Facebook shares closed at $176.26 on Thursday, down from $217.50 the day before.

"We expect our revenue-growth rates to decline by high-single-digit percentages from prior quarters sequentially in both Q3 and Q4,” Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said on the investor conference call that sent the stock tumbling. The company's sales and user growth numbers for the second quarter fell short of analysts’ projections.

Wehner explained that Facebook intends to promote experiences that “currently have lower levels of monetization” and give users more choices about data privacy, “which may have an impact on our revenue growth.”

It’s the second time this year that Facebook’s stock has taken a dramatic plunge. Its shares also fell off the cliff in March in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The UK-based company had gained access to the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users through a third-party application, and some of that data was reportedly used to target advertising during the 2016 Brexit referendum and the US presidential election.

As a result of the stock tumble, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth dropped by more than $16 billion.

One of the Facebook investors, Trillium Asset Management, has reportedly filed a proposal to remove Zuckerberg as chairman, according to Business Insider. Trillium holds $11 million worth of Facebook shares, and blamed Facebook for “missing, or mishandling, a number of severe controversies, increasing risk exposure and costs to shareholders” because of Zuckerberg’s control.

The project, named the Northern Latitudinal Railway, is planned to be completed by 2023, authorities say. It requires the building of 350km of track and modernizing the existing infrastructure. The volume of traffic on the route is estimated at 23.9 million tons a year.

The Northern Latitudinal Railway will connect Russia’s Ural and West Siberian regions with the Northern Sea Route and prepare the ground for additional big out-shipments through Arctic waters. The project’s cost is estimated at around 200 billion rubles ($3.6 billion).

The railway is crucial for another Russian mega-project in the Arctic. The Northern Sea Route, which stretches the entire length of Russia’s Arctic and Far East regions, is expected to become a major trade route for goods shipped between Europe and Asia.

The Arctic route from Southeast Asia to Europe cuts transportation time in half compared to traditional routes through the Suez and Panama canals. In Soviet times, it was used mainly to supply goods to isolated settlements in the Arctic.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Northern Sea Route was opened for international cargo traffic. However, President Vladimir Putin has said the country is weighing a ban on foreign-flagged ships from the strategically critical route across Russia’s Arctic waters.

Mongolia’s Parliament passed a Resolution ‘Intensifying activities to put Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit into economic circulation’ on June 29, 2018. Within this framework, 30 percent of the shares of ‘Erdenes Tavantolgoi’ JSC will be traded at domestic and foreign stock exchanges. In addition, infrastructure issues regarding railway, auto road and energy will be urgently solved.

At the meeting, representatives of CEEC received information related to the parliamentary resolution and exchanged views on cooperating in the infrastructure projects.

M.Unurzul

During the meeting, the sides exchanged detailed views on the country’s present economic situation, outlook of nearest future and pressing issues.

Moreover, they touched matters regarding global trade, business, economic and political situation and Mongolia’s main partner countries'.

M.Unurzul

Prior, as part of the Ulaanbaatar City Urban Transportation Project (Ulaanbaatar Metro project) a study on metro development was conducted in 2013-2014 with non-refundable aid of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Even though the report was discussed at the Citizens' Representative Khural and approved by the National Security Council and the Japanese Government decided to issue USD 600 million soft loan, the project was stalled due to economic capacity and financial capabilities of the country.

According to the officials, we now have economic possibility of establishing metro by 2030, as reflected in the Urban Development Policy. Thus, the previous project has been resumed. It is estimated that USD 1.5 billion will be required to construct a metro in the capital city. Relevant officials noted financial issue can be resolved through domestic and foreign investment, public–private partnership and concession agreements.

The 17.7 kilometer underground line estimated to be established from the Officers' Palace to the Sonsgolon Bridge along the Peace Avenue connecting east to west. Suburban districts were planned to be connected with extended roads. Prior it special and electric bus (RTI and BTI) roads were planned to be set up in the capital previously.

The metro establishment in Ulaanbaatar city, which has over one million residents, would create 150 thousand jobs and increase the city’s budget revenue by 30 percent. It is predicted that by 2030, the capital city population will reach 1.7 million.
M.Anudar

Total cost incurred due to criminal acts reached MNT 103.4 billion, less than 15% of which have been compensated, says NSO.

A trend to note was the slump of administrative court decisions. Administrative court finalized a total of 786 cases in the first six months of this year. This is down by 26.5% compared to last year and twice as less than that of 2016. The preceding couple of years were remarkable as Parliamentary and Presidential elections took place, sparking rise in such cases led by government officials, most of whom claimed to be fired illegally as a result of change in administration.

According to the information provided at the Judicial General Council’s website, only election related administrative cases totaled 72 in 2016, when the Parliamentary election took place. The statis­ tics come out at a controversial time when amendments to the General administrative law is being highly debated. 92 percent of lawyers oppose the expected amendment to the law as it aims to free the Government from all judicial parties. This will mean citizens and entities will no longer be able to turn to court to claim their rights.

In this transaction, Frontclear borrowed USD 30 million in US Treasury bonds from the EBRD and then on-­lent them to the State Bank LLC in Mongolia against Mongolian local currency government bonds in a collateral swap transaction. Front­ clear guaranteed the transaction to EBRD. With the US treasuries in hand, State Bank LLC borrowed funds in a repo transaction with ING Bank N.V. Singapore branch.

"State Bank is delighted for successfully executing this inaugural transaction that provides possibilities to prac­tice the financial instrument in line with international best practice and facilitates development of interbank money market in broader perspec­tive in Mongolia" said Chinbat Lkhagvasuren, Director General of Treasury Department at the State Bank of Mongolia. State bank of Mongolia expects the long term, USD denominated financing will help increase affordable business loans in Mongolia.

"We are planning to install the device on 25 buses within July in the first phase," Khurelbaatar Bulgaa, deputy head of the Ulan Bator city's transportation department, told Xinhua.

According to Khurelbaatar, the installation of diesel particulate filter (DPF) on public buses has just started with non-refundable aid by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.

He added that the filter can remove 80 percent of diesel particulate matter.

"The filter should be cleaned after every 250 kilometers. A public bus runs in the capital city 200-300 kilometers per day. So, we decided to install the three DPFs on a bus in order to not disrupt the operation of public buses," he said.

Currently, more than 930 public buses are operating in the capital Ulan Bator, he said, and the cost of the installations of three DPFs on a bus is some 40 million Mongolian Tugriks (16,200 U.S. dollars).

Air pollution is the most pressing issue in Ulan Bator where more than 800,000 residents, over half of the city's population, live in slums. They have to rely on burning raw coal and other flammable materials such as plastics and old tires to stay warm and cook meals during the six-month-long winter season.

The Mongolian government announced in March that it would impose a ban on the burning of low-grade coal for domestic use in the capital beginning on May 15, 2019.

Since the early 2000s, the government of Mongolia in cooperation with international organizations have carried out a number of measures directed at reducing air pollution in Ulan Bator. However, the city has not seen a significant reduction in air pollution levels.

The city's air pollution on Jan. 30 exceeded 133 times above the safety level set by the World Health Organization.