Kazakhstan's security service accused a jailed pro-Russian beer magnate Monday of orchestrating recent anti-government protests to allow him to violently seize power in the Central Asian nation.

Police arrested dozens at small rallies held across the ex-Soviet country on May 21 to protest controversial changes to land ownership laws proposed by the government.

The ruling party of energy-rich Kazakhstan's ageing autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, results showed Monday, a poll OSCE observers said failed to meet international democratic standards.

According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party won 82 percent of votes in Sunday's election and will share parliament with the pro-government People's Communist Party and Ak Zhol, who each secured just over seven percent of the vote.

Citizens of energy-rich Kazakhstan went to the polls Sunday in an early parliamentary election expected to provide a commanding majority for aging autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling Nur Otan party.

Close to 10 million voters are eligible to cast votes in a ballot held early amid economic gloom in the Central Asian state and featuring six parties that mostly support the country's Russia-aligned leader.

Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded his country as a major power and a force for world peace Thursday as he presided over a spectacular military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

With concerns rife over China's rise, Xi announced that the People's Liberation Army -- the world's largest military -- would be reduced by 300,000 personnel, although the defense ministry said the cuts would mainly fall on outdated units and non-combat staff.

Plane wreckage washed up on a tiny Indian Ocean island will be sent to France for investigation, as hopes mounted Thursday the mysterious object could unlock the riddle of missing flight MH370.

After a fruitless 16-month search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, the discovery of a piece of a plane wing offered up the bittersweet hope of closure to the families of 239 people who seemingly disappeared into thin air on the doomed flight.

United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon on Saturday warned of a worsening rights situation across Central Asia, as he ended a visit to energy-rich Central Asia in ex-Soviet Turkmenistan.

Ban said he "heard concerns about the deterioration of some aspects of human rights -– a shrinking of democratic space", during his first trip to the region in five years.

A shepherd's son who counts former British prime minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin among his admirers, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev has overseen two decades of change in his Central Asian country, while remaining entrenched himself.

Under Nazarbayev, the sprawling country of 17 million has parlayed its energy resources and strategic location into influence, emerging from ex-Soviet obscurity to host Iranian nuclear talks and chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday extended his grip on power in the oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic with 97.7 percent of ballots in an election slammed by Western observers as deeply flawed.

Nazarbayev, who has run the huge Central Asian country since before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, improved his already eye-popping scores in previous elections to win a fifth term in power.

Energy-rich Kazakhstan's incumbent strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev scored a crushing victory in Sunday's one-sided presidential ballot, taking 97.5 percent of the vote to win a fifth consecutive term, an exit poll showed.

The exit poll carried out by the Institute for Democracy, a research company based in the authoritarian state, also showed Nazarbayev's closest competitor Turgun Syzdykov as scoring 1.8 percent of the ballot and third candidate Abelgazy Kusainov taking 0.63 percent.

Kazakhstan's citizens turned out in force Sunday for a presidential poll almost certain to re-elect the 74-year-old strongman incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev, who said he was confident of public backing for his campaign.

The country's Central Election Commission said the turnout was 89.69 percent by 1200 GMT with polling set to continue until 1400 GMT.