Thousands of grieving, angry mourners flooded Bishkek's main square yesterday to honor victims of Kyrgyzstan's revolt, with many blaming the country’s absent president for ordering troops to fire on those protesting his government.
They gathered on the sprawling Ala-Too Square, where protesters were shot dead at an opposition rally as some stormed the main government building in the central Asian nation.
The health ministry said yesterday that 76 people had died in the violence and more than 1,400 were injured. That figure included 67 people injured overnight on Thursday and early yesterday in clashes between looters and security forces backed by vigilantes.
Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister who once backed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and now leads the opposition interim government, visited a Bishkek hospital yesterday and said she and her comrades would not negotiate with Bakiyev, who has fled to the country's south where he has substantial clan support.
Otunbayeva said the provisional government had control over the armed forces and would do everything it could to prevent a civil war.
“[Bakiyev's] forces are not preparing to surrender. You can see how many incidents of violence there are around the city orchestrated by their side, by Bakiyev's supporters,” she said.
“We have information that there were several bombs planted in three public places in Bishkek,” Otunbayeva told reporters.
Russia is the only world power to have recognized Otunbayeva's government and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quick to offer aid to the new rulers, who said the country's former Soviet master had helped oust Bakiyev.
The uprising was sparked by discontent over corruption, nepotism and rising utility prices.
In the square, people were sobbing for the lives lost.
“We grieve over our heroes. They are real heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the future of Kyrgyzstan,” said Khatima Immamaliyeva, a 44-year-old office worker holding a red carnation and crying. “Bakiyev must bear responsibility for the deaths.”
The new Kyrgyz prosecutor said he would open a criminal case against Bakiyev's son Maxim, who heads a Kyrgyz investment agency, and his two brothers.
“We have testimonial evidence that these people had given orders to shoot against civilians,” said Baitemir Ibrayev, the new general prosecutor.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors