Health authorities in Uzbekistan felt obliged recently to deny the existence of any order on the forced sterilization of women, saying surgical contraception is performed only as a last resort and only at the patient's request.
Like many other farmers in the remote village of Barchid, lying in the shadow of Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, Makbulsho Yakinshoev knows little about issues like greenhouse-gas emissions or global warming.
But the 65-year-old Tajik farmer knows what he sees, and for years he has seen his fruit and vegetable harvests decline as the glacier that looms above his village retreats.
A dark horse has emerged ahead of Tajikistan's national elections that could add some excitement to an otherwise predictable poll.
Following considerable effort to transform its image, Central Asia's only religiously based political party, Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party, enters the gate determined to change the status quo.
A dark horse has emerged ahead of Tajikistan's national elections that could add some excitement to an otherwise predictable poll.
Following considerable effort to transform its image, Central Asia's only religiously based political party, Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party, enters the gate determined to change the status quo.
A months-old experiment by Uzbek authorities with other folks' cash has some people seeing red.
Uzbekistan recently launched a campaign to push the use of debit cards as a convenient method for conducting transactions, with the stated aim of bringing everyday transactions into the digital age.
Muhtar Yusupbekov has no regrets about his decision to send his 12-year-old son Muhammad abroad to Egypt to study. Muhammad, his father says, used to attend a local Russian-language school in his native Bishkek, but "he always had a passion to study religion, especially the Koran."
Kyrgyzstan, the first Central Asian country to suspend the death penalty, is now considering bringing it back.
After more than a decade since the death penalty was suspended, an attempt by a parliamentary committee last week to add Kyrgyzstan's name to a UN protocol aimed at ending capital punishment met strong resistance.
October marks the beginning of military call-up season in much of Central Asia. But Talant, a 24-year-old Kyrgyz man, says he intends to avoid the draft at any cost.
"Under current circumstances in the army, I wouldn't want to serve in the armed forces,' said Talant.
"We hear a lot about bullying in the army, about poor social conditions in the army."
Opposition leaders in Kyrgyzstan were threatening major street protests and maintaining that they won the July 23 presidential election ahead of an expected official announcement that incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiev was reelected in a landslide.
Electoral authorities said final results from the six-candidate contest would be announced on July 27.
