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BISHKEK—A Chinese company has pulled out of a $280 million project to build a logistics center in Kyrgyzstan after protests by hundreds of locals in a fresh display of anti-Beijing sentiment in Central Asia. The deal signed during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the former Soviet republic last year envisaged construction of warehouses, transport terminals, hotels and other facilities in a free-trade zone near Kyrgyzstan’s border with China. However, hundreds of locals saw it as a land grab by Kyrgyzstan’s giant neighbor and held a series of protests demanding that the project be canceled. The joint venture set up...

As I walked into the department this bright brisk morning, coffee cheerily in hand, the live global seismogram display in the atrium caught my eye with an alarming event that had just happened during my bike ride into work. *gasp* that looks bad *gasp* that looks bad BIG earthquake, somewhere in the vicinity of Central/Southern Asia. Indeed, an earthquake deep (>200 km) beneath the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan had shaken a huge swath of Central and South Asia. The great depth of the earthquake meant less extreme shaking at the epicenter (nobody lives closer than 212 km from the...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Obama Burgers Come to BishkekNovember 1, 2010 - 8:52am, by Natasha Yefimov Kebabistan Eating in Kyrgyzstan US President Barack Obama has come to be known for his salt-of-the-earth taste in food and drink: coconut custard pie in small-town Ohio, Kumbaya beers on the White House porch, down-home "hell burgers" with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Now, if the president deigns to visit the capital of Kyrgyzstan, he'll have a chance to sample the local version of real American bar food -- surrounded by endless portraits of himself. The Obama Bar & Grill opened in Bishkek last month to accolades from expats...

The United States does not plan a lasting military presence in Kyrgyzstan, U.S. Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Michael McFaul told a Tuesday press conference in Bishkek. The transit center located on the premises of the Bishkek Manas Airport supports the coalition operations in Afghanistan and helps fight terrorism, which endangers not only the United States but also Russia and Kyrgyzstan, McFaul said, adding that the center was beneficial for all. One should not view the Kyrgyz interim government as pro-Russian or pro-American, McFaul said. As for the scandal around the Kyrgyz delivery of fuel and...

Kyrgyzstan may be a landlocked country with a population of less than 5.5 million, but it still looms large in the regional calculations of China, Russia and the United States. The Kyrgyz Republic is the only country to host both a Russian and a US military base. The Russian base at Kant symbolises Moscow’s preeminent security role in the region, while the US base at Manas plays a vital role in sustaining NATO military operations in Afghanistan. And Kyrgyzstan also borders Xinjiang, prompting concerns among Chinese policymakers over infiltration by terrorists and narcotics smuggling into this sensitive province as well...

Kyrgyzstan's interim government Sunday promised continued U.S. access to an airbase outside Bishkek critical to supporting military operations in Afghanistan. Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the interim government formed in last week's violent uprising, said her administration would follow all previous U.S.-Kyrgyzstan agreements on use of the airbase, which some 50,000 coalition troops bound for Afghanistan passed through in March, The Financial Times reported Sunday.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—The U.S. scrambled to step up contacts with the new government of Kyrgyzstan on Sunday as the deposed president of the strategically important Central Asian nation, now taking refuge in the south, remained steadfast in his refusal to resign. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by phone with the head of the government over the weekend and dispatched a top aide, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, to visit the Kyrgyz capital. Washington's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, returned to the country ahead of schedule Sunday and issued a statement saying she would...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Witnesses saw police in Kyrgyzstan shoot dead at least 12 people and wound another dozen after opening fire on thousands of angry protesters who tried to seize the Central Asian nation's main government building. An AP reporter saw 12 bodies as the crowd retreated. Opposition activist Toktoim Umetalieva, who was in the crowd, says 17 people have died. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Police in Kyrgyzstan opened fire Wednesday on thousands of angry protesters who tried to seize the Central Asian...

via translation - On board the plane crashed under the Bishkek could be two prominent basketball players NBA - гендиректор Federation basketball Kyrgyzstan Bishkek. August 24. INTERFAX - on board crashed under Bishkekom Boeing-737 airplanes could stay two famous American basketball NBA, told journalists Director General Federation of basketball Kyrgyzstan Oleg Putilov. "According to my information, players Samuel Perkins and Rebecca Bonner, who were in Bishkek and the town of Kant master classes, were to depart today from Bishkek in Iran - where they took place some competition. Until this all that I know. Ne I can dial up to...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The United States won new assurances Tuesday that an important air base used to support the war in Afghanistan will remain open as long as necessary. Rice and Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (search) signed a brief statement promising open-ended U.S. use of the Manas air base for Afghan operations.....

BISHKEK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - France has deployed fighter jets in Tajikistan as part of international efforts to boost security during a September parliamentary election in next-door Afghanistan, a French military official said on Wednesday. "Six Mirage fighters have been deployed in (the Tajik capital) Dushanbe," Major Frederic Lemoine, deputy French military attache to Central Asian neighbour Kyrgyzstan, told reporters at U.S.-led air base Ganci near the capital Bishkek. Shortly after he spoke, two large-body C-135 FR refuelling planes landed at Ganci. "These refuelling jets are due to support the Mirage fighters in Tajikistan," he said, adding that the operation...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 25, 2005 – Kyrgyzstan's recent election has received kudos from a European poll-watching organization, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said July 24 en route to this former Soviet republic. Rumsfeld arrived here today. Kyrgyzstan's election, held July 10, earned good marks from the Organization for the Security and Cooperation of Europe, Rumsfeld told reporters aboard his Air Force E-4B aircraft. This, the secretary noted, is the first time any of the five former Soviet central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan had received OSCE passing grades for an election. The July 10 election was...

19 July 2005 -- Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov said today that since the threat of Afghanistan for Central Asia has declined, the presence of Western military in the region is not needed. Speaking to journalists in Dushanbe, Nazarov said there was no need for the permanent presence of military troops of the U.S.-led coalition in the region as Afghanistan is stabilizing. Some 200 French Air Force personnel and two transport aircraft are currently based at Dushanbe airport to support operations in Afghanistan. Elsewhere in Central Asia, the U.S. military is using the Khanabad air base near the southern Uzbek...

Kyrgyz minister threatens force amid stepped-up opposition protests BISHKEK (AFP) - Kyrgyzstan's new interior minister warned that authorities could resort to the use of force to restore order, as the government tried to keep opposition-led protests over a contested election from spreading to the capital. Just hours after his appointment, Keneshbek Dyushbayev said that law enforcement forces could legally use "physical methods, special means and issued arms in order to restore constitutional order". "If their actions exceed the framework of the law, then we intend to use the whole arsenal" of measures, he added. The former Bishkek police chief also...

BISHKEK-MANAS, Kyrgyzstan — Each week, Norgazi waits. He and 38 other kids at a children’s home wait for American service members to visit. “We wait for them every week, because we have a very good time together, and they help us,” the 11-year- old said. In September, for example, a dozen airmen and Marines from the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at a nearby air base gave the kids a day of play at Flamingo Park, a children’s amusement park in the Bishkek suburbs. “We wanted to do something special for them before the start of the school year,” Master Sgt....

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Unwilling conscripts in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan need worry no longer -- parliament has voted to let them buy their way out of military service for $550. The move was prompted by the fact that thousands already bribe their way out of service in the mountainous Central Asian state, and parliament simply decided to formalize the arrangement. "Of course, everyone must do their service, but today many buy their way out of it, and the only ones serving are those with neither influence nor money," parliamentary deputy Alevtina Pronenko told Reuters. "Let this money go toward weapons." The fee...