RFE/RL journalist Mania Mansour says Valentine's Day has grown in importance in Iran, mainly among middle-class youths. Mania says there is a thriving Valentine's Day industry in Iran and that it is not unusual for more affluent Iranians to splurge on lavish gifts, which can range from name-brand goods to automobiles. -Eugen Tomiuc

Officials in Kyrgyzstan appear to be of two-minds about the country’s gambling industry. Until a ban came into force on January 1, the sector was booming, relatively speaking. The injunction, drawn up under former Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev (now president) and his deputy prime minister, Omurbek Babanov (now prime minister), was, they said until a few weeks ago, necessary to crack down on ...

Parked outside Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, the fleet of Lexus SUVs is an impressive sight for such a poor country. Now, a new online number-crunching project has estimated that each of these luxury cars driven by MPs would cost its owner six to seven years’ pay, barring any other living expenses, like food, rent or utilities. For an average Bishkek resident living under the same ascetic conditions ...

On May 3, 2011, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry or the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission (KIC) released its final report on the interethnic violence and clashes between the country’s ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities last year. The KIC was formed based on an initiative from the Nordic countries ...

Over the past year, the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan has expanded its programs of outreach to the local community and to Kyrgyzstan's military and government, strengthening the base's role as a public diplomacy tool of the U.S. government. Most of what the base (officially called the Transit Center at Manas ) does has nothing to do with Kyrgyzstan. Its two main missions are serving as a transit ...

Kyrgyzstan's government says it will reprimand officials responsible for allowing contaminated radioactive coal to be imported into the country from neighboring Kazakhstan.

The Uzbek refugee facing terrorism charges in Denver was a merchant turned human-rights activist who tried to defend farmers, opposed Uzbekistan's dictator after a 2005 massacre, endured a detention that left him bloody, saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge, then fled by night to neighboring Kyrgyzstan dressed as a woman.

Toronto-listed Centerra Gold said on Tuesday the ongoing strike at its Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan, the country's largest, had yet to impact output as the company is processing accumulated stockpiles. "We ...

Copyright show:  No The music video is all one take. Standing behind a podium bearing the state seal of Kyrgyzstan, wearing a felt kalpak hat and armor like the national epic hero Manas, a masked figure hectors the audience over a bounding beat: read more

Once again, interethnic strife in southern Kyrgyzstan is testing a new government in far-away Bishkek. This time the friction comes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Tajiks in remote Batken Province, whose eponymous capital has seen at least two days of street protests. The demonstrators have come out in defense of the local governor, dismissed February 1, reportedly for failing to quell the ...