Report: Kazakh president’s home ablaze as protests escalate

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — News reports say protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city have stormed the presidential residence and the mayor’s office and set both buildings on fire. The demonstrations sparked by a rise in fuel prices in the Central Asian nation escalated sharply Wednesday. Police fired on some protesters at the presidential palace before fleeing. The government resigned in response to the unrest and the president vowed to take harsh measures to quell it. Although the protests began over a near-doubling of prices for a type of liquefied gas that is widely used as vehicle fuel, the size and rapid spread of the unrest suggest they reflect wider discontent in the country that has been under the rule of the same party since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.