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ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- On the eve of an election in which Kazakhstan's strongman leader hopes to improve his democratic credentials, a prominent opposition newspaper announced on Thursday that its publisher had suffered a severe beating and that his whereabouts were unknown. The paper, Golos Respublika, which has been highly critical of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government, called a news conference in Almaty, the country's commercial capital, to express concern about its publisher, Danyar O. Moldashev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the Kazakhstan national sports agency has filed a complaint involving the wrong national anthem played after shooter Maria Dmitrenko won a gold medal at the Arab Shooting Championship held in Kuwait.

The article reports on the detention and trial of professor Victor A. Skormin. Skormin was visiting Kazakhstan as a guest lecturer and was detained upon departure for suspicion of currency smuggling due to the amount of cash in his possession. Other topics include Skormin's health and ailing kidney, customs controls in post-Soviet states, and honorarium.

MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will meet for talks in Moscow on February 8, the Kremlin press service has reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]