President Barack Obama has approved legislation that would consolidate oversight of U.S. nonmilitary broadcasting in the hands of a single chief executive, an overhaul that supporters laud as a much-needed reform but critics warn could endanger journalistic independence.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev says his country supports Iran's full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
A Kyrgyz court has begun the trial of five men charged with desecration of the dead after a family was forced to bury their 76-year-old mother three times due to religious restrictions.
Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambaev has met with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
The Central Asian states marked 25 years of independence this year. The Majlis, RFE/RL's weekly podcast about Central Asia, wanted to do its part to mark the anniversary also, and to mark it in a unique way.
Kyrgyzstan is preparing to issue updated bank notes, and one of the bills has some citizens seeing red. They think there's something very odd about the portrait of a renowned poet on the new 200-som note. (RFE/RL's Current Time)
Kyrgyz are voting in a constitutional referendum that could shift key powers from the president to the prime minister and effectively outlaw same-sex marriage. President Almazbek Atambaev and Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov were among early voters in Bishkek.
Polls have opened in Kyrgyzstan for a constitutional referendum that could shift key powers from the president to the prime minister and effectively outlaw same-sex marriage. Voters in the mostly Muslim former Soviet republic will approve or reject the entire package of 26 proposed amendments with a single "yes" or "no" vote. Among other things, passage of the government-backed referendum would remove the statute of limitations on some criminal offenses and hand the authorities the power to revoke citizenship in some cases.
Kyrgyz election officials said voters have overwhelmingly backed amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriage and shift some presidential powers to the prime minister.
Kyrgyzstan appears set to define marriage in an attempt to bar same-sex marriages.
Kyrgyzstan's December 11 referendum on amendments to the constitution has been a contentious issue since plans to hold it were announced this last summer, and it appears it will be an issue in the coming months as the country prepares for the presidential election late next year.
The people of Kyrgyzstan go to the polls this weekend to vote on amendments to the country's constitution. The changes at the top are what most people are looking at, but actually they are not the most dramatic changes being proposed. (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.)
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![Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called on the authorities to keep "foreign networks" blocked, saying they were "teaching people to riot [and] commit crimes."](https://gdb.rferl.org/7F216FC6-9CCC-4673-83BD-E9AAA879C766_cx34_cy13_cw66_w100_r1.jpg)
![Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called on the authorities to keep "foreign networks" blocked, saying they were "teaching people to riot [and] commit crimes."](https://gdb.rferl.org/7F216FC6-9CCC-4673-83BD-E9AAA879C766_cx34_cy13_cw66_w33_r1.jpg)
