Turkmenistan may be in mourning but [many]... in the central Asian nation will be quietly celebrating the passing of Saparmurat Niyazov, possibly the most eccentric dictator in the world. The self-declared Turkmenbashi, or father of the Turkmen, ruled the energy-rich but impoverished country according to his very peculiar peccadillos, outlawing a host of products and practices that most wielders of absolute power have not ordinarily been bothered by. Hisdeath has left a vacuum in the central Asian nation which he ruled with a North-Korean-style personality cult. Mr Niyazov renamed the month of January after himself and squandered vast amounts of money on vanity projects including the construction of a gold-leaf covered statue of himself that rotates to face the sun...

Dmitrij Rupel, Slovenia's foreign minister, recalled an odd encounter... challenged the president on his appalling human rights record. "I had an unpleasant moment when I asked him about torture in prisons," Mr Rupel told The Independent. "I had very, very reliable information. He replied 'tell me where?'" When evidence was produced from a file, Mr Niyazov said bluntly: "Throw away these papers!"

It is not known how many political prisoners there are in Turkmenistan and Mr Niyazov exploited the "war on terror" to categorise them as terrorists. Yesterday, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and its affiliate the Turkmenistan Initiative for Human Rights called for the release of political detainees and prisoners of conscience. Aaron Rhodes, the federation's director, said: "We can only hope that his successors will address the deficits in education, healthcare and children's rights resulting from his policies, and honour the fundamental rights and freedoms the people have been cynically denied."... healthcare and education were scaled down outside Ashgabat - although about 90 per cent of the population live outside the capital, many in poverty.