ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - Saparmurat Niyazov, president of Turkmenistan who built an omnipresent personality cult around himself during two decades of iron-fisted rule over this arid, energy-rich former Soviet republic, died Thursday. He was 66.

A terse report from state television said Niyazov died early Thursday of heart failure and showed a black-framed portrait of the man who had ordered citizens to refer to him as "Turkmenbashi" - the Father of All Turkmen. An announcer in a dark suit read a list of Niyazov's accomplishments.

The funeral is to be held Sunday in his hometown of Kipchak, ...

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