $50” - Oil-rich Kazakhstan will keep the tenge currency within its current trading corridor of 170-188 to the dollar if the price of benchmark Brent crude oil remains at around $50 per barrel, the central bank head said on Thursday.
akipress.org. “Global economic crisis to last 2-3 years, Nazarbayev forecasts” - Global economic crisis will last about 2-3 years, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev forecasts. “All crises tend to end. 2007 crisis was severe, but we survived. And we will make it through this one too,” said Nazarbayev during today's enlarged meeting of the government at the presidential residence of Akorda.
astanatimes.com. “NATO Representatives to Visit Kazakhstan This Year” - A NATO delegation plans to arrive in Astana in the first half of the year, said Estonian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Jaan Reinhold. “We will greet NATO representatives in Astana during the first half of the year, as we have plans concerning holding a joint event in the second half of 2015,” explained Reinhold.
bbc.com. “The untold story of the Maidan massacre” - A day of bloodshed on Kiev's main square, nearly a year ago, marked the end of a winter of protest against the government of president Viktor Yanukovych, who soon afterwards fled the country. More than 50 protesters and three policemen died. But how did the shooting begin? Protest organisers have always denied any involvement - but one man told the BBC a different story.
“Migrants drowned in Mediterranean 'could have been saved”-The drowning of more than 300 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea this week could have been prevented with better EU lifesaving provisions, experts say. The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says more migrants are dying because search and rescue efforts have been reduced. Italy's major patrol and rescue operation ended last year. A smaller scale EU operation, Triton, took over.