By empty (12/31/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The state-run China\'s International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC) Group has purchased the Kazakh oil assets of Canadian-registered Nations Energy for $1.9 billion. Citic has agreed, however, to give Kazakh state-owned oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz the option to acquire a 50-percent stake in the purchase.

By empty (12/30/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A group of 13 Uzbek refugees who fled their homeland after the May 2005 unrest in Andijon have returned home from Ukraine even though they received approval for relocation to Sweden, according to a source in Uzbek law enforcement. Their return brings to 66 the number of Uzbek refugees who have gone home. A total of 439 Uzbek asylum seekers were airlifted out of Kyrgyzstan in 2005.

By empty (12/29/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia released a statement on December 29 appealing to the UN and Russia to condemn the killing several days earlier, which it blamed on Georgian guerrillas, of three Abkhaz police officials in Abkhazia\'s southernmost Gali Raion. Also on December 29, Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh told journalists in Sukhum that Georgia was moving its armed forces towards the border with Abkhazia and might attempt over the New Year holiday to seize the Inguri hydroelectric power station in Gali. He said additional troops have been deployed to protect that facility.