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Astonishing claims have emerged from authoritarian Uzbekistan today that the glamorous daughter of former dictator Islam Karimov has died from 'poisoning'. The sensational reports about ex-billionaire Gulnara Karimova - who has been locked away out of sight since her father purged her in 2013 - cannot be immediately verified. The 44-year-old was reported several months ago to have been shut away in a psychiatric hospital, while other accounts say she was held under house arrest, and one report suggested she was living in exile in Israel.

Recent Chinese diplomatic maneuvers in Central Asia, both bilateral and multilateral, show that Beijing’s strategy treats the region as a corridor for reaching resource bases in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. Central Asia is thus part of China’s broader blueprint of securing strategic resources and supplies to feed its developing economy (Z. Saipov, China Oil & Gas Monitor, Week 21, Issue 396, News Base, May 31, p. 3–4). Hu Jintao (L) and Islam Karimov Illustratively, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu’s two-week official tour of Congo, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on September 1–13 (English.sina.com, September 6) supports the premise that...

Obama Congratulates Karimov, Military Aid May Soon Follow -- The United States appears to be willing to strengthen the regime of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov in order to secure the northern supply route for its forces in Afghanistan. The U.S. Senate may consider a bill backed by the administration of President Barack Obama that would allow restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan to be lifted, EurasiaNet reports. The new, closer ties between Washington and Tashkent were brought home by Obama's congratulations to Karimov on the occasion of Uzbekistan's 20 years of independence. Following a letter in early September, Obama called...

Alexey Miller, chairman of the management of Gazprom, arrives in Uzbekistan today. He intends to reach an agreement with President Islam Karimov on Gazprom's development of the three largest natural gas deposits in Uzbekistan. If negotiations are successful, the Russian company will have a de facto monopoly on as export from Uzbekistan. All Tashkent wants in exchange is a 100-percent guarantee that Russia will help Uzbekistan suppress antigovernment demonstrations and protect it from the West. Gas First and Foremost The main goal of Miller's visit to Tashkent today is to conciliate the latest versions of the agreement giving Gazprom the...

A "dictator" is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. The worst commit terrible human-rights abuses. This present list draws in part on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International. While the three worst from 2005 have retained their places, two on last year's list (Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan) have slipped out of the Top 10-not because their conduct has improved but because other dictators have gotten worse....

ALMOST FIVE months after Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, ordered his security forces to massacre hundreds of mostly unarmed demonstrators in the city of Andijan, European governments are finally taking steps to punish his regime... After Sept. 11, 2001, the United States cultivated Mr. Karimov despite mounting evidence that he was one of Asia's most brutal rulers. The reason was simple: The Pentagon coveted the Karshi-Khanabad airbase, which Mr. Karimov provided as a staging point for U.S. air and rescue operations in Afghanistan. Under pressure from Congress, the State Department finally suspended several aid programs to Uzbekistan last year. But the...

Six months from now, barring a major change of heart by the despotic President Islam Karimov, US troops and materiel will withdraw from southern Uzbekistan, and one of the most delicate chapters of post-9/11 history will come to an end. At that point a new chapter will begin for a country whose leader has lost the plot. Easy but flawed conclusions are already being drawn from Mr Karimov’s testy decision to end US use of the Karshi-Khanabad, or K2, base to which he granted Washington access days after the September 11 atrocities. Will it mean the loss of a key...

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The presidents of China, Russia and four Central Asian nations met Thursday to breathe life into a security alliance and open an anti-terrorism center, part of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to counter the U.S. military presence in the region. The leaders were joined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who warned terrorists have continued infiltrating Afghanistan and that eradicating terrorism is a "long-term fight." The one-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, marked what Russian President Vladimir Putin said was the start of its work to become a vital international institution. He acknowledged the group...