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(WU XING, CHINA) — For as long as anyone can remember, Bator and his ancestors were horse-riding herdsmen, free to roam the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia with their animals. On a spring day in 2002, his freedom was abruptly cancelled. A Chinese official drove his jeep to Bator's pasture, brandishing a piece of paper and announcing that the government was terminating the Mongolian way of life. Since then, Bator has not been on a horse. Today he lives in a small brick house in a new Chinese village, crowded among hundreds of other dispossessed herders. He survives on a...

“God has done great things for us, and we are glad!” said the apostolic prefect. The Church is increasingly present in the country with concrete deeds and works of evangelisation. The path covered leads to today’s challenge: how to increase local vocations. Ulaanbaatar (AsiaNews/UCAN) – The Catholic Church has celebrated 15 years in Mongolia. “God has done great things for us, and we are glad!” said Bishop Wenceslao Padilla, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, as he took stock of the lessons this period will have for the future.The Filipino prelate from the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) arrived...

BEIJING, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - A Mongolian professor of history has said America was discovered by the Mongolians and not Christopher Columbus, as is popularly believed, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday. Professor Sumiya Jambaldorj from the Genghis Khan University in the Mongolian capital, UIan Bator, performed a study proving the similarity between American place names and words in the Mongolian language. "About 8,000 to 25,000 years ago, Mongols with stone tools crossed the Aleutian Islands and arrived in America," Jambaldorj was reported as saying. The academic said that over 20 place names in the Alaskan Aleutian...

This morning President Bush visited the National Defense University in Washington DC to discuss the Global War on terror. He also talked about the fires in Southern CaliforninaTranscriptStatement on Federal Disaster Assistance for CaliforniaThe President today declared an emergency exists in the State of California and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local response efforts in the area struck by wildfires beginning on October 21, 2007, and continuing. The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused...

An Australian man has completed a three-year journey from Mongolia to Hungary, following in the footsteps of the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan. The journey took more than double the time Mr Cope anticipated When Tim Cope began his 10,000 km (6,200 mile) journey in June 2004 he expected it to take 18 months. However, a stint at home when his father died and other delays meant it took more than double that. Throughout the trek he travelled on horseback and relied on the hospitality of local people, including nomads. He travelled with three horses at any time, one to carry...

BEIJING, Aug 30 (AP) -- Gay sex was punishable by death under Genghis Khan's rule. That was among the findings of Chinese researchers who spent more than a year compiling the legendary Mongolian conqueror's code of laws, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday. His early 13th century empire stretched across Asia all the way to central Europe. Article 48 of the code said men who "committed sodomy shall be put to death," according to experts at a research institute in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The experts at the Research Institute of Ancient Mongolian Laws and Sociology said...

India quietly expands ties with Mongolia By Rahul Bedi, New Delhi, Aug 9 : India is quietly expanding its defence and security links with Mongolia in a bid to monitor China's space and military activities in the region. Furthering these links presently are four Indian Army colonels attending the 10-day Khaan Quest 2007 command post exercise (CPX) in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. Co-hosted by Mongolia and the US, the meet ends Aug 10 and is to be followed by the third joint Mongolian-Indian military exercise - Nomadic Elephant - at the Five Hills Training Centre, 65 km west of Ulaanbaatar,...

When he was 19 Garbold Azzaya left his grandparents and their cattle and sheep in the foothills of Bulgan in northern Mongolia and joined the army. Two years later, when he was a sergeant in the 150th Peacekeeping Battalion, he flew from a sub-zero Ulaanbaatar to the 40C (105F) heat of al-Hillah, near the ruins of Babylon, to man the guard towers of Camp Charlie, the headquarters of the multinational division in Iraq. Sixteen days after he arrived Sergeant Azzaya, armed with an AK47 six years older than he was, saw a blue car too close to the wall at...

By CLAIRE BATES - More by this author » Last updated at 16:53pm on 13th July 2007 Comments (4) In terms of height they are worlds apart. The world's tallest man, Bao Xishun today shook hands with He Pingping who claims to be Earth's shortest. But these two men actually hail from the same region of Inner Mongolia. Read more... World's tallest man sweeps bride off her feet at traditional Mongolian wedding Scroll down for more... Mr Xishun shakes hands with Mr Ping Ping While Mr Xishun, 56, towers above everyone at an astonishing 7.9ft, 19-year-old Mr Pingping is a...

World's tallest man marries, sweeps bride off feet ERDOS, China (Reuters) - The world's tallest man married a woman two-thirds his size and almost half his age on Thursday in a traditional Mongolian ceremony sponsored by at least 15 companies hoping to cash in on his fame. Bao Xishun, 56, a 2.36-metre (7-ft, 9-inch) herdsman from China's vast Inner Mongolia region, was carried to his wedding on the back of a mobile yurt pulled by camels at the Genghis Khan holiday resort on the grasslands near Erdos city. Hundreds of people, some travelling for hours, turned up to see Bao...

