CNN's Nic Robertson surveys the turmoil in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
The first U.N. aid plane arrived Wednesday in Uzbekistan to help the thousands of people who have fled ethnic clashes in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, officials with a U.N. Refugee agency said Wednesday.
Common opinion holds that diplomacy involves careful negotiation and an ability to bite your tongue. But what happens when the political situation in a country is so corrupt that you feel it is your moral duty to speak out?
Uzbekistan is unlikely to allow an independent probe into recent violent events in the central Asian nation, according to media reports.
The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into recent killings in Uzbekistan to assess reports of excessive use of force by authorities.
The Bush administration on Wednesday called for an international investigation into last week's violence in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, and said it was becoming increasingly clear that Uzbek forces deliberately fired on protesters.
Foreign diplomats and journalists have arrived in the Uzbek city of Andijan to assess the death toll from the country's recent explosion of violence.
Condemnation by Britain of Uzbek soldiers who opened fire on protesters contrasts markedly to the near silence coming from its allies in Washington.
Eight Uzbek soldiers and three Islamic militants died in a clash near the Kyrgyz border Sunday and more than 500 Uzbeks fled to safety across the frontier, villagers said, according to The Associated Press.
Anguished relatives have been searching for bodies in the Uzbek city of Andijan, where hundreds were killed in a military crackdown after anti-government protests that hardline President Islam Karimov blamed on Islamic radicals.
The United States has had good relations with the government of Uzbekistan in recent years but at the same time is bluntly critical of the country's political system and the human rights situation there.
Thousands were trying to flee the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan on Saturday, leaving behind the flaming wreckage of a former government building torched on the second day of violent anti-government demonstrations.
Clashes between security forces and protesters in eastern Uzbekistan have left several people dead after supporters of people jailed on charges of Islamic extremism stormed a prison and freed inmates, reports say.
At least three people were killed and several others wounded in explosion near the U.S. and Israeli embassies as well as at the state prosecutor's office the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
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