Kyrgyzstan president resigns

Kyrgyzstan’s embattled president said yesterday he was resigning following protests over a disputed parliamentary election, the third time in 15 years that a leader of the Central Asian country has been ousted by a popular uprising. Protesters in the capital of Bishkek celebrated the decision by President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, but it’s not clear if it will quell the unrest that has gripped the country since last week. The demonstrators quickly demanded that parliament be dissolved and that its speaker, who is next in the order of succession, also resign. Jeenbekov, in a statement released by his office, he said that he feared violence if he stayed in power, noting that protesters were facing off against the police and the military. “In this case, blood will be shed. It is inevitable,” the statement said. “I don’t want to go down in history as a president who shed blood and shot at his own citizens.”