JALALABAD, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva pledged on Monday to press ahead with a referendum in six days' time for the sake of stability, as violence flared again in the Central Asian state.

Kyrgyz government forces swept into an ethnic Uzbek village Monday, beating men and women with rifle butts in an assault that left at least two dead and more than 20 wounded, witnesses told The Associated Press.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Former Russian Energy Minister Yuri Shafranik says he is concerned about the threat of a major oil spill in the Caspian Sea, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Fearing for their lives, ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan refuse calls to return to their homes

Sir, I read with surprise Gillian Tett's article "Lessons to be learnt from Kazakhstan's rescue model" (June 4) about the restructuring of BTA, one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan.

This vast Central Asian country, the size of western Europe with just 15 million inhabitants, proved an instructive vantage point for scrutinizing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and above all its enormous consequences for societies, business and politics.

China and Kazakhstan agreed on Saturday to build and finance a gas pipeline and deepen atomic energy ties, extending Beijing's influence in a region where it has used its financial might to access natural resources.

The U.N. has found evidence of bloody intent behind the chaos in Kyrgyzstan that killed hundreds, left the nation's second-biggest city a smoldering ruin and sent more than 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks fleeing.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev was declared Kazakhstan's Leader of the Nation on Tuesday, which could signal the start of his gradual departure from the political scene in the oil-producing Central Asian nation.