News Agency HARAKAT - 22 December 2009

• 05:15Lavrov ends visit to Egypt, departs for Tashkent

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has ended his visit to Egypt and went to Tashkent for meeting the Uzbekistani leadership. In Cairo, the Russian minister was received by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, held talks with his Egyptian colleague Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Secretary General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Amr Moussa. The main result of the Egypt meetings was the mutual certainty that the idea to hold the Moscow Middle East Conference remains in force. Sergei Lavrov highly ...

• 05:13Over 80 CIS observers to control elections in Uzbekistan

  The mission of observers from the CIS Executive Committee in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan Dec. 27 will operate in all regions of the country, polling districts and constituencies on the basis of its experience to implement 50 observations of the elections in different countries, the Executive Committee first deputy chairman, CIS Executive Secretary, Vladimir Garkun, headed the mission's headquarters said. Totally, the mission includes 84 observers. "On the basis of ob...

• 05:09Turkmenistan-China pipeline changes energy balance

  China has arrived in Central Asia. That is the unmistakeable lesson of the opening of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline on December 12 (BBC, December 14). The 1,833 kilometre pipeline, which will carry up to 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, also traversing Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan before linking into China’s network in Xinjiang, was formally agreed only in April 2006. The construction of such an ambitious project in a relatively limited time-frame is a concrete demonstration of Beijing’s...

• 01:31It's Gulnara's World. We Only Live In It.

  Call her the Oprah Winfrey of Uzbekistan. (If Oprah Winfrey recorded banal Euro pop and her father was the brutal dictator of a repressive Central Asian nation, that is.) Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam "Big Papa" Karimov, is a rich woman who has her hands in lots of different projects and investments. Seems like they're paying off. The 37-year-old Harvard-educated Karimova has been included, for the first time, on a list of the top 10 richest people in Sw...

• 01:27UZBEKISTAN: US LEGISLATORS PRESS FOR TRADE PENALTIES AGAINST TASHKENT

  A group of American legislators is trying to prod the Obama administration to impose trade restrictions on Uzbekistan because of that country’s use of forced child labor in the cotton industry. The International Labor Rights Forum petitioned the office of the US Trade Representative in 2007, asking it to suspend Uzbekistan from the Generalized System of Preferences program, which allows normal trade relations between the two countries. The office has yet to make a decision on the petition. On...

• 01:15Turkmen gas starts flowing to China

  Dawn reported that Mr Hu Jintao president of China unveiled a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China. As per repot, Mr Hu, together with the presidents of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, turned a symbolic wheel at a refinery in Samandepe in Turkmenistan’s vast Karakum desert which opened the pipeline to start the first gas flowing. Mr Hu said that “China is positive about our cooperation and the opening of this gas pipeline is another platform for collaboratio...

• 01:12Russian Foreign Minister to Visit Uzbekistan

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will pay a visit to Uzbekistan on December 21-22, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. "During the visit, Lavrov will meet with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Vladimir Novrov to discuss pressing issues of Russian-Uzbek cooperation and joint efforts on the international arena," Andrei Nesterenko said. // Journal of Turkish Weekly

• 02:37US launching annual bilateral consultations with Central Asian states

  U.S. Administration is launching a new pattern of regular high-level consultations with Central Asian countries, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, George Krol said Tuesday. As he addressed Congressional hearings, he said the first such consultations will be held later this week when a delegation from Uzbekistan led by the country’s Foreign Minister, Vladimir Norov, visits Washington. The U.S. hopes to launch similar annual consultations with Kazakhstan, K...

• 02:36EU experts, UN Officials Review Key EC-backed Projects in Uzbekistan

  Representatives of seven EU member states and UN officials met at the UN Office to review the progress of two key EC funded projects that are saving lives and helping raise income in rural Uzbekistan. "These projects demonstrate the strong partnership and commitment of the EC and the UN to work with national partners in making a difference in the lives of the people of Uzbekistan," said Anita Nirody, UN Chief in Uzbekistan. The Enhancement of Living Standards (ELS) project, implemented by ...

• 02:34Uzbekistan Censored Show About Human Rights, Artist Says

  The German sculptor Günther Uecker says that officials in Uzbekistan have censored a show of work currently on view in a public museum in the capital city of Tashkent, reports the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The works were part of the exhibition "Der Geschundene Mensch" (The Oppressed Man) and included torture-instrument-like creations made out of wood splinters and shreds of fabric. Uecker, 79, says that government officials removed several works from the show right before it opened, sa...