Below is an article published by the Guardian Unlimited:

Saparmurat Niyazov, the authoritarian president of energy-rich Turkmenistan who created an elaborate personality cult during more than two decades at the helm of the former Soviet republic, died Thursday, officials said. He was 66.

State television showed Niyazov's portrait in a black frame, and a news presenter was reading a list of his accomplishments and merits. A spokesman for the Turkmen Embassy in Moscow confirmed the report.

Niyazov, who underwent major heart surgery in 1997, acknowledged last month that he had heart disease but did not appear seriously ill. Two weeks ago he appeared in public to formally open an amusement park outside the capital called ``The World of Turkmenbashi Tales.''

Niyazov, an important ally in the U.S. war on terror, came to power in 1985 when the Central Asian nation that borders Afghanistan was still a Soviet republic.

He retained control after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and turned Turkmenistan into one of the most oppressive of the ex-Soviet states, crushing all opposition and drawing condemnation from abroad.

Creating an elaborate personality cult, he ordered the months and days of the week named after himself and his family, and had statues of himself erected throughout the nation. Children pledged allegiance to him every morning in schools and his writings were required reading.

An alleged attempt on his life in 2002 set off a harsh crackdown, leading to dozens of arrests that were criticized by international human rights groups and the U.S. government.

It was unclear who may be in line to replace Niyazov or how the succession process would be conducted. The funeral is to be held on Sunday.

Turkmenistan - a majority Muslim country dominated by the vast Kara Kum desert - has the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves, but Niyazov failed to convert that wealth into prosperity for his country's 5 million people.

Niyazov was born Feb. 19, 1940. His father died in World War II and the rest of his family was killed in an earthquake that leveled Ashgabat in 1948. He was raised in an orphanage and later in the home of distant relatives.

Niyazov attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in Russia to study power engineering and worked at the Bezmeinskaya Power Station near Ashgabat after his graduation in 1966.

Appointed head of the Communist Party in Turkmenistan in 1985, Niyazov was named president of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in October 1990 and led his nation through its Oct. 27, 1991 independence.

He was elected president of the new independent Turkmenistan in 1992 with a reported 99.5 percent of the vote. In 1994, an alleged 99.9 percent of voters supported a referendum allowing him to remain in office for a second five-year term without having to face new elections.

In 1999, he was effectively made president for life after parliament removed all term limits, but an August 2002 gathering of the country's People's Council - a hand-picked assembly of Niyazov loyalists - nonetheless went further and endorsed him as president for life.

Under Niyazov's rule, Turkmenistan adopted a strict policy of neutrality and spurned joining regional security or economic organizations that sprung up in the wake of the Soviet collapse.

But Niyazov supported the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign in neighboring Afghanistan, allowing coalition airplanes to use Turkmen airspace and humanitarian agencies to pass through to deliver aid.

Niyazov also pursued strong nationalistic policies to encourage the use of the Turkmen language over Russian and banned access to Russian-language media, leading to an increased exodus of some of the country's most educated citizens and decimating its school system.

Secondary education has been reduced in Turkmenistan to a required nine years, causing human rights groups to complain of a deliberate attempt to dumb down the population and prevent dissent.