If the United States starts treating these issues more consistently, leaders of oppressive regimes in the region will know that they will face increased pressure on the international stage if they do not choose to fully respect the rights and freedoms of their citizens.

A celebrity endorsement, whether explicit or implicit, emboldens dictators in their denial of fundamental freedoms to their people. They must pay a price. And those who endorse them with their presence, like Iglesias, should be called out for their disgraceful conduct.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban detonated a bomb on a fuel tanker Wednesday and then opened fire on other NATO supply trucks, destroying 22 ve...

The Central Asian exit plan will cost the American taxpayer more than twice as much as the Pakistani alternative.. Worse, the plan's success depends completely on the goodwill of Russia and its mercurial Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

(Berlin) – Uzbekistan has not kept its promises to stop torture in its criminal justice system, including electric shocks and asphyxiation, Huma...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Uzbekistan has failed to provide its citizens with basic legal rights despite some reforms in recent years, an internationa...

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, in a move initiated by the Obama administration, has voted to waive Bush-era human rights restrictions on military aid to the Islam Karimov dictatorship in Uzbekistan, one of the most brutal and repressive regimes on the planet.

On Christmas Day, 1991, five new countries were born. This year Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan turn 20. A lot has changed.

A high-level Uzbek official is in Washington this week for talks about ramping up cooperation on supply routes through Central Asia for US troops in Afghanistan. Has the US learned that there is a cost for playing footsie with repressive regimes?

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Authorities in Uzbekistan have blocked dozens of Internet sites in an apparent attempt to further stem the flow of information i...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A powerful earthquake killed at least 14 people in a heavily populated valley in Central Asia early Wednesday, emergency of...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — A powerful earthquake measuring 6.2 struck a mountainous location in southern Kyrgyzstan on the border with Uzbekistan ear...

What of the sway of Persian, or for that matter, any other language in today's world? It is language capable of 'selling' to an increasingly aware world-population that will be triumphant in the 21st century.

Transparency international released their 2010 Corruption Perception Index, which compiles data on public sector corruption and its perceptions around...