By empty (11/15/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakhstan\'s Foreign Ministry threatened legal action Monday against a British comedian who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport. Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in his \"Da Ali G Show,\" has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world\'s ninth largest country yet still little known to many in the West, on British and U.S.

By empty (11/15/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Ilham Aliyev dismissed Zakatala Governor Vagif Ragimov on 14 November for failing to comply with his May and October decrees on ensuring that the 6 November parliamentary election was free, fair, and transparent. On 12 November, the Central Election Commission annulled the voting results in Constituency No. 110 (Zakatala) on the grounds that final protocols appeared to have been falsified at 19 of the 41 polling stations to ensure a win for the candidate representing the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan party.

By empty (11/14/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Meeting in Athens during an official visit to Greece with members of that country\'s Armenian community, Robert Kocharian said that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen are urging a meeting in January 2006 between himself and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Kocharian said now the Azerbaijani parliamentary elections are over, the co-chairs perceive a window of opportunity for resolving the Karabakh conflict, a window that will again close in 2007-2008 when parliamentary and presidential elections are due in Armenia. He referred to a \"favorable option for the conflict settlement,\" but did not elaborate.