Moscow, July 2
In a development that could have far reaching political impact in the region, Kyrgyzstan is all set to become Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy with an overwhelming 90.55 per cent voters backing a new constitution which strips the President’s wide ranging powers.

After publishing the official results of the June 27 referendum, the Kyrgyz Central Election Commission (CEC) today declared Roza Otunbayeva as the transitional president of the Central Asian republic till December 31, 2011.

It formally dissolved the presidential parliament, which was in jeopardy in the wake of violent ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s regime in April. The new constitution dilutes the presidency’s wide-ranging powers has come into effect after the referendum.

In line with the new constitution, the 120-strong Kyrgyz parliament after October elections will appoint the prime minister and the government.

Kyrgyzstan’s former ambassador in Washington and London and country’s ex-Foreign Minister Otunbayeva will be inaugurated on Saturday.

The official results of the Sunday’s referendum on a new Kyrgyz constitution were published on Friday in government newspaper Erkin-Too, RIA Novosti reported from Bishkek.

Backed by 90.55 per cent of Kyrgyz voters the new constitution paves the path of transition to a parliamentary democracy in the former Soviet republic divided in the rival clans and last month’s inter-ethnic violence, in which at least 2,000 people, mostly of Uzbek minority were feared killed, ten times more than the official figure of 280.

Otunbayeva’s predecessor, Bakiyev fled the country after violent opposition protests in capital Bishkek on April 7 and since then has taken refuge in Belarus.

Both Russia and the US already have air bases near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and the new military base in the south of the country was part of the Kremlin’s plans to offset the growing US military presence in Central Asia.

The referendum, was the first step towards legitimacy of the present regime, took place in the midst of inter-ethnic violence in the southern regions of Osh and Jalalabad and exodus of hundreds of thousand refugees to neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had sent a police assessment mission to Kyrgyzstan to help stabilise the situation in the country.

President Dmitry Medvedev had cautioned that Kyrgyzstan risks disintegration and split like Afghanistan if the political stability is not restored through democratic means. — PTI 

Kabul, July 2
Six suicide bombers attacked a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) compound today in northern Afghanistan, killing at least four persons and wounding several others, officials said. Two of the dead were foreigners.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began about 3:30 am when a suicide car bomber detonated a sports utility vehicle at the compound’s entrance.

An Afghan security guard was killed in the blast, said Gen Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, chief of police in Kunduz province.

Five other attackers then stormed a building used by Development Alternatives Inc, a Washington, DC-based global consulting company that has a USAID contract to work on governance and community development in the area.

An Afghan policeman and two foreign workers, one from Germany and the other from the Philippines were killed in the fighting, said Gen Murad Ali Murad, a commander for the Afghan National Army.

The bodies of five suicide attackers were recovered from two floors of the building.

In Berlin, a spokesman for Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed a German citizen had been killed in the Kunduz attack but did not elaborate. He was speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. — AP

London, July 2
Bowing to pressure, Britain has asked security staff at airports not to undertake humiliating search of Sikh turbans as part of the security drill.

In May, under European legislation, security staff was told they could pat down and unravel a Sikh’s turban if the metal detector bleeped as they walked through. But the religion’s leaders in Britain branded these powers as unacceptable and the Department of Transport has had to act quickly.

Now, the Department for Transport has been forced to issue a memo to airports warning them to stop the searches.

Sikhs who set off alarms at airport body scanners will now have their turban scanned by a hand-held wand, and will only be subjected to searches by hand if metal is detected in the turban.

“On Thursday, the Department for Transport advised all UK airports to continue using the previous methods of screening religious headwear, which eliminates the need to carry out hand searches. We have reacted accordingly,” a spokesperson for the Birmingham International Airport was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

The decision comes after leading Sikhs branded the moves “humiliating and offensive”.

Dr Indarjit Singh, a British Sikh, and adviser to the Commission for Racial Equality, said that the legislation was unacceptable. “It is considered very offensive to remove or touch a Sikh’s turban, especially in public,” he said.

“If there is a cause for concern, the individual should be taken into a private place where they can be properly searched, with the lightest possible touch.” Harmander Singh, principal adviser to Sikhs in England, said: “Sikhs are being unfairly targeted. As far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any exploding turbans at airports yet.

“Just because Osama bin Laden chooses to wear one doesn’t mean that Sikhs should have to suffer.” — PTI 

Washington, July 2 
Even as he signed into law the toughest sanctions against ever passed by the US Congress at the White House, US President Barack Obama said the doors of diplomacy are still open for the regime in Tehran.

The Iran Sanctions Act affects the gasoline, financial, insurance and shipping sectors, among others, as it seeks to impose a heavy economic cost on Iran for continuing with its nuclear programme.

The sanctions bar foreign countries from exporting refined petroleum to Iran, as well as restrict access to US financial institutions for any entities that help Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Also, it prevents investment, transfer of technology and development of Iran’s energy sector, and makes it easier for states and localities to divest from companies that do business with Iran.

The Senate approved the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, 2010, on June 24 in a 99-0 vote, and the House of Representatives passed it 408-8 later the same day.

“With these sanctions, along with others, we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government's ability to fund and develop its nuclear programme. We are showing the Iranian government that its actions have consequences,” Obama said in his remarks.
“The door to diplomacy remains open. Iran can prove that its intentions are peaceful. It can meet its obligations under the NPT and achieve the security and prosperity worthy of a great nation,” he said. — PTI