DUSHANBE, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Tajikistan's supreme court has handed a 15-year jail sentence to a man who took part in the 1995 killing of a BBC Persian service journalist, a court spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

DUSHANBE, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan drug smugglers clashed overnight with border guards in Tajikistan leaving two of the Tajiks dead after a two-hour gun battle, an official said Saturday.

DUSHANBE, August 29, 2008 (AFP) - Russia and ex-Soviet Tajikistan are to boost military ties, the two countries said in a statement Friday after talks between President Dmitry Medvedev and Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - China and four Central Asian nations signed a statement Thursday supporting Russia's role in the Caucasus but also expressing 'deep concern' over the Georgia confict and calling for a negotiated settlement.

WASHINGTON, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - The United States on Thursday welcomed China's apparent reluctance to support Russia's action recognizing the independence of two Georgian secessionist regions.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Kazakhstan understands Russia's actions in Georgia and urges the international community to stop raising the spectre of a new Cold War, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Thursday.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - China and Central Asian states voiced support Thursday for Russia's 'active role' in trying to end the Georgia conflict but failed to follow Moscow's lead on recognising the independence of two rebel regions.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday claimed backing from China and four Central Asian states for Russia's actions in Georgia and said their support should send a 'serious signal' to the West.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Central Asian leaders Thursday in the Tajik capital for a summit overshadowed by Moscow's stand-off with the West.

MAIKHURA, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - In this dusty village surrounded by craggy mountains, Chinese builders are hard at work on a new road, one of many projects paving the way to China's growing influence in Central Asia.

DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Central Asian power brokers including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao were set to meet here Thursday for a summit overshadowed by Moscow's confrontation with the West.

DUSHANBE, August 27, 2008 (AFP) - China's Sinohydro on Wednesday signed a deal to build a new hydro-electric power station in Tajikistan in Central Asia worth up to 300 million dollars (204 million euros), officials said.

BEIJING, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - China indicated on Tuesday that the issue of Georgia's rebel region South Ossetia could be raised at a regional summit to be held in Tajikistan on Thursday.

DUSHANBE, August 22, 2008 (AFP) - The United States gave 13.4 million dollars to Tajikistan on Friday to help the central Asian country fight drug trafficking from Afghanistan and step up security, a US embassy official said. The agreement on the financial aid was signed by ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson and Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi, the official told AFP.

DUSHANBE, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Uzbekistan on Monday slashed gas supplies to neighbouring Tajikistan by 45 percent in a dispute over a seven-million dollar (4.4-million euro) debt, a top official from the Tajik gas monopoly said.

DUSHANBE, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - An explosion outside Tajikistan's Supreme Court last year was masterminded by the secret services of the neighbouring Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, the head of the court said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, April 8, 2008 (AFP) - Russia has decided against an extradition request for two Tajikstan nationals suspected of the murder of television reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, prosecutors told Interfax news agency Tuesday.

DUSHANBE, March 30, 2008 (AFP) - Tajikistan police seized three suspects in the murder of Russian television reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, who was found stabbed in his Moscow apartment last week, the Tajik interior ministry said Sunday.

ALGIERS, March 11, 2008 (AFP) - Tajikistan and Algeria signed four pacts on Tuesday during an official visit by Tajik President Imam Ali Rakhmoun to the North African country.

DUSHANBE, March 9, 2008 (AFP) - A Tajik pilot died and five others, including a French and Russian tourist, were wounded in a helicopter crash in Tajikistan, an interior ministry official said Sunday.

DUSHANBE, Feb 20, 2008 (AFP) - City residents in Tajikistan, the poorest of the ex-Soviet states, are being forced to cook on fires in the street as one of the harshest winters on record has led to food shortages and an infrastructure breakdown.

DUSHANBE, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations appealed for urgent humanitarian aid for Tajikistan on Monday, saying that 260,000 people needed food aid after extreme cold knocked out electricity supplies.

ASHGABAT, Feb 14, 2008 (AFP) - Turkmenistan is to send 500 tonnes of diesel fuel to Central Asian neighbour Tajikistan to help it through its coldest winter for 40 years, a state newspaper said Thursday.

