“Bitter end for Kazakhstan's sugar czar”, “Mysterious Kazakhstan Sleeping Sickness ‘Could Spread", "Kazakhstan: Rallying against Russia", “The balloons that could fly tourists to the edge of space”

aljazeera.com. “Bitter end for Kazakhstan's sugar czar” - The ignominious end of Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakhstan's most feared man, heir apparent, sugar czar, fugitive. On the morning of February 24, the warden of Vienna's Josefstadt prison announced the suicide by hanging of his most notorious inmate. Rakhat Aliyev, former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a man on the run since he fell afoul of his powerful relative in 2007, had surrendered himself to the Austrian authorities last May and was awaiting trial on murder charges.

newsweek.com. “Mysterious Kazakhstan Sleeping Sickness ‘Could Spread’ - A leading Russian professor investigating the causes of the mysterious sleeping disorder affecting hundreds of residents in Kalachi, a village in northern Kazakhstan, believes that the disease could spread, and admits that scientists are still unsure as to what is causing it. His warning comes as the ninth wave of the unidentified illness hit the area this week. 

financialmail.co.za. "Kazakhstan: Rallying against Russia" - Shock waves from Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, have reverberated as far as Soviet-dominated Baltic and Central European countries such as Estonia and Poland. They are also spreading way beyond the Ural mountains to Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

cnn.com. “The balloons that could fly tourists to the edge of space” - Instead of rocket-powered sub-orbital flights like those of Virgin Galactic, could high-altitude ballooning become the most viable way of letting paying tourists experience space -- or at least something thrillingly close to it? Ballooning is already tried and tested technology -- "It's the origin of space travel," explains Annelie Schoenmaker, external relations and legal officer for Zero2infinity, a Spanish company that plans to launch passengers to near space using balloons known as "Bloons" for €110,000 ($124,000) a time.