Anti-govt protests move into Kyrgyzstan's capital

Riot police broke up a small opposition rally in the centre of the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek today, signalling the government’s determination to keep protests that have left much of the south under opposition control from spreading north.

The show of force came hours after President Askar Akayev sacked the interior minister and chief prosecutor over the unrest in the south of the Central Asian nation, where opposition protesters have seized control of several key government buildings and kept up pressure on the president to resign over alleged vote fraud.