Central Asia, Penguins (Unrelated...)

Firstly and very briefly, Friday's Central Asia news and publications

• The July 13 issue of Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is now available online in pdf format (click on link for full version), and includes articles on "post-revolutionary syndrome" in Kyrgyzstan, attempts to deal with property rights problems in Kyrgyzstan, and India's efforts to secure Central Asian oil.
• Turkey's Kavkaz Centre has an article on the SCO entitled "Cooperation or Challenge" looking at, among other aspects of the organisation, their discourse on terrorism and how it is used.
• The FT reports on the challenges facing new Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev (and for once it looks like it's not subscription).
• RFE/RL's latest Central Asia Report 5(26) is out and as well as its usual week at a glance review, it also looks at Bakiev's win in the Kyrgyz Presidential elections and the SCO as a maintainer of the "post-Soviet status quo".
• Playground accusations also continue between the so-called great powers, with the USA accusing Russia and China of bullying Central Asia, reports RFE/RL. Following the SCO's call last week that the US should set a date for withdrawing from the region, the US appears to be playing it cool and an official from the Pentagon has said their bases in the region are "not critical" to US interests and that they could do without them. So that's OK then...

From Registan (if you haven't looked at this blog yet, please do so - it's excellent)

• The story This Godless Communism was originally published in the Catholic Guild comic Treasure chest (America, before you ask) and is basically a story of evil, evil communism - like they had in the Soviet Union - and the threat it posed (poses?) to the Great American Way of Life (tm). Best of all, it's available to read online.
• More seriously, Nathan and co. offer commentary on Canadian involvement in Afghanistan, the reports on Uzbek agents stalking refugees in southern Kyrgyzstan and Russian Socialists efforts to compare Bush as Hitler... (I'm not fond of either of them, but this is a little extreme).

And onto penguins (indulge me, it's Friday after all):

• The Guardian has a report on the summer's surprise hit film, March of the Penguins, entitled Super Fluffy Animals. The National Geographic film by a French biologist follows the breeding cycle of a group of emperor penguins with a suitably endearing/sentimental/cloying (delete according to levels of cynicism) anthropomorphised interpretation provided by Morgan Freeman's voice over.
• Obviously this meant I had to check out the official site, which as well as having a slightly irritating looped sound track with small honk at the end, has some good still shots but not much else.
• On the subject of penguins, the animation film Madagascar (whose offical site is also high volume) features some mildly amusing commando-style psychotic penguins with a penchant for martial arts and vaguely East European accents (obviously) - the film is kind of appealing...
• Finally, the obligatory Misha the Penguin mention - for anyone unfamiliar with Andrey Kurkov's book Death and the Penguin and its sequel Penguin Lost, this is a chance to find out a bit about what you're missing. The Case of the General's Thumb is also a very enjoyable read. Follow the links...

On that note over and out for the weekend (subject to nothing momentous happening later today).