Hundreds of supporters of the ousted president of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev have broken into local government buildings in 3 southern towns. Rayhan Demytrie reports from neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Supporters of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan's leader deposed in an uprising last month, have broken into government offices in the southern regions of Jalalabad and Batken. Earlier on Thursday, a group of several hundred protesters seized the government building in the city of Osh, demanding the reinstatement of the region's former governor. Some reports suggest that flights were disrupted at the airport in Osh. This is the biggest challenge for the Kyrgyzstan's interim government which is struggling to restore order in the country following the popular uprising in early April. Meanwhile, all diplomats from the Belarus Embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishekek have been recalled because of security concerns.
The Afghan president Hamid Karzai has visited the US National Cemetery at Arlington near Washington DC, where he paid his respects to the American troops killed in the conflict in Afghanistan. He was accompanied by the US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and senior military figures including General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The renowned Cuban folk singer Silvio Rodriguez has been granted a visa to perform in the United States next month for the first time in decades. The veteran prima ballerina Alicia Alonso, another staunch supporter of Cuba’s communist government has also been granted a visa. Cultural exchanges like these were routinely blocked under previous US governments.