Death toll from S Kyrgyzstan violence rises to 214
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The death toll from violence in southern Kyrgyzstan had risen to 214, with 2,137 others injured, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.
Among the fatal victims, 166 were from Osh and 48 from nearby Jalalabad region, according to the information center of the Ministry.
A Xinhua reporter in Osh said that local authorities had decided to shorten the curfew period by three hours every night from Tuesday in both Osh and Jalalabad after both regions reported stabilizing situations.
The curfew will now start at 9 pm and end at 6 am.
The latest ethnic violence broke out in mid-June in the southern major city of Osh and later spread to Jalalabad.
On Monday, at least two people were killed and 23 others injured in fresh clashes which occurred in a mainly ethnic Uzbek neighborhood near the restive southern city of Osh when local residents denied entry of military police to remove their homemade barricades.
The military police launched their operation legally and confiscated a number of weapons in the village, said a spokesman for the security forces in Osh.
According to well-informed sources, interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has rushed to Osh to ease further deterioration of the situation.
Earlier, the Kyrgyz interim government has decided to extend a state of emergency in Osh and other areas to June 25.
Meanwhile, military police beefed up security in the capital city of Bishkek on Monday ahead of a planned referendum on a draft new constitution scheduled for June 27.
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