Turkmenistan opened its first two internet cafés on Friday as new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov moved to fulfil promises of limited reform in the Central Asian nation. The curtailing of the internet was one of the hard-line moves ordered by late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.

Turkmen ruler Saparmurat Niyazov, whose elaborate cult of personality pervaded every aspect of life in the gas-rich Central Asian country, was laid to rest on Sunday in a lavish funeral attended by foreign dignitaries and throngs of tearful mourners.