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An Oxford University-led... research team... will be looking at a group of artefacts in excavations and museum collections that are traditionally described as ‘Celtic’ because of their use of spirals, circles, interlaced designs, or swirling representations of plants or animals. One main line of enquiry is the relationship between the central European Celts and their nomadic Eurasian neighbours (often referred to as Scythians or Sarmatians), who inhabited the European end of a grassland (steppe) corridor that stretched east towards Central Asia and China... Iron Age tombs frozen in the mountains of Siberia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan have yielded Roman glass, Chinese...

Russian General Staff calls SCO to pool efforts against threats from Afghanistan Military & Defense October 08, 18:54 UTC+3 The emerging military-political situation in Central Asia [ ...] indicate that the SCO member states’ joint efforts to negate the regional security threats [ ...] are badly needed, official said MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS-DEFENSE/. The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should pool their efforts in order to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a tool for aggravating the situation in Central Asia, Sergei Istrakov, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said at an international conference on Afghanistan...

Russia has deployed hundreds of troops for drills in Central Asia with its ex-Soviet allies in a show of force as anxiety grows over a surge in fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. Around 2,500 personnel from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are taking part in joint exercises due to run to Wednesday in Tajikistan. The move is seen as re-enforcing Moscow's role as the main guarantor of the fragile region's security after US troops leave Afghanistan. The Russian deployment of about 500 troops for the drills started last week, bolstered by soldiers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus....

Central Asia, stuck between Russia, the dominant power of yesterday, whose cultural influence in the region remains strong even as its economy implodes and its political clout increasingly plays second fiddle to China, and China, the dominant power of tomorrow, whose targeted economic power is increasingly shaping the choices of Central Asian leaders and reshaping the region as a whole, is seeking other options. A story that is being lost in the attention paid to the new “Great Game” between Russia and China for dominance in Central Asia is how the Central Asian governments themselves don’t wish to be dominated,...

This week, the Globe and Mail asked General Lewis McKenzie (Retired) to write the obituary of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. It was a good idea. The two men had crossed paths more than once on the global stage of the Great Game. McKenzie declined. Holbrooke had just died and the general knew that what he had to say would hardly produce the standard panegyric. When I caught up with McKenzie, he was shoveling snow after a spell away from home. I asked for an interview and to my surprise, he agreed. “I’m just going to tell you what I thought...

A veteran State Department diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation as part of a counterintelligence probe and has had her security clearances withdrawn, according to U.S. officials. The FBI searched the Northwest Washington home of Robin L. Raphel last month, and her State Department office was also examined and sealed, officials said. Raphel, a fixture in Washington’s diplomatic and think-tank circles, was placed on administrative leave last month, and her contract with the State Department was allowed to expire this week. Two U.S. officials described the investigation as a counterintelligence matter, which typically involves allegations of spying...

Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI MANY functionaries of the United States State Department, who handled South Asia under the Clinton Administration, may have to face embarrassment when the Bush regime gets down to locating the factors that made it easier for terrorists to carry out the September 11 carnage. These functionaries, it is reliably learnt, ignored the warnings about the activities and intentions of the terrorist groups operating out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of such reports had come from Michael Sheehan, the head of counter-terrorism wing of the State Department. Sheehan’s report also listed the measures that the ...

Locals call it the Door to Hell, a giant burning pit that has spit out angry flames for more than 40 years, casting a yellow-orange glow into the evening sky. "It takes your breath away," said visitor Gozel Yazkulieva, 34, from the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat. "You immediately think of your sins and feel like praying."

The Sand Dune Forgotten by Time Archaeologists working in the extreme desert terrain of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved a step closer to unraveling the mystery of a 40-century-old civilization. They unearthed 163 tombs containing mummies during their ongoing and long excavation at the mysterious Xiaohe tomb complex. And it's all thanks to the translation of a diary kept by a Swedish explorer more than 70 years ago. "We have found more than 30 coffins containing mummies," said Idelisi Abuduresule, head of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute and the excavation team. The complex is believed to...

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road... "Ancient wheat and broomcorn millet, recovered in nomadic campsites in Kazakhstan, show that prehistoric herders in Central Eurasia had incorporated both regional crops into their economy and rituals nearly 5,000 years ago, pushing back the chronology of interaction along the territory of the 'Silk Road' more than 2,000 years," Frachetti said... ...several strains of...

