Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev officially dissolved the Mazhilis today and scheduled new elections for August. Zhuldyz Toleu of RFE/RL's Kazakh Service was at the Nur-Otan meeting when Nazarbaev made the announcement.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev proposed building a canal between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea to ease Central Asian trade with world markets.

The U.S. State Department says recent amendments to Kazakhstan's constitution, which include a change allowing the president to stay in office for life, represent on the whole a step in the right direction.

The Kazakh parliament has voted overwhelmingly to change the constitution to allow President Nursultan Nazarbaev to serve for an unlimited number of terms. A joint session of both houses of parliament approved the change today to exempt the country's first president from a bar on holding the post for more than two terms in a row.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has proposed transforming his post-Soviet republic's form of government "from presidential to presidential-parliamentary" through draft constitutional amendments that he presented to parliament today, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev and Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiev held talks in Bishkek today aimed at improving bilateral ties, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev today urged international organizations to adapt to modern realities, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Nazarbaev said organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe fail to settle international conflicts and crises, reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, and fight terrorism and extremism.