Nasty nasvay poisons Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz men sell and buy dried tobacco leaves, which are used to make nasvay - a type of toxic chewing tobacco, at a tobacco baazar outside Batken, some 1,000km southwest of the capital Bishkek. — AFP

FARMER Askarbek Duisheyev pours a small plastic bottle into the palm of his hand and tips some green balls under his tongue.

This is nasvay, a type of toxic chewing tobacco hugely popular in Central Asia that is a key part of the fragile economy of impoverished southern Kyrgyzstan.