Ppolitician killed in Kyrgyzstan

Gunmen in Kyrgyzstan have killed an MP who was a driving force behind the riots in March which led to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev.

Bayaman Erkinbayev was shot in the neck and chest as he arrived by car at his home in the capital, Bishkek.

Mr Erkinbayev, 38, was a wealthy businessman in southern Kyrgyzstan, where the anti-Akayev protests began.

He is the second parliamentary deputy to be killed since the popular uprising earlier this year.

The country has seen continuing political instability since then.

Mr Erkinbayev was a former wrestler who owned a number of shops and hotels around the southern town of Osh. He was widely rumoured to be associated with the criminal world, the BBC news reports.

In recent months, Mr Erkinbayev had been involved in a murky and sometimes violent dispute over control of a lucrative regional market, one of the largest in the unstable Ferghana Valley region around Osh.

In April, he escaped what he termed an attempt on his life, when he was shot and wounded in the face in Bishkek.

It is unclear whether the motivation for that attack was political - at the time, he had announced plans to run for president - or linked to his business interests.