MOSCOW, Dec. 21 -- Saparmurat Niyazov, who wove a bizarre and gilded cult of personality into dictatorial rule as president for life of the energy-rich former Soviet republic Turkmenistan, died ...

For instance, now that Niyazov is dead who will take the place of the man who has ruled in Turkmenistan since 1985, when it was a Soviet republic. The country's interim leader is Deputy Prime ...

Kimmage: The very first reaction that we got officially from Turkmenistan is that the policies of Niyazov will be continued but it's really so early right now that it's very difficult to say ...

In Turkmenistan, nearly six million people are still caught in the iron grip of an eccentric dictator who is no longer even alive. Saparmurat Niyazov died last December and was succeeded by his ...

Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan became a corridor for heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to the West and gained for itself one of the highest heroin addiction rates in the world.

President Saparmurat Niyazov, who created a vast cult of personality during two decades of iron-fisted rule over arid, energy-rich Turkmenistan, has died, officials said Thursday. He was 66. A ...

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Niyazov became president and took on the task of strengthening Turkmenistan’s independence and national character.

Talk of Niyazov's health has also sparked discussion about what will happen after Niyazov is no longer president -- whether that happens this year, next year, or far into the future. Filip Noubel, a ...

Amid the collapse of Turkmenistan's health-care system, the health of the country's mercurial president, Saparmurat Niyazov, has become the subject of conjecture. An opposition-run website recently ...

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) – President Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s eccentric and iron-fisted leader who created a lavish cult of personality during two decades of rule over his isolated nation, died ...

Saparmurat Niyazov, the longtime president of Turkmenistan, has died, leaving no obvious successor and sparking fear of a power struggle in the gas-rich country. State-run TV says he died of a ...