Uzbekistan releases UN staffer after 11 years in jail

GENEVA: Uzbekistan has released a former United Nations employee held for 11 years over treason, the UN said on Tuesday, the latest sign of thawing autocracy in the secretive former Soviet country. Erkin Musaev, an Uzbek citizen, was running a joint UN- European Union programme when he was arrested at the airport in the Uzbek capital Tashkent in 2006.