Kazakhstan renames capital in honour of veteran leader
Sunday, 24 March 2019
ALMATY, Mar 23: Kazakhstan renamed its capital Astana as Nur-Sultan on Saturday in honour of veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who unexpectedly resigned this week after almost 30 years in power. It is the fourth time the city's name has been changed within six decades. The windswept city of one million people was previously called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd and Akmola before becoming Astana, meaning "capital", after Nazarbayev moved the nation's capital there from Almaty in 1997. — Reuters