Authoritarian Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, whose Central Asian country is a stage for strategic rivalry between Russia, China and the West, is in stable condition in an intensive care ward after suffering a brain hemorrhage on August 27, his daughter said.
President Karimov, 78, who has run Uzbekistan since it was a Soviet republic and wields sweeping powers, has no obvious successor, a situation characteristic of the volatile Central Asia region which is still largely run by former Communist apparatchiks.
