Kazakhstan

U.S.- Russian crew on way to 6-month space mission BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A rocket carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the International Space Station streaked into orbit yesterday, the latest flight of a Russian space vehicle to fill in for grounded U.S. shuttles. The spaceship is due to dock with the station tomorrow at 8:17 a.m. Moscow time. During the six-month mission, the new crew will do experiments to research new AIDS vaccines, study plant growth and go on at least two space walks.

A Memorable Place Pleasantly surprised in Central Asia By Rebecca Ruggles SPECIAL TO THE SUN Last December, my sister announced her plan to adopt a toddler from Kazakhstan. As a single woman, she was limited in the countries that would accept her application. I volunteered to go with her, feeling that she would need a helping hand and knowing that I could gain brownie points as a selfless sister. Appropriately, it took nine months before we actually traveled to Kazakhstan. This period became, for me, a time of increasing apprehension, along with excitement.

.....................................G S B Tot. Germany.................2 3 1 6 United States.........2 3 1 6 Austria.....................1 1 4 6 Norway................... 2 2 0 4 Russia.....................1 1 1 3 Italy..........................2 0 0 2 Finland...................1 1 0 2 Netherlands..........1 1 0 2 Switzerland...........1 0 1 2 Canada ..................0 1 1 2 Spain..................... 1 0 0 1 France................... 0 1 0 1 China......................0 0 1 1 Czech Republic.

Pro Musica Rara launches its 27th season of programs featuring period instruments with a trip down an 18th-century memory lane this afternoon. Works by Bach (one of the unaccompanied cello suites), Leclair and Vivaldi are scheduled. Performers include violinists Elizabeth Field and Risa Browder, cellist Doug McNames and harpsichordist Amy Rosser. The concert is at 3:30 p.m. today at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st streets. Tickets are $10 (seniors)

Shymkent, Kazakhstan -- There are five-star hotels and there are lodgings for the budget conscious. And then there's Hotel Shymkent, in a class by itself.It squats like a trash can on Lenin Avenue in this Central Asian city of a former Soviet republic, a seven-story testament to the failures of Marxism. Dingy white with tiny balconies, faded curtains flap from its windows -- some open because the glass has long since checked out.Don't ask for room service. And don't even inquire about hot water until the winter season begins Oct. 15. Few of the bathrooms have toilet seats, although one has a gaping hole that affords a view into the next room.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- On a brilliant Saturday morning, 300 Uighur families gathered for what should have been an unabashedly happy occasion: the opening of a striking turquoise and white mosque featuring designs from their homeland across the border in China.But these are dark days for the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), the world's oldest Turkic people and the last large ethnic group in Central Asia living under foreign domination.Whether at the oases of Xinjiang province on China's western frontier or abroad in countries like Kazakhstan, the Uighurs are suffering from China's effort to crush their drive for independence.

The world is a safer place because of Project Sapphire. Thanks to good teamwork by the U.S. Defense, Energy and State Departments, one of the gravest nuclear security gaps was plugged. Thanks to the wisdom and initiative of Kazakhstan's old Communist leader, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, one huge temptation is denied to the forces of terrorism, corruption and covetous rogue countries.It was a secret mission brought off with flare and efficiency worthy of the hottest days of the Cold War. A team of American nuclear specialists was spirited into a padlocked but insecure warehouse in Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.

WASHINGTON -- After a secret odyssey over two continents and the highways of the eastern United States, the last of a shipment of weapons-grade Soviet uranium strong enough to make 20 nuclear bombs arrived yesterday at a government facility in Tennessee.Government officials described the capture of the material -- totaling about 1,320 pounds of highly enriched uranium 235 packed in foam-filled steel containers -- as a major coup in the battle against nuclear proliferation.Its arrival ended a nine-month operation called Project Sapphire in which the United States transferred the radioactive material from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan for safekeeping.

WASHINGTON -- The United States has uncovered a large cache of bomb-grade uranium in Kazakhstan and secretly negotiated to bring it to the United States for safe storage, Clinton administration official disclosed last night.The half-ton of highly enriched uranium, enough to make as many as 50 bombs, has been a major worry for administration officials since they learned of its existence. Officials did not disclose whether the material had reached the United States yet.Administration officials said the nuclear material, located at Ust-Kamenogorsk, was poorly protected and represented a potential source of nuclear material for Third World states and arms traffickers.

Farmers in Kazakhstan, a country in the former Soviet Union, have been raising sheep for hundreds of years.Problem is, they're still using many of the same methods they used when nomads traveled the area centuries ago, said Paul Tashner, president of TCO International, a Westminster-based enterprise helping Russian and American companies do business together."