Around the world

Controversial Uzbek leader Karimov buried

Uzbekistan’s widely criticized authoritarian leader Islam Karimov was hailed as a statesman and democrat by his government as he was laid to rest Saturday in the ancient silk road city of Samarkand.

The coffin of 78-year-old Karimov, whose death from a cerebral hemorrhage was announced Friday, was placed in the renowned Registan square, flanked on three sides by Islamic schools covered in intricate, colorful tiles and topped with aqua cupolas.

Thousands of men packed the square — women were excluded — to hear a mufti give a funeral prayer that said “Islam Karimov served his people.” The body was then taken to the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, another architecturally significant site, for burial.

Karimov became the leader of Uzbekistan in 1989, when it was a Soviet republic, and held power with ruthless determination throughout all of Uzbekistan’s independence. He crushed opposition, repressed the media and was repeatedly denounced by activists abroad for human rights violations including killings and torture.

France

Le Pen promises French referendum on EU

PARIS — The leader of France’s far-right National Front set the tone for her campaign for the French presidency Saturday, calling to fight an Islamist “offensive” and promising to hold a nationwide referendum on European Union membership if she is elected next spring.

At a rally in a small eastern village, Marine Le Pen focused on her favorite issues, such as national sovereignty, immigration control, Islamism and what she calls “savage globalization.”

The far-right candidate for the April-May election pledged to back the “France of the forgotten, the abandoned and the voiceless.”

Le Pen, who announced her presidential bid months ago, delivered her annual speech in Brachay, a hamlet of a few dozen inhabitants and the French municipality where she symbolically won the largest share of votes in the last election.

Thailand

Bomb placed on train tracks kills one

BANGKOK — Police say a bomb exploded Saturday and hit a train in southern Thailand, killing one railroad worker and injuring another.

Police Capt. Pramoj Juichuay says the bomb was placed on the tracks and exploded when the train passed over it as it was passing a station in Pattani province at around 5:30 p.m. The bomb blast blew off the last carriage of the train.

The train was on its way from Sungai Golak to Hat Yai, near the border with Malaysia.

Southern Thailand, which has a majority Muslim population in the predominantly Buddhist country, has for years been in the grip of a separatist insurgency. The insurgents regularly carry out bombings and assassinations against government targets.

Wire reports