Several members of the lower house of the Kazakh parliament have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asking to be informed of any progress in the investigation of the so-called Kazakhgate bribery case. The parliamentarians particularly asked to be informed of the names of any government officials implicated in the scandal. The deputies said their requests for information from Kazakh government agencies have been ignored, and some Kazakh officials have denied that there is an investigation under way in the United States. The Kazakhgate affair involves allegations that U.S. businessman James Giffen and others gave bribes to senior Kazakh officials, possibly including President Nursultan Nazarbaev. (Interfax-Kazakhstan)