Zoo-bred Przewalski’s horses are freed into the plains of Mongolia where their ancestors roamed for centuries having battled back from just ONE surviving wild animal www.dailymail.co.uk

Their violent kicks rattle the small army plane flying over Siberia as it transports the four rare horses from Prague to the vast Mongolian steppe where the once near-extinct species is slowly recovering.

Known as Przewalski's horses, the ancient species has narrowly avoided extinction thanks to breeding programmes at zoos worldwide and is now gradually being re-introduced to a wildlife reserve in its original homeland.

But confined to wooden boxes, Finnish sisters Helmi and Hanna, German mare Spes and Yanja from a Swiss zoo are not enjoying the 30-hour trip to get to their new home one bit.

Two Wild Przewalski horses are seen in the Takhin Tal reserve in southwest Mongolia on June 20 after being released into the wild +9
Two Wild Przewalski horses are seen in the Takhin Tal reserve in southwest Mongolia on June 20 after being released into the wild

'The plane trip is the toughest part,' Prague Zoo chief vet Roman Vodicka told AFP over the constant drone of the twin-engine propeller plane.

'The horse might make a wrong move, get stuck and lie down, stopping the blood flow to the legs. If this happened on the truck, we might release them for a run in nature, but you can't do that on the plane,' he said.

Prague Zoo, which has bred Przewalski's horses since 1932 and keeps the world genealogy book for the endangered species tracking all new births, launched a project to reintroduce the animals to Mongolia in 2011.

The four round-bellied, short-legged, sandy-beige mares are set to join wild herds in Takhin Tal (meaning the wild horse steppe), where 220 Przewalski's horses now gallop free.

In 1969, there was just one.

'These horses are getting a chance others won't have. They'll return home,' said Jan Marek, a Prague Zoo curator in charge of ungulates.

The horses were transported in large metal crates bearing each of their names and eventually released after a long and arduous journey +9
The horses were transported in large metal crates bearing each of their names and eventually released after a long and arduous journey

The mares took a bumpy truck journey to the remote Takhin Tal reserve, where they are finally able to gallop into an enclosure to find their hooves in their new home +9
The mares took a bumpy truck journey to the remote Takhin Tal reserve, where they are finally able to gallop into an enclosure to find their hooves in their new home

But, for the moment, they are restless after a busy day, which started at an acclimatisation centre on a farm belonging to Prague Zoo, south of the Czech capital.

Before being enclosed in the transport boxes, they were put to sleep, tested and treated by vets.

Then they were taken by truck to a military airbase on Prague's outskirts and loaded onto the plane.

Marek and Vodicka monitor the horses throughout the trip, trying to calm them by talking and whistling, or with hay and pheromones.

Keeping them cool also helps and the plane is air-conditioned to 15-19 degrees C (59-66 F).

After landing on the dirt runway in the western Mongolian town of Bulgan Sum, the mares take a bumpy truck journey to the remote Takhin Tal reserve, where they are finally able to gallop into an enclosure to find their hooves in their new home.

In the first half of next year, they will be released into the wild to join either a lone stallion, or be part of a harem - a group of around a dozen horses led by a dominant stallion - in Takhin Tal, which is part of the Great Gobi B protected area spanning over 9,000 square kilometres (3,600 square miles).

Before being enclosed in the transport boxes, they were put to sleep, tested and treated by vets for any blood pressure issues

'Harem organisation is a very nice social structure, everybody has his own role,' Ganbaatar Oyunsaikhan, Great Gobi B director, told AFP.

Rangers able to discern a stallion or harem at a distance when it is barely visible to the untrained eye, even with binoculars, will monitor the mares as they explore their new home.

Prague Zoo has released a total 31 Przewalski's horses into the Mongolian wilderness, with funding for the project provided by zoos from across the globe.

'I decided to do this after the 'dzud', or very severe winter of 2009-2010, which had cut local (Przewalski's) horse numbers by two thirds to about 50,' said Prague Zoo director Miroslav Bobek, standing outside a yurt in the Mongolian steppe.

First documented by Russian scientist Nikolai Przhevalsky in 1881, the species was nearly extinct in the 1960s and is still listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Bobek said the current population stands at around 2,400 horses, with 800 in the wild including in other parts of Mongolia and in China.

'All the living Przewalski's horses come from a genetic bottleneck of about 10 animals,' he told AFP.

Zoologists hope the four new mares from different zoos will improve the genetic mix of the Mongolian herd.

'If we only brought Czech horses, it would be the same blood. We're trying to make the population as diverse as possible,' says curator Marek.

New genetic research has suggested that the stocky horses that inspired dreamy pre-historic cave paintings are not the world's last remaining wild horse as had been thought.

