By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Kyrgyzstan's outgoing president said Tuesday a decision on whether to allow a U.S. air base to remain in the country after its lease ends in 2014 depends on developments in nearby Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan has enacted a ban on casinos that supporters say will ease the negative effects of gambling on Kyrgyz society, but opponents argue will leave thousands unemployed and boost organized crime.
Kyrgyz voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new president in what is seen as a landmark election in the region but what locals dismiss as not bringing real change to the country following last year's uprising.
The foiling of a terror plot by Islamic extremists in southern Kyrgyzstan over the weekend has underscored ethnic and regional tensions before presidential elections in Central Asia's only parliamentary democracy.
Fresh from a 12-day hunger strike that roiled the public against graft, Indian crusader Anna Hazare is in hot demand to promote other causes as activists seek to harness his acclaim and ability to seize 24-hour media attention.
Voters turned out in force Sunday to choose a new and empowered parliament that the government hopes will usher in a new era of democracy in Kyrgyzstan after two presidents were ousted by street protests.
Kyrgyz forces fired live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades into the air to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters Thursday and arrested their leader, raising fears of new instability in the turbulent Central Asian nation.
What went wrong in Kyrgyzstan? What is likely to happen next? What can the international community do to help prevent a recurrence of violence?
Barely two weeks after ethnic purges left many minority Uzbek communities in smoldering ruin, about two-thirds of Kyrgyzstan's voters went to the polls Sunday to peacefully and overwhelmingly approve a new constitution they hoped would bring stability to the Central Asian nation.
Kyrgyz government forces swept into an ethnic Uzbek village Monday, beating men and women with rifle butts in an assault that left at least two dead and more than 20 wounded, witnesses told the Associated Press.
Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks massed on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan refused to return home Sunday, saying they feared for their lives after violent pogroms and didn't trust Kyrgyz troops to protect them.
A top U.S. envoy called Saturday for an independent investigation into the violence that has devastated southern Kyrgyzstan, as amateur video emerged of unarmed Uzbeks gathering to defend their town during the attacks.
Ethnic Uzbeks sheltering in squalid tent camps say they don't have enough food or clean water but are terrified of going back to live alongside those they hold responsible for days of shootings, arson and sexual assaults.
Kyrgyzstan's interim president said Friday that 2,000 people may have died in the ethnic clashes that have rocked the country's south — many times her government's official estimate — as she made her first visit to a riot-hit city since the unrest erupted.
Kyrgyzstan's weak military attempted Wednesday to regain control of the city of Osh, a major transit point for Afghan heroin and the epicenter of ethnic violence that has driven much of the Uzbek population from the country's poor, rural south.
"The natural flow of the workforce, services and movement of capital is of course all directed to Russia and Kazakhstan," she said.
Former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva said before stepping down in late October that she saw her nation's fate as inevitably linked with the Eurasian Union.
