ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited his counterpart in Uzbekistan to attend the inauguration of a transnational gas pipeline to China.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 29 (UPI) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, seeking wider ties with resource-rich Uzbekistan, says bilateral trade with the Central Asian nation is growing rapidly.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 17 (UPI) -- Uzbekistan cut natural gas supplies to Tajikistan over a failure to pay its $17.5 million in debt, executives in Tajikistan said.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Uzbekistan is prepared to sell 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to Russia in 2009, President Islam Karimov said during a meeting with Russian officials.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- During Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Tashkent, he and Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a series of agreements to sell Uzbek natural gas to Russia and upgrade two Soviet-era natural gas pipelines. The agreements represent yet another Western and American setback to securing Caspian and Central Asian energy resources for export to the West.

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted foreign leaders in separate meetings on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- Since the death in December 2005 of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, Western energy firms have longingly eyed Turkmenistan's vast natural gas reserves, which even during the Soviet era were estimated at 10 trillion to 14 trillion cubic meters, exceeded only by those of the Russian Federation. Among the potential suitors for Ashgabat's favor, no firms were more ardent than U.S. companies. Alas, once again for Washington, the groom has been left at the altar.

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Tibet is no aberration; the world's worst human-rights offenders all find a friend in China.

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- While Russia's Gazprom dominates Central Asian natural gas exports through its pipeline monopoly, the leaders of the "stans" are unhappy about the arrangement, as Gazprom buys cheap and sells dear to European consumers.