Uzbekistan

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Thirteen years ago, when Ruben Mkrtchyan told his wife and four children that they were going to move from Glendale to a high desert valley in the middle of nowhere to grow the world's tastiest melons, they thought he had lost his mind. "My mom and I looked at each other and said, 'What is he talking about?' " recalls his daughter Tatevik. "When we went up there, the land was completely empty, just Joshua trees and scrub. " But Mkrtchyan had a vision of fields and orchards blooming in the wilderness, one that he has realized to a remarkable extent.

Back in 2000, USC film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country's desert. But when she excitedly mentioned it to Georgiev, a native of Ukraine who speaks fluent Russian, he was skeptical.

For a change, Venus Williams will get to be the young one. Williams, 31, served seven aces and generally played big, powerful, wise grass-court tennis befitting a five-time Wimbledon champion, in defeating Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 6-3, 6-1, in her opener Monday. For her efforts, Williams earned a second-round match against Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm. Date-Krumm, 40, became the second-oldest woman to win a Wimbledon match when she beat Britain's Katie O'Brien, 6-0, 7-5. One of the younger American players in the draw had a redemptive performance Monday.

China and newly independent Uzbekistan have established full diplomatic relations, the official New China News Agency said Friday. It was the second member of the new Commonwealth of Independent States to establish full ties with China.

Re "After Soviets, Silk Road Nations Look to a More Glorious Past," July 11: While you covered the Muslim community and its resurgence in the article, you overlooked the decimation of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. The Jewish community of Uzbekistan numbered 100,000 in 1980. There were thriving synagogues in Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent as recently as 1990. My family dates back several hundred years in Uzbekistan. When I visited in 1989, madrasas -- which had been closed for years -- were being reopened by imams sent from Iran.

You state the case for greater reform in Uzbekistan and the U.S. need to curtail support for the Islam Karimov government with aplomb (editorial, Aug. 4). It's among the most informed editorials that I've read. Unfortunately, there are a couple of factors that probably will prevent Uzbekistan from reforming while terrorists operate in the country. First, the regime thinks it is locked in a death struggle with international terrorism, and it thinks that only the most brutal response will work in defeating terrorist groups.

"You paid much to see our exotics, so don't complain. You are going to see our exotics." Our Intourist guide, Natasha, as dryly humorous as she was dutifully propagandistic, was making light of our aim to see Uzbekistan, the ancient region near Afghanistan and China's Xinjiang province and now the Uzbek Socialist Soviet Republic. Natasha, of course, was right. To us, Uzbekistan meant pure exotica.

Six senior Communist Party members have been fired in the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, where a rash of corruption-related dismissals has already been reported over the last year. According to Friday's edition of the regional party daily Pravda Vostoka (Pravda of the East), which reached Moscow on Tuesday, five members of the republic's Central Committee were fired for "misdeeds and actions incompatible with their position."

Troops have seized thousands of weapons since a curfew was imposed nearly two weeks ago to quell ethnic violence in Uzbekistan, and the death toll rose with the discovery of two more bodies, Tass reported Friday. Tass, the official news agency, said troops had confiscated 157 firearms, knives and bayonets as well as 26 firebombs during road checks in the last 24 hours. A total of 7,718 weapons have now been confiscated. Meanwhile, the remains of two people were discovered and added to the list of at least 100 victims, Tass said.

Back in 2000, USC film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country's desert. But when she excitedly mentioned it to Georgiev, a native of Ukraine who speaks fluent Russian, he was skeptical.

In California, melons are a highlight of the summer breakfast table. In Central Asia, they are a cultural obsession. And that has made for some interesting cross-pollination. In Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and China's Xinjiang region, hundreds of varieties ripen to perfection in the region's hot, dry summers, producing ultra-sweet, luscious fruits with unexpected flavors such as gardenia and vanilla. Melons overflow the bazaars and are piled by the roadsides. They are celebrated with special holidays; consumed for their medicinal properties; cooked, dried and even stored for the winter in special melon houses.

The number of dead from ethnic rioting in Kyrgyzstan "should be multiplied several times" from the official toll of 176, said interim President Roza Otunbayeva, as tens of thousands of people fled to neighboring Uzbekistan and thousands more remained trapped Tuesday after that border was closed. Although the violence appeared to subside Tuesday, Otunbayeva said she was negotiating with Russian leaders to deploy Russian troops to the conflict zone in the country's south because the Kyrgyz army and police are unable to maintain order.

As youngsters in the United States return to school, children in Uzbekistan will be returning to the fields. For them, it is the autumn cotton harvest. From now through the end of November, instead of attending classes, 2 million Uzbek children ages 6 to 15 will be forced to spend their days picking cotton. Unlike most instances of forced child labor in agriculture, this mass mobilization is not driven by exploitative plantation owners or desperate families but by the government.

If results go the right way today, Australia can become the first country to qualify for soccer's 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Closer to home, the United States, Mexico and Costa Rica can also advance their cause by winning when global qualifying continues with 34 matches worldwide. Qualifying is always a lesson in geography as much as anything, and today's games are no exception.

Uzbekistan's authoritarian leader was sworn in for a third presidential term Wednesday, news reports said, despite a constitutional two-term limit. President Islam Karimov won 88% of ballots cast Dec. 23, handily beating three candidates who publicly supported his reelection. Four independent candidates were barred from the race. Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the balloting in the Central Asian nation as undemocratic.

Thousands of people, many of them armed, took to the streets of an eastern Uzbek city today, attacking a prison and freeing the inmates to protest the detention of prominent businessmen on charges of Islamic extremism, witnesses said. Russian media reports said nine people had been killed and 34 were wounded. Uzbek President Islam Karimov and other leaders rushed to Andijon, where witnesses reported several buildings ablaze.

A U.N. envoy wrapped up a two-week inspection of Uzbekistan's prisons Friday by saying he found widespread signs of torture, even though he was denied full access to two of the country's most notorious jails. "Torture, as far as I can see, it is my impression, is not just incidental but ... is systemic," Theo van Boven told a news briefing. There was no immediate reaction from President Islam Karimov's government.

Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian nation for nearly two decades, won another seven-year term with 88.1% of the vote, according to early returns in an election that critics called a sham. Karimov faced three other contenders in the vote Sunday, but all publicly supported him. The election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the vote failed to meet democratic standards.

An Uzbek court freed a rights activist and suspended her seven-year jail sentence after she confessed to all the charges against her and criticized international rights groups from a cage in the courtroom. The United States had criticized the jail term handed down last week to Umida Niyazova, a translator for New York-based Human Rights Watch.