A statue of the Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, at the country's independence memorial in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Photograph: Burt Herman/AP
Tom Templeton's report in the Observer is a must-read for connoisseurs of megalomaniac dictators. Saparmurat Niyazov, alias Turkmenbashi, father of all the Turkmens, is right up there with Mao Tse-Tung, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong Il.Niyazov's book of cod philosophy, the "Holy" Ruhnama, is compulsory reading for all citizens, including pre-school children, held up as on par with the Bible and the Qur'an. It is "to be used as a Spiritual Guide - to remove the complexities and anguishes from day to day living".
He's also building an ice palace in the desert; he's renamed the month of January after himself, and April after his mother; and he's erected a rotating gold statue of himself (dubbed the rotisserie by locals) in the capital Ashgabat. According to Amnesty International he is "extremely intolerant of dissent".
