(RFE/RL)
August 3, 2006 -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry says a French national was found dead on August 2 in the apartment he was renting in Almaty, the country's former capital.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov said the reporter, whom he identified as Gregoire De Bourgues, was working for the Washington-based SML Strategic Media consultancy group preparing a report on Kazakhstan for the U.S. magazine "Foreign Affairs."
A statement issued by Kazakhstan's Adil Soz, a nongovernmental media watchdog, quoted unidentified police officials as saying De Bourgues was murdered and that the incident has no political undertones.
Kazakh authorities say they have opened a criminal investigation.
(AP, Interfax-Kazakhstan)