Uzbek leader wins new term in 'sham' election

Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian nation for nearly two decades, won another seven-year term with 88.1% of the votes, according to early returns released by Central Election Commission today – an election critics dismissed as a sham.

Karimov faced three other contenders in the poll yesterday, but all of them publicly supported him.