Central Asia

Regional experts are not all convinced of China’s enthusiasm for barreling into the war-torn Central Asian state on its western border.  

The unfolding crisis in Afghanistan poses substantial risks to Russia and Central Asia, even as the Kremlin seeks to claim a propaganda victory over the U.S.

A pack of handsome brothers is getting settled at New York’s Bronx Zoo. The foxlike wild dogs – called dholes – were born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2016.

A couple from Washington, D.C. on a yearlong cycling trip together were killed in Tajikistan during an attack the State Department calls “senseless,” friends and family say.

This week will bring the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century, one that will turn the moon red in the night sky, NBC News’ Mach reports. The Earth’s shadow will fully engulf the moon for 1 hour and 43 minutes on Friday, though the spectacular space show won’t be visible in North America, just parts of South America,...

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to “save the country,” offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who join the negotiations. Ghani spoke at the 2nd Kabul Process Conference attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and international organizations. “We will consider the Taliban’s view in the...

A bus fire in Kazakhstan killed 52 people on Thursday in a vast snow-covered steppe, officials said. The tragedy happened near the village of Kalybai in the northern Aktobe region, the Emergencies Department of the former Soviet nation in Central Asia said. Authorities said that only five of 57 people on the bus managed to escape the blaze. They are...

The ruling Communist Party on Tuesday formally lifted Xi Jinping’s status to China’s most powerful ruler in decades, setting the stage for the authoritarian leader to tighten his grip over the country while pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy and military expansion. The move to insert Xi’s name and dogma into the party’s constitution alongside the party’s founders came at...

Russia’s Federal Security Service says it has arrested a suspected organizer of the suicide bombing in the St. Petersburg subway that killed 14 passengers. The service, the FSB, said Monday the suspect was arrested in Odintsovo, a city just outside Moscow. It said the suspect was armed with a pistol and was of Central Asian origin, but did not elaborate....

With U.S.-backed Iraqi forces battling to retake Mosul, officials from the 68-nation coalition fighting the ISIS are looking for ways to increase the pressure as planning intensifies on the next objective, dislodging the extremists from their self-declared capital in Syria. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were hosting Iraq’s prime minister and diplomats from the coalition...

Two sinfully adorable snow leopard cubs have debuted at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.