BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The Kyrgyz parliament approved a new coalition government this week, choosing a prime minister lawmakers hope will be able to soothe the volatile nation's glaring north-south political divide while holding together the shaky alliances of the new administration.
Southerner Zhantro Satybaldiyev becomes prime minister two weeks after the previous ruling alliance fell apart amid corruption allegations and fears over the health of the impoverished nation's shrinking economy. The collapse was the third time a government has fallen since a revolution in April 2010 ushered in Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy.