A historic resolution accepting Tibet as an independent state was passed at the recently concluded three-day International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) Asia - Pacific Committee Meeting held in the Mongolian Capital, Ulaanbaatar. Among other things, the resolution accepts Tibet as an independent State and condemns the illegal occupation of Tibet. The meeting, which was held from June 8 to 10, 2007, was hosted in the in the Official Meeting hall of Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building in Ulaanbaatar. More than 25 delegates representing around 10 different Countries from the Asia - Pacific Region participated in the meeting. Mr....

BANGKOK, Thailand - The next time you take a Thai Airways flight to China, a passenger with a wingspan of 9.2 feet and a taste for rotting carcasses may also be on board. The country's national carrier announced Wednesday that it will transport a juvenile cinereous vulture to Beijing on March 21 to help return the rare bird to its natural environment in Mongolia. The vulture — normally not found in Thailand — has been nursed back to health by veterinarians at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, after apparently getting lost in late December and ending up dehydrated and near death...

The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins by using his long arms to reach into their stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards. Mongolian herdsman Bao Xishun was called in after the dolphins swallowed plastic used around their pool at an aquarium in Fushun, north-east China. Attempts to use instruments failed as the dolphins contracted their stomachs. Guinness World Records list Mr Bao, 54, as the world's tallest living man at 2m 36.1cm (7ft 8.95in). Veterinarians turned to Mr Bao after attempts to extract the plastic shards at the aquarium in Fushun, Liaoning Province, had failed. The mammals had...

Celebrating Genghis Khan's Big Year September 29, 2006 by Eric Powell Eight centuries on, the Mongolian conqueror continues to influence culture worldwide. Mongolians love their Khan. Before I traveled to Mongolia last year to report a story on Bronze Age nomads, I'd read about the country's devotion to a man known throughout the rest of the world as the most ruthless and bloodthirsty conqueror in the planet's history. But I was still surprised by the ubiquity of his presence in the capital city Ulaanbaatar (sometimes spelled Ulan Bator, or "Red Hero" in Mongolian). Not only is his visage (sometimes benevolent,...

He's one of the most famous names of the last millennium, and he's the father of his country, which turns 800 years old this year. That's why the D.C. region's Mongolian community would like to see a statue erected of Genghis Khan, the George Washington of Mongolia.

Archaeologists find 2,500-year-old mummy in Mongolia, tattoos and all Thu Aug 24, 2:18 PM ETAFP/DDP/GAI-HO Photo: This undated picture released by the German Archaeological Institute (GAI) shows a mummified body from... BERLIN (AFP) - An international group of archaeologists has unearthed a well-preserved, 2,500-year-old mummy frozen in the snowcapped mountains of Mongolia complete with blond hair, tattoos and a felt hat. The president of the German Archaeological Institute, Hermann Parzinger, hailed the "fabulous find" at a press conference to present the 28-member team's discovery in Berlin. The Scythian warrior was found in June at a height of 2,600 meters (8,500...

In Mongolia archaeologists discover permafrost mummy with fur coat. Written by Ulaanbaatar correspondent Thursday, 17 August 2006 Research workers of the German archaeological institute have discovered a mummy in permafrost at excavation work in Mongolia of approximately 2,500 years old. At the "sensational find" of a sepulchre chamber of the Scythian rider people a crew of the German television sender ZDF were present. In front of the camera the archaeologists opened the sepulchre where the mummy of the Scythian soldier was stored. The mummy, conserved in permafrost, carried still a fur coat and had a decorated gilded head ornament. According...

The United States is all set to hold peacekeeping military exercises with Chinese neighboors Mongolia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India next week. The two-week drill, scheduled start on August 11, is the last in a series of joint military exercises U.S. Armed Forces have conducted to help "improve international cooperation in resolving armed conflicts" and "restoring civilian infrastructure", the U.S. State Department said in a press release today. Participating in the exercises will be about 220 American soldiers, 630 from Mongolia and 242 from India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Fiji and Tonga, the statement said. Observers from China, Japan, Russia, the U.K., France...

Dear Colleague: The extinguishing of a people does not have to be done with troops or death camps. Isn't it genocide to indoctrinate into the contraceptive mentality the youth of a small nation with a low birthrate? Kinder, Gentler Genocide in Mongolia, Joseph A. D'Agostino It is often useful to examine the front page of a major newspaper or home page of a website just to see what is being presented and how. Watching solely the front page of a major newspaper could, over time, tell you the most important biases and lies in which that newspaper engages. Similarly, watching...

World briefing Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 Guardian Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force. Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian...