Geography of Uzbekistan Kazakhstan, also yielded about 60% of the total volume of Central Asia's emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Because automobiles are relatively scarce, automotive exhaust is a problem only in Tashkent and Farghona. The reduction of water in Uzbekistan has resulted in soil degradation, and the spread of the salt from the evaporated Aral Sea has contaminated the surrounding soil. The soil has lost much of its water due to the increased surface irrigation. The irrigation of farmlands with water from the Aral Sea has resulted in increased salinization of the soil, causing the farmland to be less productive
Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan suspects to neighboring countries, specifically Uzbekistan, where HRW says suspects face torture. The strongest criticism of the Nazarbayev administration's counter-terrorism operations comes from Harout Semerdjian of the University of California, Los Angeles. Semerdjian accuses the government of engaging in "semi-state terrorism" through unlawful arrests of journalists, arson, and other attacks on the press. The U.S. embassy criticized an act of arson in Kazakhstan in May 2002. Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan The threat of terrorism in Kazakhstan plays an increasingly important role in relations with the United States which in 2006 were at an all-time high. Kazakhstan has taken Uzbekistan's