Kyrgyzstan is seeking to sharply increase, to 50 million dollars (41.4 million euros) a year, the amount the United States pays for an airbase supporting its troops in Afghanistan, parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev said. The fees for the 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) Manas airbase should now be paid only to the Kyrgyz state, at a rate of five to six dollars per square metre, Tekebayev said. “All the money coming from the airbase must go into the state budget,” he said. Under the current complicated system, the land on which the airbase is located is controled by several entities, which charge anything between three cents and four dollars per square meter. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said last month that Washington should pay “tens of times more” for use of the airbase. Full Story