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IRAN'S controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is flying to Shanghai tomorrow to take part in a summit that will seal China's plans to lead an Asian rival to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation - whose meeting has forced the shutdown of much of the city this week - is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and is preparing to expand its membership well beyond the present China, Russia and four strategic central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui refused at a briefing yesterday to disclose the countries that wished to become observers...

Asia Rising Donald Rumsfeld infamously made a distinction between Old Europe and New Europe. He has been scored ever since for his sweeping and impolitic language, but he wasn't sweeping enough: In geopolitical terms, all of Europe is old, the world's most tourist-friendly museum piece. For the future of high-stakes U.S. diplomacy and of great-power politics, look no further than Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the U.S. It is Asia that should occupy an outsized place in our strategic thinking, and it is Europe that should be the relative afterthought, not the other way around. The media and foreign-policy...

REGULAR meals of mammoth meat helped some early human tribes to expand more quickly than their largely vegetarian contemporaries, according to a genetic study. Human populations in east Asia about 30,000 years ago developed at dramatically different rates, following a pattern that appears to reflect the availability of mammoths and other large game. In the part of the region covering what is now northern China, Mongolia and southern Siberia, vast plains teemed with mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and woolly rhinoceroses and the number of early human beings grew between 34,000 and 20,000 years ago. Further south, where the terrain...

BEIJING. April 13 (Interfax-China) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization's summit, due to be held on June 15 2006, will discuss the issue of renaming and reforming the organization's secretariat, said the SCO's Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang. "The Secretariat was set up at the organization's onset. The SCO has gone through significant change and development, which requires that the Secretariat be reorganized and renamed," Zhang said. The upcoming summit will also address the issue of granting the status of permanent members to individual observer states, at their request, he said. Regarding talks between the SCO defense ministers, set for the...

Seasonal Sandstorms: a Survival Guide Satellite images released by the Korea Meteorological Administration of sandstorms that blanketed the nation between 4:30 a.m. Saturday (top) and 11 a.m. on Sunday. As the annual sandstorms are blown into Korea from the arid wastes of Mongolia, the annual health questions emerge. Are an itchy nose and itchy ears a sign of danger? Will sunglasses protect the eyes? The Chosun Ilbo has the lowdown on surviving seasonal sandstorms. First of all, bear in mind that you inhale as much as three times more dust than normal when the sandstorms descend. And the dust contains...

In the present study, nuclear (autosomal and Y-chromosome short tandem repeats) and mitochondrial (hypervariable region I) ancient DNA data previously obtained from a 2,300-year-old Xiongnu population of the Egyin Gol Valley (south of Lake Baikal in northern Mongolia) (Keyser-Tracqui et al. 2003 Am. J. Hum. Genet. 73:247-260) were compared with data from two contemporary Mongolian populations: one from the same location (Egyin Gol Valley plus a perimeter of less than 100 km around the valley), and one from the whole of Mongolia. The principal objective of this comparative analysis was to assess the likelihood that genetic continuity exists between ancient...

Bishop Sees Hope as Government Opens Up to Democracy KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, MARCH 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Mongolia's only Catholic bishop says there is more hope for the Church in the country as the government opens up to democracy. "When the first Catholic missionaries, one from Belgium and two from the Philippines, arrived here in 1992, almost nobody in Mongolia had ever heard about Jesus," Bishop Wenceslao Padilla said during a recent visit to Aid to the Church in Need. "Since then, we have established three parishes with currently about 300 baptized Mongolian Catholics," said the 56-year-old prelate. "And now that the...

Mongolia's former communists met yesterday to discuss who should become the next prime minister after the central Asian country was thrown into disarray with the ouster of reform-minded Tsakhia Elbegdorj. About 250 members of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) gathered in central Ulan Bator to choose a candidate to lead the impoverished, landlocked nation, a party official said. "They will discuss whom to nominate as the next prime minister," the official said, a leading member of the party's youth organization. He said the talks began shortly before 4pm. The most likely choice was MPRP chairman Miyegombo Enkhbold, a former...

Indian elephants preparing to perform in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator are drinking daily doses of vodka to help them survive temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius, a media report said. The elephants are working for the Moscow State Circus, which on Sunday plans to hold its first show in Mongolia in 25 years, the UB Post newspaper said in a report posted on its website. The elephants had to travel on trucks from Moscow to Ulan Bator because they were too large to be transported by rail with the rest of the circus. To help the...

