TAJIK-CANADIAN VENTURE GRINDS TO A HALT.

The Canadian company Nelson Gold Corp. is indefinitely suspending, effective today, its participation in the Zeravshan Gold joint venture in Jilau, northwestern Tajikistan. Nelson Gold’s affiliate Commonwealth and British Minerals has a 49 percent share (to the Tajik government’s 51 percent) in that gold-mining and processing project. The Canadian firm cites the Tajik government’s failure to meet a multitude of contractual obligations, including those pertaining to banking operations and taxation. (Interfax, October 29)

New Kazakh Defense Minister.