Kyrgyzstan shuts border with Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan's border control service said on Thursday it had closed its border with Kazakhstan late on Wednesday at the request of the Kazakh authorities. "Kazakhs can now not go to Kyrgyzstan and our citizens cannot go to Kazakhstan," the service's spokesman, Dzhoodar Isakonov, said on the telephone.

He declined to say for how long the border would remain closed but said it "depended on the social and political situation" in Kyrgyzstan, where dozens have been killed in clashes between government forces and protesters. The opposition say they have forced the government to resign." (Reuters)