STATE DEPARTMENT — With Russia's most vocal critics imposing economic sanctions over Crimea, some of Moscow's allies are also questioning its actions in Ukraine. In Syria's civil war, China and Russia have together blocked tougher action against President Bashar al-Assad, denouncing foreign support for the rebels as a breach of Syrian sovereignty. Now, China has quietly split from Russia over Crimea -- on the same issue of sovereignty. "China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states. The Crimean crisis should be resolved politically under the frameworks of law and order. We call on all sides to remain...

Nickel's evidence includes newly translated ancient records that tell a fantastic tale of giant statues that "appeared" in the far west, inspiring the first emperor of China to duplicate them in front of his palace. This story offers evidence of early contact between China and the West, contacts that Nickel says inspired the First Emperor (which is what Qin Shi Huangdi called himself) to not only duplicate the 12 giant statues but to build the massive Terracotta Army along with other life-size sculptures. Before the First Emperor's time, life-size sculptures were not built in China, and Nickel argues the idea...

One of the most critical changes in global energy flows happened this week. China inaugurated a 2,500 kilometre pipe to carry natural gas and oil from the Indian Ocean across Myanmar in southeast Asia and into southwest Yunnan province. The gas portion of the line became fully operational this week. The line is expected to carry over 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day into China. The twin oil line is expected to follow. This massive development has several key implications for the global energy balance. Myanmar's significant offshore natural gas reserves (and growing production) now have a "go-to"...

The US needs Chinese support in order to keep the post-withdrawal situation in Afghanistan stable. This situation has opened up several prospects for China to increase its influence in Central Asia Last month, the President of China, Xi Jinping, visited four Central Asian countries before attending the 13th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek. During these visits, Mr Xi discussed plans of mutual cooperation that would bring billions of dollars of investment to the region. The trip is regarded as a Chinese ploy to open up a modern silk road that will serve as the beginning of...

Archaeologists have unearthed relics that suggest prehistoric humans lived along the Silk Road long before it was created about 2,000 years ago as a pivotal Eurasian trade network. An excavation project that started in 2010 on ruins in northwest China's Gansu Province has yielded evidence that people who lived on the west bank of the Heihe River 4,100 to 3,600 years ago were able to grow crops and smelt copper, the researchers said. The site is believed to date back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC - AD 220). Over the past three years, archaeologists have discovered a variety of...

The Tsarnaev brothers’ brutal attack in Boston sparked renewed interest in terrorism in Eurasia. The subsequent disclosure that two students from Kazakhstan allegedly tried to hide incriminating evidence against Djokhar Tsarnaev has only heightened that interest. The not-guilty plea of Fazliddin Kurbanov, the alleged Uzbek terrorist in Idaho, underscores the new threat. And that’s a good thing. Understanding what was and is happening in Eurasia can help us better fight terrorism and prevent future attacks rooted in that region. Chechens and Uzbeks fought in Afghanistan with the Taliban, and fighters from the North Caucasus are involved in Syria on the...

United States plans to link the countries of Central Asia by new rail lines with Afghanistan. At the same time, Washington opposes neither the construction of a railway corridor from Central Asia through Iran, nor Chinese extensions of its national rail system into the area. Nevertheless, according to analysts at the Moscow Strategic Culture Foundation, these overlapping transportation development projects threaten to spark a new “railroad war” in the Central Asian region—one that in the absence of counter-efforts by the Russian Federation is likely to result in a sharp reduction of Moscow’s influence over the countries there.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: John Kerry, as you know, is the new secretary of state. His first gaffe has been recorded. Last Wednesday in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the University of Virginia, Kerry delivered his first major foreign policy address, and he invented a country that does not exist... KERRY: They fight corruption in Nigeria! They support the rule of law in Burma! They support democratic institutions in Kyrzakhstan (sic) and Georgia. RUSH: There is no Kyrzakhstan. There is no Kyrzakhstan. He was thinking of Kyrgyzstan. Can you imagine if George W. Bush had done this? Here it's Monday and we're just...

Newly minted Secretary of State John Kerry is sweeping through Europe and the Middle East on a nine-nation tour, meeting with top global heads to forge diplomatic relations — and, apparently, even creating new countries. Mr. Kerry was trying to praise diplomats who were working on behalf of the United States in the Central Asian region, but in doing so, he created a new country. He thanked the diplomats for their work in “Kyrzakhstan,” according to various media reports, and credited their efforts in “support [of] democratic institutions in Kyrzakhstan and Georgia.” The National Review suggests Mr. Kerry could have...