ALMATY

Calling themselves "stan countries," Central Asian countries are looking to boost their tourism industries. Kazakhstan, which welcomes tourists from Russia, China and India, is eyeing for Western travelers as well.

If you're looking for something different, uncustomary and lesser known countries in your travel plan for a holiday, have a go at Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

Airport operating company TAV Havalimanları aims to serve at least 100 million passengers this year, said Serkan Kaptan, noting that the company's growth in 2023 was above their targets.

The airports TAV operates served 96 million passengers last year, a 22 percent increase compared to 2022. The revenues of the company grew 25 percent to 1.3 billion euros.

A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck along the China-Kyrgyzstan border on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said, warning of potentially widespread damage though no casualties have been reported.

Kazakhstan is set to undergo a significant change in its time zone configuration, unifying the entire country to a single time standard from March 1, as reported by the Russian Interfax news agency.

Istanbul Airport has witnessed a historical moment while hosting the world's two biggest planes, an airliner and a cargo plane, at the same time on Oct. 5.
"World's biggest cargo plane named 'Mriya' and world's biggest airliner, an Airbus A380 type jumbo jet, could be screened at the same photo-shoot in a rare event," airport officials said.

Two babies were rescued from the plane that crashed after taking off in Kazakhstan. At least 15 people were killed when the aircraft lost altitude, collapsed in a concrete fence and crashed into a two-story building near the city of Almaty.

Eight injured children were rescued from the plane. 

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake shook Kazakhstan, but there are no damage or injured people reported, according to the Almaty Emergency Department press office.

The quake was registered at 03:49 local time.

"The epicentre of the earthquake is located 140 km southeast of the city of Almaty. Its depth was 10 km," the report said.

ALMATY - Serbian men's water polo team claimed the gold medal at the FINA World Cup in Kazakhstan, after a penalty shoot-out win over Hungary 11-9 (1-2, 3-3, 1-1, 2-1, 4-2) in the final match on Sunday.

The team coached by Dejan Savic extended their dominance in the world water polo with the third trophy this summer, after winning the World League and the European Championship.

ALMATY - Serbia is through to the final of the 2014 men's Fina Water Polo World Cup, after beating Croatia by 7-4 (2-1, 2-0, 3-1, 0-2) in the semifinal match on Saturday.

The top scorer in the Serbian team was Dusan Mandic with two goals, while Strahinja and Viktor Rasovic, Dusan Markovic, Gavril Subotic and Srdjan Vuksanovic scored a goal each.

ALMATY - The Serbian water polo team qualified for the FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup semi-final as it defeated Kazakhstan in the quarterfinal match on Friday, 16-10 (6-2, 3-3, 4-3, 3-2).