Manas Petroleum Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: MNAP) Somon Oil, a 90% owned subsidiary of Manas' 100% owned subsidiary DWM Petroleum AG, has been awarded an exploration license by the Tajikistan government.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will issue $192 million worth of loans and grants to Tajikistan over the next three years for agricultural, regional, energy, social, and transport projects, an ADB spokesperson said Monday.

Project will help improve livelihoods of cotton farmers and support equitable and efficient cotton industry

From Tajikistan's capital city, Dushanbe, to remote districts and villages, authorities are busy removing Soviet-era statues, replacing some with monuments celebrating the Tajik nation.

The government in Tajikistan is setting up a management centre to help cotton farmers pay off their enormous debts, but NBCentralAsia observers say farms can only be saved from complete insolvency by suspending loan repayments or writing off their debts.

A court in the Tajik capital Dushanbe has sentenced two police officers to prison terms of two years each for torturing a 16-year-old boy. The court today also fined a third officer the equivalent of $1,700 for not intervening to protect the boy.

The chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe today for talks with Tajik officials.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Evan Feigenbaum is in Tajikistan to meet with government officials, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported.

Tajikistan's president wants Britain to return to his country a collection of ancient gold and silver, known as the Oxus treasure, which is kept at the British Museum.

Tajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmonov has ordered all civil registry offices to drop the Slavic "-ov" and "-ev" from the end of newborn babies' surnames, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported.