Independent news reports from Uzbekistan say security forces have arrested Gulbahor Turaeva, a physician and rights activist from Andijon.

An international Islamic cultural body has chosen Tashkent as one of its four "capitals of Islamic culture" for 2007.

Uzbek law enforcement authorities said today that a group of 13 Andijon refugees have returned to Uzbekistan.

Manfred Nowak, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, says he is "very concerned" by reports indicating that ill treatment and torture of prison inmates and police detainees remain widespread in Uzbekistan.