CENTRAL ASIA

KYRGYZ PRESIDENT FACES PROTESTS

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Opposition supporters and police formed joint patrols in a southern city, and President Akayev said yesterday he would not impose a state of emergency despite protests calling for his resignation over allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections.

A day after stone-throwing demonstrators stormed government buildings in southern Kyrgyzstan to underline their demand that he resign, both sides in the Central Asian nation’s tense standoff appeared intent on re-establishing calm.

Politics in Kyrgyzstan are heavily clan-based, and Mr. Akayev, a northerner, has strong support in the north. If the fractured opposition coalesced enough to carry protests across the mountain range bisecting the country and toward the capital of Bishkek, tension could increase significantly in a strategically important country where both America and Russia have military bases.

Protests against Mr. Akayev began after the first round of parliamentary elections February 27 and grew after the March 13 runoffs that the opposition and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said were seriously flawed.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

SHOPKEEPERS KILL THREE INSURGENTS IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Shopkeepers and residents on one of Baghdad’s main streets pulled out their own guns yesterday and killed three insurgents when hooded men began shooting at passers-by, giving a rare victory to civilians increasingly frustrated by the violence bleeding Iraq.

The clash in the capital’s southern Doura neighborhood erupted when militants in three cars sprayed bullets at shoppers. Three people – a man, a woman, and a child – were wounded. The motive was unclear, but there have been previous attacks in the ethnically mixed neighborhood. Earlier in the day, gunmen in the same quarter killed a policeman as he drove to work, police Lieutenant Colonel Hafidh Al-Ghrayri said.

A forceful citizen response is rare, but not unheard of in a country where conflict has become commonplace and the law allows each home to have a weapon. Early this month, police said townsmen in Wihda, 25 miles south of Baghdad, attacked a group of militants believed planning to raid the town and killed seven. Yesterday’s gunbattle came as a U.S. congressional delegation visited.

– Associated Press