The journal Science reported in February that, despite their pre-historic looks, Przewalski's horses were actually domesticated animals that escaped their human owner in the Botai area of northern Kazakhstan around 5,500 years ago.

Bobek described the study as 'very interesting', but is cautious.

'It could have been the other way round; the wild Przewalski's horse could have been the source for Botai breeders,' he said.

'In any case, the uniqueness of Przewalski's horse is obvious. We'll carry on.'

Mongolian and Chinese joint venture established www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A cooperation agreement on international auto transportation between Gantsmod and Gashuunsukhait border points was signed in Bayannuur city of Inner Mongolia, the People's Republic of China on July 18.

Europe has fined Google $5 billion. But that won't hurt it www.cnn.com

Europe has imposed a record fine on Google. But it's probably too little, too late.
The €4.34 billion ($5 billion) penalty announced Wednesday by the European Commission is the latest salvo in an extended battle between Google and regulators in Brussels, who have subjected the tech company to three antitrust investigations.

The fine may be a record, but it's one that Google (GOOGL) can absorb without too much pain. And the penalty won't cause Europeans to fall out of love with Google's popular Android operating system or its ubiquitous smartphone apps.

"Google can brush [the fine] off without an enormous amount of difficultly," said Richard Windsor, founder of the tech research firm Radio Free Mobile.

The Commission has ordered Google to give manufacturers more freedom when deciding which apps to install on Android smartphones. But that's unlikely to mean dramatic changes in Europe, where around 80% of smartphones use the operating system.

Google will have to stop preloading Android apps on phones, but Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Chrome have become so essential that customers are bound to seek them out.

"Most users are already completely hooked on Google services. They are going to download the apps anyway," said Windsor, adding that the ruling would have been more effective if it had been issued five years ago.

Related: Google's not alone. Europe has been taking on tech companies for decades

Mark Patterson, an antitrust expert and law professor at Fordham University, said the biggest win for Google was that the Commission did not order it to share the user data that forms the backbone of its business.

"Those data are the real basis of the success of its business ... it is far from clear that this decision could allow even a firm with the resources of Amazon, which has its own but different data, to become an effective competitor for Google."
Still, the ruling could encourage regulators in Europe and spark more complaints over the behavior of Google and other tech companies.

"Plaintiffs that were not sure whether they have a case will now feel emboldened and may be more confident to challenge Google," said Nicolas Petit, a professor at the University of Liege and visiting fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

He said content creators could be the next to take on Google over its handling of intellectual property.

"Google is a company with a lot of enemies, including in the United States," he said. "Lots of people will be inclined to read the decision as a form of discriminatory, protectionist behavior by the European Union, but ... the complaints often come from US companies."

Google said that it would appeal the decision.

"Android has created more choice for everyone, not less," it said in a statement. "A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are the classic hallmarks of robust competition."

Target tech
The Commission has been fighting Google on multiple fronts for almost a decade. Last year, it imposed a then-record €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) fine on the company for using its search engine to unfairly steer consumers to its own shopping platform.

A third antitrust case, which is still being investigated, involves the Google advertising placement service AdSense.

Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB) have also been penalized by European regulators in recent years, leading to allegations that US companies have been unfairly targeted.

It's a charge that top EU antitrust official Margrethe Vestager has refuted.

"No matter what the political context ... if you breach Europe's antitrust rules and we find out, there will be a penalty, there is no surprise," she told reporters on Wednesday.

Tech companies have also been forced this year to bring their operations into compliance with GDPR, a new set of EU regulations that give consumers much more control over their personal data. Changes to copyright law that would affect tech firms are also being considered.

Google has responded by beefing up its lobbying efforts in the European Union. It spent between $6.1 million and $6.4 million on EU lobbying in 2016, according to official data. That compares to $700,000 in 2011.

EdCC exchange student from Mongolia missing since July 1 www.heraldnet.com

LYNNWOOD — An Edmonds Community College exchange student from Mongolia has been missing for almost three weeks, Lynnwood police said Wednesday.

9.6 thousand foreign workers from 92 countries employing in Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At the end of June 2018, 9.6 thousand foreign workers from 92 countries were employed under the Labor contract in Mongolia.

Market capitalization of listed domestic companies reaches MNT 2.5 trillion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The money supply reached MNT 17.3 trillion at the end of June 2018, showing an increase of MNT 304.0 billion or 1.8 percent from the previous month and by MNT 3.9 trillion or 28.7 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Parliamentary working group to report on OT agreement review

In April, a Mongolian parliamentary working group was formed to review the implementation of the 2009 Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement between the Government and the UK-based Rio Tinto Group. Now, the working group is ready to deliver its findings to parliament on the implementation of the Investment Agreement. According to D.Terbishdagva, head of the working group, the report consists of reviews send by five sub-groups and 90 percent of all the original tasks have been completed. The reason why it is not totally finished is because the Mongolian National Audit Office and the Independent Authority against Corruption of Mongolia have failed to send their reviews on time. Therefore, the working group is planning to present its report to the Standing Committee without their reviews.

