Knowing the highway code is no longer enough to get a driving license in Turkmenistan, whose autocratic President Saparmurat Niyazov has told future drivers to cram his "sacred" writings to qualify. "A 16-hour course of the sacred Rukhnama is one of the most important innovations in the (driving learning) program ... to ensure future drivers are educated in the spirit of high moral values of Turkmenistan's society," the state news agency quoted a Niyazov decree as saying Monday. Niyazov, Turkmenistan's "president for life" and focus of a flourishing personality cult, wrote the Rukhnama (Spiritual World) as a moral guide to his desert nation of 6 million. The book is already a core part of the school and university curriculum, and a copy of Rukhnama is kept next to the Koran in the Central Asian nation's state-controlled mosques.
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