Kyrgyzstan moves to shut key US base

The Kyrgyz government on Wednesday approved the closure of a US air base on its territory, hastening the end of a vital supply route for Nato forces in Afghanistan. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had announced in Moscow a day earlier that his government had decided to shut down the Manas air base, whose location deep in former Soviet territory has annoyed Russia.
The government then rapidly approved a bill ordering the closure of the Manas base outside the capital Bishkek and would now submit the text to parliament, government spokesman Marat Kydyraliev said. The bill "is about the cancellation of the agreement with the United States over the presence in Kyrgyzstan of the American air base," he told AFP. He added that the parliament was expected to debate the bill on Thursday.