A powerful earthquake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale struck Ferghana Valley early July 20, affecting Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The epicenter of the quake was about 45 kilometers south of the Uzbek city of Ferghana.
President Islam Karimov will visit Brussels on January 24 to meet the President of the European Commission (EC), Jose Manuel Barroso, the Belgian authorities, and officials at NATO HQ, a spokesman for the EC has confirmed.
Uzbekistan wound up 2010 still quarrelling with its neighbors over water, energy, and security issues. Tashkent cut off gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, which is still struggling to recover from political and ethnic unrest, and provided only 72,000 cubic meters per day instead of the usual 90,000 cubic meters, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) reported.
Among the 250,000 diplomatic cables leaked from the U.S. government and published by WikiLeaks are several from Tashkent. In the initial weeks of the sensational revelations from around the world, which infuriated and embarrassed the U.S.
Kyrgyzstan’s provisional leaders initially courted public support by taking steps to reverse many of the previous regime’s policies. But as they have settled in to power, provisional leaders have started to emulate former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s tendency to blame Islamic radicals for the country’s security woes.
Units of the fabled French Foreign Legion are fighting in Afghanistan, operating under NATO command. More than 700 men from dozens of countries comprise the Legion's contingent.
