Turkmenistan’s president has stepped down from his post as leader of the ruling party ahead of a parliamentary election that for the first time will feature two competing parties.

Voting has begun in Turkmenistan’s presidential election in a race designed to cement the incumbent’s hold on power in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.

The president of Turkmenistan today opened a cancer hospital by personally performing the first operation.

The president of Turkmenistan has banned a popular, mildly narcotic form of chewing tobacco, the state newspaper said today.

Turkmenistan is ready to sell some of its vast gas reserves to Europe, a state-run newspaper reported today, quoting the country’s president.