Uzbekistan's president has told overweight police officers to shape up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Tashkent on an official visit, has said a nuclear plant that will be built in Uzbekistan with Russian assistance will provide Central Asia with energy.
The imam of a Tashkent mosque has been relieved of his duties just hours after he posted a video appeal to the Uzbek president calling for greater religious freedom.
Uzbek authorities have released a U.S. citizen who was detained on suspicion of joining a terrorist group and fighting alongside Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan has offered to host peace negotiations between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has dismissed powerful longtime National Security Service (MXX) chief Rustam Inoyatov, removing an influential insider who had been seen as his rival, two senior government officials have told RFE/RL.
The authorities have ordered mosques in central Uzbekistan to donate money for New Year's street decorations.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has issued a decree emphasizing that evidence obtained under torture is inadmissible in the Central Asian country's courts.
An Afghan Kam Air passenger jet landed at Tashkent International Airport on November 29 after making the first-ever direct commercial flight from Kabul to Uzbekistan's capital.
A sister of New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov has told RFE/RL from their native Uzbekistan that her family believes the 29-year-old was "brainwashed" and has pleaded with U.S. authorities to give him "time" and a "fair trial."
