It's longer than an Olympic swimming pool, took two-and-a-half years to complete and fulfills a 40-year dream -- a new mega-canvas by one of Uzbekistan's best-known artists, inspired by "One Thousand and One Nights".

Now, the immense painting by Lekim Ibragimov is on its way to Europe, where it will be put on show first in the Czech Republic and then in other European countries.

Lebanon drew 1-1 with Uzbekistan on Friday in the second match of the final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Jasur Hasanov gave Uzbekistan a 1-0 lead just 11 minutes into the match both sides needed to win to get their campaigns for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil back on track.

Uzbekistan on Monday denied media claims that it was secretly sterilizing women, calling the family program of Central Asia's most populous country a model for other states.

"Distorted information on the use of contraception and particularly surgical sterilization in Uzbekistan that regularly appears in the tabloid press has nothing to do with reality," the Uzbek foreign ministry said.

An Uzbek man living in the United States pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in the southern state of Alabama to planning to kill U.S. President Barack Obama.

Ulugbek Kodirov, 22, was arrested in an undercover operation while trying to obtain explosives and guns, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Authorities in Uzbekistan are, apparently, unwilling to give love a chance.

The Russian news agency RIA-Novosti cited several local media in the Central Asian nation reporting Tuesday that Uzbekistan has canceled concerts and other events for Valentine's Day. Instead, residents in the capital of Tashkent can enjoy readings of poems by Mughal emperor Babur, who died in the 16th century.

The United States is trying to increase the flow of non-lethal supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan via Uzbekistan as it may not always be able to count on the Pakistan route, a U.S. official said Saturday.

The official spoke as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, part of the U.S. military's Northern Distribution Network (NDN), following a trip to Pakistan to discuss troubled ties there.

Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private U.S. study released Tuesday.

"Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent)," said the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

One Tajik policeman was killed and another two received gunshot wounds when they clashed with runaway militants in a remote region near the Afghan border, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the gunmen were part of a group of militants who escaped from a detention center last August, killing six prison guards.

A major 6.2 quake in Uzbekistan killed at least 13 people and injured 86 others, when it struck on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border in the remote Fergana Valley region, Uzbek officials said.

The quake struck at 1:35 am (1935 GMT Tuesday) with the epicenter just inside neighboring Kyrgyzstan but 42 kilometers southwest of the Uzbek city of Fergana, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Uzbekistan's state television Monday issued an unequivocal denunciation of rock and rap as a Western liberal excess, saying the music is epitomized by sadism, drug addiction and immorality.

In a TV documentary called "Melody and Calamity" Uzbekistan's second main channel Youht TV raised alarm over "pernicious influence of Western rock and rap music approaching as dark clouds over the heads of Uzbek youth".