An explosion which occurred today at about 10:26 in a boiler house in Andijan's central clinic left injured 18 pupils of 9^th grade, who were undergoing medical examination, the Ministry of Health said.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev today held a telephone conversation with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Uzbek presidential press service said.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Measures Aimed at Improving Uzbekistan’s Position in Global Rankings and Indices Decree. The document highlights the absence in Uzbekistan of a “holistic assessment system of compliance of reforms with international criteria and standards.”

The General Secretary of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Kunio Mikuriya will visit Uzbekistan on March 5-7, the Foreign Ministry said.

Two units of the main large-sized process equipment weighing 550 and 350 tons each have arrived in Uzbekistan for Uzbekistan GTL project in Kashkadarya province, the Ministry of Energy said.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Alice Wells will travel with a delegation to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan on February 25-28.

The deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan/chairman of judicial board on administrative cases, Bahodir Dehqonov, was arrested in his office yesterday, a source in the Tashkent police department told the Tashkent Times not elaborating on the reasons of the arrest.

“All-round cooperation with foreign partners in the field of defense is expanding. Strategic partnership ties are being established and maintained with interested countries based on Uzbekistan’s long-term national security interests and ensuring stability in the region,” the Uzbek Minister of Defense, Major General Bahodir Kurbanov said at the Central and South Asia Chiefs of Defense Conference of in Tashkent.

UNDP, the Global Environment Facility, together with the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Ecology and Environmental Protection (Goskomecology), are planning to develop and establish a Biodiversity Conservation Information Management System (BCIMS). At the same time, Biodiversity of Uzbekistan Resource Center – open internet portal will be created.

The Permanent Mission of Uzbekistan to UNESCO refutes information spread by media about the preparation of a draft document on excluding the Uzbek city of Shahrisabz from the list of world heritage by the World Heritage Center (WHC) of UNESCO.

I want to thank President Mirziyoyev and the Ministry of Defense of Uzbekistan for graciously hosting the Central and South Asia Chiefs of Defense Conference. In joining U.S. Central Command in hosting this conference, Uzbekistan is taking a leadership role in advancing security and stability in Central and South Asia.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev hosted the visiting commander of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces, General Joseph Votel, who arrived in our country to attend the meeting of chiefs of general staffs of the countries of the Central and South Asia.

The Tashkent city Mayor Jahongir Ortikhodjaev hosted the Member of the European Parliament/Mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris Rachida Dati Tuesday.

Uzbek Defense Minister Bakhodir Kurbanov today hosted the US military delegation led by commander of the Central Command of the U.S. Armed Forces General Joseph Votel, the Uzbek Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The fifth round of Uzbekistan-Israel political consultations bewteen foreign ministries was held yetsreday in Jerusalem, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said.

Uzbekistan Senate will convene for the eighteenth plenary session on February 28, the Senate said. The meeting’s agenda includes a number of bills, including Approval of Uzbekistan’s Election Code, Protection of Reproductive Health of Citizens and Administrative Supervision of Specific Category of Persons Released from Penitentiary Institutions Bills.

The next conference of the chiefs of the general staffs of the countries of Central and South Asia will be held in Tashkent on February 21, the Uzbek Ministry of Defense.

The rapprochement of the Central Asia countries is not against the interests of any other country, said the Uzbek Foreign Minister Abulaziz Kamilov said in his opening remarks at at the international conference Central Asian Interconnectivity: Challenges and New Opportunities today in Tashkent.

Bakhtiyor Ibrahimov has been appointed as the new Uzbekistan Ambassador to the UAE, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Consultations on expansion of the legal base of the Uzbek-Qatari relations and its inventory check were held between foreign ministries in Doha.