By empty (7/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The latest joint sessions of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek working commissions on the delimitation and demarcation of borders, held from 19 to 23 July, failed to resolve any of the disagreements over disputed sections of the border. Most of the disputed sections are located in the Ferghana Valley, which is shared by the two countries and Tajikistan. Some 169 kilometers of the 375-kilometer border between Kyrgyzstan\'s Batken Oblast and Uzbekistan\'s Ferghana Oblast are in dispute.

By empty (7/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Seventy-four people have been diagnosed with typhoid fever in the Batken region in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Emergency Situations Ministry\'s press service told Interfax on Monday. A typhoid diagnosis has not yet been confirmed in another 154 people who are experiencing symptoms of the disease, the press service said. The outbreak of typhus, which was registered in several villages of the region in May, was caused by the consumption of water intended for irrigation purposes, said the Health Ministry.

By empty (7/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Darigha Nazarbaeva, the head of the pro-presidential Asar party and the daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, told journalists in Astana on 26 July that her party plans to win up to 50 percent of the seats in parliament in 19 September elections. Nazarbaeva, who expressed a similar statement earlier in the year, said, \"We do not want to lower this target and we will actively work to this end.\" The Central Electoral Commission registered Asar\'s 13-person party slate earlier on 26 July.