The 'humanitarian aid' is to help Tajikistan, the poorest of the ex-Soviet states, through its harsh winter, the Neitralny Turkmenistan daily wrote.

BISHKEK, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday it was cutting electricity supplies to Central Asian neighbour Tajikistan, which is in the grips of an energy crisis amid its coldest weather for 40 years.

TASHKENT, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - Uzbekistan has begun to restore electricity supplies to Central Asian neighbour Tajikistan, which is in the grips of an energy crisis amid its coldest weather for 40 years, local media reported Wednesday.

DUSHANBE, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - Tajikistan's authorities drastically rationed electricity supplies to the capital Dushanbe on Friday in response to a severe cold snap that has paralysed the ex-Soviet republic's power grid.

TASHKENT, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - Uzbekistan has restored full gas supplies to neighboring Tajikistan after Tajikgas repaid a seven-million-dollar (4.7-million-euro) debt, a pro-government website said Friday, citing a gas company executive.

DUSHANBE, Jan 24, 2008 (AFP) - Uzbekistan has cut gas supplies to Tajikistan by a third because of debts amid freezing winter weather in the mountainous Central Asian state, the head of Tajikistan's gas monopoly said on Thursday.

DUSHANBE, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - Tajikistan's president on Sunday launched a 500-million dollar (340-million euro) Russian-built hydroelectric power station which he said would ease an energy crisis heightened by one of the coldest winters in decades.

DUSHANBE, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Economic growth in Tajikistan, one of the poorest nations in Central Asia, hit 7.8 percent in 2007, up from seven percent in 2006, the former Soviet republic's statistics service said Tuesday.

DUSHANBE, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Economic growth in Tajikistan, one of the poorest nations in Central Asia, hit 7.8 percent in 2007, up from seven percent a year earlier, the former Soviet republic's statistics service said Tuesday.

DUSHANBE, Dec 26, 2007 (AFP) - Three Tajiks accused of being members of a militant Islamic group were sentenced on Wednesday to between 10 and 17 years in prison for allegedly preparing attacks, a court official said.

The three had 'prepared themselves to carry out attacks but were arrested by the police,' the official from the Sogd court in northern Tajikistan said.

DUSHANBE, Dec 24, 2007 (AFP) - A train smashed into a passenger bus in the Tajik capital Monday, killing nine people and leaving three seriously injured, an interior ministry official told AFP.

'The driver of the bus was attempting to quickly get over a level-crossing, when the diesel locomotive was only a few metres (yards) away,' he said.

DUSHANBE, Dec 22, 2007 (AFP) - At least 16 people died in an avalanche that swept across a road linking Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe with the north of the Central Asian state, the interior ministry told AFP.

A ministry spokesman said 'rescue work is continuing and we don't know how many vehicles and people could still be under the many metres thick avalanche'.

DUSHANBE, Dec 22, 2007 (AFP) - At least 15 people were killed when an avalanche swept down onto a road linking capital Dushanbe with northern Tajikistan, the Central Asian state's interior ministry told AFP Saturday.

'We extracted 15 bodies from underneath the snow, it is unknown how many remain there,' the ministry's spokesman Khudoinazar Asoyev said.

DUSHANBE, Dec 20, 2007 (AFP) - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon called Wednesday on Muslims in his country to do charity work rather than to embark on second or even third hajj pilgrimages.

'Serving the Almighty, in the Islamic faith, is not only prayer, fasting, good works and hajj,' Rakhmon said in an address ahead of Thursday's major Idi Kurbon holiday.

ABU DHABI, Dec 16, 2007 (AFP) - A charity in the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday it would pay for 400 Muslims from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to attend the annual hajj to Mecca after the would-be pilgrims fell victim to fraud.

MADRID, Nov 30, 2007 (AFP) - Europe's security watchdog, the OSCE, decided Friday to set up a mission to boost security along the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, the Spanish presidency announced.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos described it as an 'important decision' that would lead to the organisation's first mission in Afghanistan.