Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia’s second poorest nation, is sitting on a pile of gold, quite literally. For years, the bulk of profits from the colossal Kumtor Mine have been sent abroad. Now, a new government is trying to change that. In May, the former Soviet republic sparked an international legal battle when it rolled in and took control of the Kumtor Mine, operated by Toronto-based Centerra Gold.... 

The Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will discuss military-technological cooperation with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. The Iranian and Russian presidents plan to hold a bilateral meeting in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on September 13 on the upcoming sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation... 

Kazakhstan has stepped up border controls with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, while China has refused to send its athletes to a meet there following news of a Kyrgyz teenager having died from bubonic plague, allegedly getting infected by a local rodent. Kazakhstan has issued a travel warning, urging its citizens not to go to Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Lake resorts because of the recently-registered bubonic... 

Security personnel walk on the site of a military operation in the village of Besh-Kungei outside Bishkek. The new government of Kyrgyzstan has launched a crackdown on militants it claims are linked to extreme Islamic groups. Two suspected terrorists were killed and another was captured in a gunfight in Bishkek, the capital of the former Soviet Republic. “This is a religious extremist group whose...