(FILES) This file photo taken on April 26, 2016 shows Uzbek President Islam Karimov speaking during a press conference in Moscow on April. Strongman Uzbek President Islam Karimov is in intensive care after suffering a brain haemorrhage, his younger daughter wrote on social media on August 29, 2016. Authoritarian leader Karimov has long been the subject of rumours of ill health that are difficult to verify, since information in the Central Asian country is very tightly controlled. He has held power in the strategic country bordering Afghanistan since before it gained independence from Moscow in 1991.  / AFP PHOTO / POOL / MAXIM SHEMETOV