Flooding kills 48 in Mongolia www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, July 18 (Xinhua)-- Heavy flooding killed 48 people in Mongolia while downpours in the western Bayan-Ulgii Province affected more than 2,500 people, Mongolian officials said on Wednesday.

Mongolia debt-rescue anniversary shuns celebration www.atimes.com

A year after the international community assembled a US$5.5 billion emergency package, Mongolian stock and bond performance reflected the escape from a debt crisis, but “more downside than upside risks” persist, according to the International Monetary Fund’s July program review.

The lender released another $35 million of its $435 million three-year facility based on “good progress,” as it urged further steps to strengthen fiscal, balance-of-payments, banking-sector and investment-climate positions. The stock-exchange index is down 5%, outpacing MSCI-tracked frontier markets, and external bond yields at 400 basis points over US Treasuries were firm against general asset class selloffs as Fitch Ratings upgraded the sovereign to a still speculative “B.”

It also elevated two state-owned banks, while noting lingering weakness with the reported 8.5% bad-loan ratio as comprehensive asset quality and stress testing unfold.

Ulaanbaatar was briefly in the geopolitical limelight as a possible host for the inaugural US-North Korea summit, but was sidelined by Singapore’s all-expenses-paid bid and its state-of-the-art infrastructure.

The IMF report too seized upon positive headlines, including 6% first-quarter growth and a 10% international reserve increase to $3.25 billion, but pointed to “core vulnerabilities” such as high commodity reliance, public debt, and bank recapitalization needs.

The next parliamentary elections are due in 2020, when corruption accusations between the main parties and runaway voter spending are also likely to intensify, analysis suggest.

The World Bank predicts 6% growth this year on construction and manufacturing around the Tavan Tolgoi (TT) coal project, while agriculture has yet to recover from the harsh past winter. Another phase of the giant Oyu Tolgoi (OT) copper mine will go online in the medium term to expand exports further, as the Bank recommended greater economic diversification and productivity gains.

Foreign direct investment was $400 million in the first quarter, but strong domestic demand worsened the current account deficit and inflation, now at 8%. The central bank has regularly cut interest rates over the past year but may turn more cautious, especially as it applies more stringent loan-provisioning rules to identify bank capital and liquidity gaps. Corporate credit extension was flat in recent months, after years of double-digit upticks.

Fiscal policy was mixed in Fitch’s view, as “rapid improvement,” with revenue up 25% through May, is offset by “structural reform delays” leaving government debt at 85% of GDP. Fuel subsidies and family social transfers have not been adjusted, and infrastructure concessions and discount mortgages are large liabilities. The Development Bank’s portfolio has not been audited and fully incorporated into the budget, and non-political oversight is lacking. Its overseas borrowing can inject depreciation pressure on the currency, which has steadied over the past year.

Both Fitch and the IMF argue that bank cleanup over the next six months will determine the vitality of policy and practical turnaround. Officials will present a detailed bad-loan resolution strategy and introduce new collateral enforcement and bankruptcy procedures. They may propose a central disposal agency and macro-prudential curbs on household credit, with almost half in danger of default with debt-service-to-income ratios above 60%.

The Financial Action Task Force also criticized lax anti-money-laundering practices, and without action the country could be “gray listed” and cut off from overseas correspondent relationships.

The threat comes as Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khürelsükh broke ground on an oil refinery financed with a $1 billion soft loan from India under a campaign to forge links beyond traditional international mining-company and China-Russia partners. The project was broached during a 2015 visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and follows decades of aborted domestic building efforts. The Indian delegation in pointed reference to regional rivals described a “spiritual alliance,” and the plant will eventually boost national output by 10% according to government estimates.

In June, Mining Minister Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren proposed an initial public offering on local and overseas markets for up to one-third of state company TT shares, reprising previous attempts that valued the transaction at billions of dollars. Underwriters were originally named, but the deal was abandoned when both the government and coal prices collapsed in 2016.

Canadian-owned operator Erdene at the same time became the first cross-listed play on the Mongolian stock exchange with a small $1.5 million capital raising, as more modest feats may have to satisfy fund managers going into the IMF program’s second anniversary.

Lotte Mart to enter Mongolia next year www.retailanalysis.igd.com

South Korean conglomerate, Lotte, is planning to open to its first Lotte Mart store in Mongolia in the first of half of next year.