Page 533 - Icks News Today

Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbaev's family are among the richest people in Kazakhstan, accumulating vast riches during his three decades in power. An investigation by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reveals that their luxury property portfolio includes several mansions on a 135-hectare green area in Almaty.

The reported dismissals of three university professors in Tehran recently have led to fears of a new purge against dissenting academics. For years, Iran's clerical establishment has been accused of ousting prominent university professors on political grounds. 

The Kremlin says Russia's concerns on security guarantees have not been taken into account by the United States in its written response to recent demands by Moscow, though room exists to continue dialogue with Washington over the issue.

Russia holds military drills near Ukraine's border, a FEMEN activist protests the military registration of women, and a National Guardsman shoots dead five people in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region amid ongoing tensions in and around Ukraine.

Lawmakers in Kazakhstan have proposed stripping former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of more of his lifetime privileges after deadly protests swept across the country, in part fueled by anger over the accumulation of vast wealth by the former leader's family.

Hackers gained access to several Iranian state television channels and broadcast pictures of an exiled dissident group, as well as a message saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be executed.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on a day-long visit to Punjab for campaigning of the upcoming assembly polls, visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday.

Russia's Supreme Court has shortened the sentence of one of two former neo-Nazi activists convicted and jailed for their involvement in the killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009.

Russia's Interior Ministry says a U.S. citizen who is a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is under investigation for allegedly trafficking illegal drugs, a charge the suspect denies.

For the first time, Iranian officials have suggested that Tehran is open to direct nuclear negotiations with the United States. The move has provoked controversy in Iran, where some ultraconservatives have expressed outrage and called for parliament to act.