Last year Kyrgyzstan’s export to Russia grew 28.6 percent, Kyrgyzstan Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Pankratov said at the 5th Kyrgyz-Russian inter-regional conference “Development of inter-regional ties in the context of Eurasian integration process,” held on June 2 in Ufa, the capital of Russia’s Bashkortostan Region.  

“The government of the Kyrgyz Republic considers it important to strengthen the dialogue between the regions of Kyrgyzstan and of the Russian Federation,” the Kyrgyz governmental press service quoted Pankratov as saying.  

Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday accused India of “running away” from talks despite Islamabad’s offer of joint probe in the Pathankot terror attack. Raking up the Kashmir issue, he called it an “unfinished agenda of partition” and the main cause of regional tension.

Isis is under attack in and around the last three big cities it holds in Iraq and Syria – Fallujah, Mosul and Raqqa. It is likely to lose these battles because its lightly armed if fanatical infantry, fighting from fixed positions, cannot withstand air strikes called in by specialised ground forces. They must choose between retreating and reverting to guerrilla war or suffering devastating losses.

Indonesian police on Tuesday detained more than 300 demonstrators who were demanding the release of political prisoners in restive Papua province, a rights group said.

Veronica Koman of the Jakarta-based Indonesian Legal Aid Institute said about 40 separatists are currently jailed in the province. A low-level insurgency for an independent Papua has continued since the region was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in the 1960s.

 The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday voted to renew sanctions on a number of individuals allegedly obstructing a peace deal in South Sudan, weeks after formation of a Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

A hawkish Lebanese Sunni politician has won local elections in the second largest city of Tripoli in a result that marks a blow to long-established Sunni leaders and risks reviving tensions among rival sectarian groups there.

The municipal elections under way nationwide for a month have been seen as an important indicator of sentiment in Lebanon, where a political crisis has twice forced the postponement of parliamentary elections that should have been held in 2013.