From December 21 to January 10, Uzbekistan will suspend international flights, including inbound, outbound and transit, with the UK, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Australia, the Netherlands and South Africa. This decision was made by the Special Republican Anti-Coronavirus Commission, due to the detection of a new strain of COVID-19 and the difficult epidemiological situation in these countries.

Turkish police have detained journalist Abdukarim Mirzayev. The graduate degree student in journalism at the University of Kastamonu was arrested on December 11.

The tenth plenary session of the Senate reviewed the appointment of a new Ambassador to Pakistan. The senators voted to appoint Oybek Usmanov as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Summit) will be held online on December 18 chaired by the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the presidential press service said.

New freight and freight-passenger locomotives delivered to Uzbekistan from China were presented yesterday, Uzbekistan Railways (UTY) said in a statement.

The Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the Presidential Administration posted draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on improving the use of social networks and the media in covering the activities of state institutions for public input.

On December 15, as part of the visit of the Uzbek government delegation to Japan, the Deputy PM/Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the S. Umurzakov held a meeting with the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Shinichi Kitaoka, during which issues and prospects for expanding the financial and technical and cultural and humanitarian cooperation, the ministry said in a statament.

106 people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning and gas balsts in Uzbekistan year-to-date, another 190 received various bodily injuries, the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said today at a government meeting.

Within the framework of the Polish government program "Polish Aid", the Polish Embassy to Uzbekistan has implemented a development project called "Integration of Persons Faced with Social Exclusion".

Deputies of the Legislative Chamber reviewed Bill on amendments and addenda to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Responsibility of Uzbekistan, the lower house said in a statement.

Uzbekistan ranked 106th in the latest UN Human Development Index (HDI) for 2019. The HDI is a statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the GDP per capita is higher.

One may take photographs of police officers in public anywhere without truly interfering with their activities, the spokesman to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Shohrukh Giyasov said at a press conference at the AIMC on Tuesday.

The National program for development and support of reading culture for 2020-2025 was approved by a government resolution of December 14, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.

On December 14, as part of the visit of the government delegation to Japan in Tokyo, the Deputy PM/Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade met with the Chairman of Japan-CIS Business Cooperation Committee of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and the Chairman of Marubeni Corporation Fumiya Kokubu, President and CEO of Itochu Corporation Yoshihisa Suzuki, and President and CEO of Mitsubishi Corporation Takehiko Kakiyuchi.

The chairman of the High Judicial Council Kholmumin Yodgorov at a recent press conference at the AIMC reported three recent cases of unjustified interference in the activities of judges, over one of which was opened a criminal case. He also stated that the mayor of one of the districts of Kashkadarya province was sacked for interfering with judicial work.

On December 14, the Republican Interdepartmental Commission was formed to "thoroughly and objectively" verify the arguments of Bukhara city prosecutor Jasur Fozilov, who had earlier announced an attempt to fabricate a case against him, UzA said.

A 413-meter bridge is planned to be built across the Amu Darya river, which will connect the Khorezm province and Karakalpakstan.

A person who made a living by begging in Maltepe, Istanbul, stabbed an Uzbek man to death with a knife in the chest. While the moment of stabbing was caught by cameras, the suspect was quickly caught and arrested.

Members of the Legislative Chamber in the first reading passed the Bankruptcy Bill, the press service of the lower house said. The Bill reportedly consists of 17 chapters and 252 articles and introduces practice and regulation of the bankruptcy of an individual, the procedure for payment by installments from monthly income of debtor (individual).

Footages surfaced on social media showing how residents of Hamdustlik neighbourhood of Andijan blocked the road at the junction of Uzbekistan and Bobur streets, demanding to resolve the problem with the supply of electricity and gas.