Central Asian stirrings

Soldiers in Uzbekistan have surrounded a crowd of 2,000 protesters in eastern Andijan's main square, following an overnight jailbreak. There are reports that protesters somehow managed to pull down three government snipers from a roof.

Andijan is one of the main cities in the most politically sensitive part of this country [...] It is the barometer of feeling for a long, densely populated valley called Ferghana with a long tradition of independent thought, and the authoritarian government in Tashkent has always eyed the valley with suspicion  (see --- also ).

The previous day it was reported that the government of Tajikistan was cracking down, exerting more control over the media, mindful of what happened in Kyrgyzstan.

Update (14:40): comments (or unashamed self-publicity) here. Later reports from the BBC (9:10 GMT) indicate that the situation in Andijan is grim. This is a mini-Prague or Beijing 1989.

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'The US state of Connecticut has executed a serial killer...' (BBC web). In over 50 years, there has been only one execution (in 1960) in New England (North-East of the United States) - BBC WS. Michael Ross 'insisted he wanted to die for his crimes'. Anyone remember Gary Gilmore? Maybe we should remember Wilfred Owen's words: 'though nations trek from progress'. 

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Can anyone decode Gisela Stuart's remarks: 'if French voters were committed pro-Europeans like her, they should ask themselves whether the document was good enough for their vision of Europe' ? (MP doubts EU constitution value )