KAZAKSTAN: Kazakhstan's parliament, at odds with the government over a pivotal land reform bill, has voted overwhelmingly to approve the appointment of Mr Danial Akhmetov as the Central Asian state's new Prime Minister.
Mr Akhmetov, a long-time loyalist of strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is the governor of the key industrial Pavlodar region in northern Kazakhstan.
He turned 49 on Sunday.
He won the backing of 36 deputies in the upper Senate chamber and 70 members of the lower Majilis house. One Senate member abstained and one member of the Majilis voted against.
President Nazarbayev, who enjoys sweeping powers in the sprawling oil-rich nation of 15 million and has ruled with a firm hand since Soviet times, last week asked the docile legislature to approve Mr Akhmetov as the new Prime Minister.
"The outgoing government did not do anything wrong ... I have thanked them all," said the President, a 62-year-old former steelworker who routinely reshuffles or dismisses governments "to renew blood" in the state machinery firmly based on personal loyalty to him.
Mr Akhmetov's appointment came two days after the cabinet of prime minister Mr Imangali Tasmagambetov, the shortest-serving premier since independence in 1991, abruptly resigned in a bitter standoff with parliament over land reform. - (Reuters)