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) _ Some 1,500 protesters swarmed the city's central square and a main government building on Thursday, one day after the country's biggest political party pulled out of its 15-month-old ruling coalition. The demonstration began around noon (0400 GMT) when the crowd gathered in the city's central square. After two hours, they moved to the headquarters of the Mongolian People's Revolution Party, which pulled out of the government Wednesday, accusing the leadership of failing to fight corruption and worsening poverty. There, the protesters kicked and pounded on the main glass doors until they shattered. They entered...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush, sounding hoarse (as though he has a cold), delivered his weekly radio address from the ranch in Crawford today, as he and his family continued to enjoy the holiday together. Former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush spent Thanksgiving at the ranch along with their granddaughters, Jenna and Barbara. Even on a holiday, President Bush had work to do. He has frozen the U.S. assets of 128 people and 33 entities deemed to be "hindering democratic reform in Zimbabwe," including President Robert Mugabe. On Thanksgiving Day, President Bush said that he is...

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush conclude their far eastern tour by visiting Mongolia being the first serving President to visit that country. After visiting Mongolia they flew back the USA. The Vice President gave a speech on the War on Terror at the American Enterprise Insitute in Washington. Last Friday Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld concluded his Australian visit and on his return to the US did the rounds of Sunday talk shows. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia - In the wake of congressional unrest over his war policies, President Bush thanked Mongolia on Monday for standing with him in Iraq and compared the struggle against Islamic radicalism to this country's battle against communism. Bush said Mongolia has stood with the United States as "brothers in the cause of freedom." Bush's four-hour stop in Mongolia was the first ever by an American president. The brief visit was a reward for Mongolia's pursuit of democracy and support for the U.S. fight against terrorism.

In the first visit by a sitting US president to Mongolia, George W. Bush announced that he was in Ulan Bator to deliver an “important international message”, then after a pause, added: “Secretary Rumsfeld asked me to check on his horse.” His comment got a knowing laugh from the watching Mongolian elite, dominated by officers festooned with gold medals. When Mr Rumsfeld visited Mongolia last month, the defence secretary received a horse as a gift, which he named Montana. However, Mr Bush had a more serious reason for being here: to highlight Mongolia’s symbolism as an emerging democracy in the...

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For Immediate ReleaseNovember 19, 2005 President's Radio Address      Audio     APEC Summit 2005     President's Trip to Asia      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I am currently traveling in Asia on a trip to Japan, South Korea, China, and Mongolia. I'm visiting with friends and allies in the region to discuss issues vital to the future of all Americans. One important issue for American workers, entrepreneurs, businesses, and farmers is to access foreign markets for our goods, services, and farm products. At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in South Korea, we have advanced America's case for free and fair trade.  Radio Address 20052004200320022001  Radio...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The President and First Lady are spending a quiet weekend at the White House. Tomorrow they leave for a seven-day trip to visit enthusiastic allies Japan and Mongolia. They also will visit China and South Korea, where the President will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Conference summit in Busan. The 21 member states are expected to agree to support free-trade talks at the World Trade Organization. In contrast to the usual happy talk that precedes presidential visits, President Bush made little effort to downplay differences with China. "It's a mixed relationship," he told a reporter...

Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has recently done a whirlwind world tour from China to Lithuania stopping along the way in South Korea and Mongolia. See the following link for more details of trip Travels with Rumsfeld The following is a pictorial record of his travels, there are also some more photos at the above link

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - A chat with a Buddhist monk. An encounter with a gift horse named Montana. A peek inside a yurt, the traditional felt tent home. A word with Mongolian veterans of the war in Iraq. No outpost is too distant, no audience too small for U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, globe-trotting to bolster support for Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider fight against terrorism. The roaming Rumsfeld dropped in Saturday for an official visit with senior leaders of this once communist nation of about 2.7 million, home of the legendary horseman-warrior, Genghis Khan. Rumsfeld wound up...

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Oct. 22, 2005 – A group of almost 200 Mongolian Army soldiers got a personal thank you today from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rumsfeld, who made a stop here during an eight-day trip to China, South Korea and Lithuania, praised Mongolia for its support in the war on terror. "You are a sovereign nation and you made a choice," Rumsfeld told the group, assembled in an auditorium in Mongolia's Government House. "It showed political courage and it showed personal courage on the part of your troops." But that decision, he...