Kyrgyzstan swears in caretaker president

Kyrgyzstan’s provisional leader Roza Otunbayeva has been sworn in as president, ushering in what the government hopes will be a new era of stability and democratic freedoms.

Otunbayeva said at her inauguration today that her government would do everything in its power to ensure the country overcame the consequences of the ethnic bloodshed that last month claimed hundreds of lives.

Over the course of her tenure as caretaker president, which lasts through to the end of 2011, Otunbayeva will oversee the implementation a new constitution that dilutes presidential powers in favour of a European-style parliamentary system.

Her government came to power after former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed in a bloody popular uprising in April.