ALMATY(Interfax) –At least 20 people were killed in floods caused by heavy rain and melting snow in southern Kazakhstan

Heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region of Kazakhstan neighboring China, flooding villages and claiming lives, emergency officials said Friday.
Southern Kazakhstan was affected by unusually intense snowfalls this winter and fast-rising temperatures are now causing massive flooding and mudslides across the region.
The Emergency Services Ministry said a dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured Thursday, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents.
""There are deaths, but identities and the number has yet to be confirmed,"" the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that around 20 people are believed to be missing.
Officials says residents in the affected Aksu district have been notified of the danger and are being evacuated in buses sent from the regional capital, Taldykorgan.
In another part of the same region, heavy rain and thawing snow eroded a levee in the village of Zhylbulak, flooding 140 households and affecting 820 people.
Emergency workers say people are being evacuated from their homes in Zhylbulak to a local high school building. Elderly people and children have been taken to Taldykorgan, emergency officials said.
Major railroads and highway bridges across the country have also been washed away, causing severe disruptions.
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@H=Thai anti-govt protesters begin to mass for rally
@T=BANGKOK – Anti-government protesters massed around Thailand on Friday ahead of a march they hope will paralyze the capital and force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call new elections. Authorities mobilized 50,000 security officers and set up checkpoints around Bangkok.
Several schools closed in Bangkok and foreigners were advised by over 30 embassies and the Tourism Authority of Thailand to stay away from the protests, as Thailand braced for violence in the latest chapter of a four-year political crisis.
The so-called Red Shirts, who support fugitive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, have vowed to keep their protest nonviolent — and some in Bangkok carried single stem roses that they handed to policemen. Demonstrators started meeting around the country Friday, including at several locations in the capital, where they plan to converge in a mass rally Sunday.
The group includes followers of Thaksin and other people who oppose the 2006 military coup that toppled him. They believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional Thai ruling class who were fearful of Thaksin's popularity while in office in 2001-2006.
The group's last major protest in Bangkok last April deteriorated into rioting that left two people killed, more than 120 people injured and buses burned on major thoroughfares. The army was called in to quash the unrest.
The government, while saying it will honor the right to gather for peaceful protest, has set up roadblocks at all main access points to the capital, and has been stopping and searching cars for weapons. A force of 50,000 soldiers, police and other security was mobilized for the Bangkok area.
Hundreds of red-shirted protesters on motorcycles and pickup trucks clogged streets in central Bangkok before gathering at scattered rally sites, including the national police headquarters. One group of several hundred rallied outside an army command center on the outskirts of Bangkok where Abhisit was monitoring the day's events, and then dispersed peacefully.



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