-- he is not the only firmly entrenched autocrat, turkmenistan, tajikistan also have similar rulers. >> they need to feel important and are unwilling or perhaps incapable of letting power go. >> national parliaments in elections helped the despot's to polish their democratic credentials. they do not allow for open criticism. opponents say that the oppression is worse in lose pakistan -- worse in uzb eukistan. >> the laws are rigid, people died after a mysterious circumstances. >> when the president came to brussels earlier this year for meetings with european and leaders, there were protests by opponents of his regime. they say the west should not court dictators. many european and american politicians disagree. the central asian countries have major oil and natural gas reserves and are strategically important in nato operations in afghanistan. german troops stationed in afghanistan are supplied from a base in uzbekistan. >> most western leaders are pragmatic. when they realize they cannot change or break these regimes are make them more democratic, they decide to work with them anyw

a verdict to be delivered in the trial of a bbc journalist from tajikistan owho was charged with association with a banned group. he denies all charges. the government of sudan denied allegations that the sudanese police abducted and killed displaced civilians close to a u.n. peacekeeping base in the border region. human rights campaigners from the u.s.-based group enough project says they have eye witness accounts of abuse as but a city spokesman rejected the claim. the racial divide in the united states has been one of the most contentious episodes in its history, and its legacy still persists today. well, on sunday at a ceremony in washington, president obama will be inaugurating a memorial to one of the people will help end racial segregation in america, martin luther king. it will be the first time anything other than a president has been honored in this way. steve kingston has more. >> i have seen the promised land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. >> he changed a nation and now martin luther king becomes th

the reporter was detained by the tajikistan authorities in june. he was later released on bail. he denies all the charges. at least 28 people have died after a plane crashed in a remote part of papua new guinea. the p.n.g. passenger aircraft is reported to have crashed in bad weather while flying from lae to a resort. officials say two pilots are among the four survivors. miriam is here now with news of inflation, china and india. >> two huge economies, very important figures. we've seen in chain ark the inflation rate is now dropping to 6.1% in september. it's still high, but it is lower, which shows the monetary policy we've seen from the chinese government is working. one caveat though, if you look at the figures in detail, food price inflation is very high, over 13%. of course, the chinese population, over half of them say they spend over half of what they earn on food. that's very important. india, though, is a bit different. we're going to see, i think, more moves on interest rates. we're going to see a rise in interest rates, i think quite soon, because the rates of infla

today she is in tajikistan focusing on afghanistan. she said afghanistan's neighbors are key to improving conditions in that country and surrounding countries. >>> despite a drop last month, california's unemployment rate remain the second highest in the nation, behind only nevada. in september, california's unemployment development department put the jobless rate at 11.9%. that is town from 12.1% in august. in part because almost 12,000 new jobs were created last month. right now the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1%. >>> here in the bay area, unemployment is the highest in solano, alameda and contra costa counties. all above 10%. officials say it all depends on where the jobs are available. >> a lot of it is because of the industries. so the east bay market is construction, home building, those markets, and they are still really heavily hit. >> but there's some good news for job seekers. companies are starting to hire more workers for the holidays and that could provide at least some temporary relief. >>> the threat of unemployment