Pressured by Chinese officials to resolve quickly the case of a bus fire in which 21 people, most of them Chinese citizens, died, Kyrgyzstan has requested help from Chinese and Central Asian law enforcement agencies. An official from the Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General\'s Office said that the Kyrgyz authorities do not see a political motive for the crime. The dead passengers, at least some of whom were reported to have been shot, were earlier identified as Uighur traders from Xinjiang who were possibly returning home with large sums of cash. Akipress.org noted that due to the bus-fire case, an agreement on military cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and China was not signed as planned on 28 March. A commission set up in Kyrgyzstan to investigate the crime has noted that highway travel in parts of the country is dangerous because of criminal gangs that prey on passing vehicles. (akipress.org)