Weekly news wrap

Five people suspected of having contracted anthrax (cutaneous form) had been hospitalised in the southern Kyrgyz province of Jalal-Abad and were under going treatment, local media reported on Wednesday. According to the Kyrgyz centre for infectious diseases, the source of the infection was a cow slaughtered and consumed in the southern Suzak district by local residents. There are more than 1,200 sites, which could be possible sources of anthrax infection in Kyrgyzstan. Bacteria causing the disease remain infectious in the soil for many years. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anthrax is an acute infection caused by the spore-forming bacteria Bacillus Anthracis. It commonly affects hoofed animals such as sheep and goats. Infection in humans often involves the skin (cutaneous anthrax), the lungs (inhalation anthrax), or the gastrointestinal tract. Anthrax is not contagious and can be treated with antibiotics if caught early. Staying in Kyrgyzstan, lawmakers rejected a bill on Tuesday which would have decriminalised libel law, the AP reported. Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev introduced the bill last December to eliminate jail sentences for those found guilty of libel, which currently carries a mandatory three-year prison term. The bill fell nine votes short of passing, a parliamentary statement said. Some politicians voted against the bill for fear of journalists writing negative things about them in the run up to parliamentary elections in 2005. It was reported on Monday that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) made a US $2.5 million contribution to The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), established to improve the nutritional status of at least 600 million people in up to 40 developing countries. The announcement came on the heels of a $10.7 million grant from GAIN's international alliance to support vitamin and mineral country programmes over the next three years in five countries, including Uzbekistan. A man in Uzbek police custody died of what authorities said was an epileptic seizure, the AP reported on Wednesday. Ilkhom Umarov, 28, was arrested on 29 May along with an alleged accomplice on suspicion of killing two sheep. Both were taken to the Arnasay district police station in central Jizzak province, said Svetlana Artikova, spokeswoman for the national prosecutor-general's office. Umarov suffered an epileptic seizure at 23:00 local time the day after, and died as police took him to the hospital, she said. On Thursday, Mjusa Sever, head of Freedom House (FH) - an international rights watchdog - in Uzbekistan, said that Uzbek officials promised to allow its representatives full access to investigate the death, adding that two local activists had been appointed to monitor the investigation. Uzbekistan has recently drawn strong international criticism over its poor human rights record. However, in an unprecedented move, Tashkent last month allowed an international investigation into the death of Andrei Shelkovenko, who died 19 May in custody in Gazalkent, near the capital. The experts found Shelkovenko died by hanging himself as police had claimed, not from torture. In Tajikistan, the country's border guards will be able to protect the frontier with Afghanistan after Russian-led troops leave, a joint US-European Union (EU) delegation said on Tuesday. John Fox, US State Department director of the Office of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs, said any additional aid would depend on requests from the Tajik side, noting, however, that it would be given, whether or not the Russians stayed at the border. Alain Scolan, head of the EU side of the mission, noted Tajikistan still required the most outside support of countries in the region. The visiting diplomats came to determine what additional aid to give the Tajiks when Russian troops, who have guarded the Afghan border since 1993, pull out in 2006. The Russian-led border guards had initially been expected to leave next year, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov recently agreed to put off their departure to 2006. The expected departure of Russian troops has raised concerns about a steep rise in drug trafficking through the country, a major transit route for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer. In Turkmenistan, the country's interior ministry launched a search for the former chairman of the Association of the Food Industry, Kakajan Ovezov, who had been arrested for corruption, the Russian Centran news agency reported. Two years ago Ovezov was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. But Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov issued orders to have him work in the field instead of a prison term. Ovezov, who escaped recently, was to harvest grain together with his family. Also, former defence minister, Gurbandurdy Berenyev, the former deputy prime minister, Hudaikul Halykov, the former executive head of Mary province, Amangeldy Ataev and about 40 other former high-ranking governmental officials are currently cultivating land in remote regions under similar conditions. But former deputy minister of Industry Tore Akhunov and former deputy minister of Energy Abdyrahman Berkeliyev hired people to harvest the grain and cotton instead of them. The Prosecutor’s office found out about that and sent them to the "real" prison. In deciding to substitute imprisonment for corrective labour, the president of Turkmenistan appeared on television and said: "They can redeem their errors through labour, without being imprisoned."