Apostolic Nuncio Alfred Xuereb in Korea and Mongolia to 'build bridges' www.independent.com.mt

“I want to continue in the footsteps of my predecessors, I will do my small part to build bridges”, says Maltese Mgr Alfred Xuereb the new apostolic nuncio to Korea and Mongolia, a few weeks ahead of his departure for Asia, scheduled for late May.
“I want to get to know the Churches of Korea and Mongolia as much as possible, so that I can love and serve them. I have always admired the enthusiasm of missionaries. I hope to become like them and carry on the evangelizing work, talking about Jesus and welcoming new Christians into the Church,” asianews.it reports.
Already prelate Secretary General of the Secretariat for the Economy and special secretary of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, last February the Holy See had announced the appointment and elevation at the same time to the titular see of Amantea (CS), with dignity of archbishop.
“These are very intense days,” says the 59-year-old Maltese prelate. “At the moment I am dealing with the logistical aspects of my transfer to South Korea. The task conferred on me by the Holy Father requires great responsibility and I thank him for the trust granted to me. I was very pleased that Msgr. Hyginus Kim Hee-joong, president of the Episcopal Conference of Korea, was in Rome and visited me.
“Speaking of my arrival in the country, he told me: 'We will follow your instructions'. I replied: 'No Excellency, we will learn to get to know each other and help each other in a mutual way. The only instructions will be given by the Holy Father. I want to know the Churches of Korea and Mongolia as deeply as possible, so that I can love and serve them. In doing so, I hope to sanctify myself with them”.
“I want to continue in the footsteps of my predecessors, I will do my small part to build bridges. First of all with the bishops and their collaborators, so that their bond with Peter is ever stronger. But not only, even between the Church and other religions. My motto 'Ut unum sint' is the prayer that Jesus addressed to the Father and it means precisely this: that all be one, so that the world may believe. I trust a lot in this sentence of the testament of Jesus and for this reason I intend to try to build bridges, also on a cultural level “.
The nunciature will see Msgr. Xuereb facing two very different realities. It was only in 1992 that Mongolia accepted the presence of the Catholic Church in the country, where today there are seven parishes, 77 missionaries, a local priest and 1255 baptized. The more than 230 years of the Church in Korea are instead a story of martyrdom and action, from which an active and participatory Catholic community emerged for the reconciliation of the Korean people, close to the marginalized and supporters of democracy and human rights. Moreover, the Korean Church has long supported the mission in Mongolia: the first Mongolian priest in fact studied in the South Korean diocese of Daejeon.
“Despite being a small community of only 1,300 Catholics, the Mongolian Church will have my full attention and I have proposed my diocese of Gozo (Malta) twin with it, so that it can be helped, even from a financial point of view, in pastoral needs and evangelization. I am already in touch with Fr. Giorgio Marengo, a Consolata missionary priest who has been in the country for 15 years, who gave me the wonderful news of the celebration of eight baptisms on Easter night. Since the days of the seminary, I have always admired the enthusiasm of missionaries. I hope to become like them and carry on the evangelizing work, talking about Jesus and welcoming new Christians in the Church “.
In these days, Mgr Xuereb followed with particular interest the positive developments of the inter-Korean summit. In this regard, the new apostolic nuncio states: “By virtue of the mandate given to me by the Pope, I follow the development of the dialogue between the two Koreas with deep attention and I have a great deal of concern for their outcome. The bridges that I want to build are also those that concern harmony and collaboration, not just the lack of conflict between countries. As requested by the Pope, I offer special prayers and invite other people to do the same. Once in Korea, if I can give my practical help, I will do so with all my heart “.
Born in Rabat (Malta) on October 14, 1958, Msgr. Xuereb was ordained priest of the diocese of Gozo on May 26, 1984. After completing his studies in Theology, he began his administrative service at the secretariat of the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in September 1991. From September 1995, he worked in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and from November 2000 in the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. On 12 September 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Msgr. Xuereb second private secretary and Pope Francis, after his election on March 13, 2013, appointed him his particular secretary. On November 28, 2013, he assumed the role of delegate for the Pontifical Commission referent on the Institute for the Works of Religion and for the Pontifical Commission for study and guidance on the organization of the economic-administrative structure of the Holy See. From March 2014 until his appointment as apostolic nuncio to Korea and Mongolia, he served as prelate secretary general of the Secretariat for the Economy.

Urban nomads: Mongolian herders battle new future as leave the land for the city www.reuters.com

ULAANBAATAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With about 100 sheep and goats, Jugder Samdan makes just enough to scrape by as a nomadic herder in Mongolia, basking in the sun as he watches over his animals, but he worries about the future.

Samdan has seen major changes during his 70 plus years on the vast semi-arid grassland, or steppe, in central Mongolia’s Arkhangai province, with shifts in politics and society impacting one of the world’s last remaining nomadic cultures.

But what most concerns Samdan and fellow herders is climate change, as droughts, harsh winters, and over-grazing threaten traditional livelihoods and drives younger people to the over-crowded capital, fuelling pollution, crime and mental illness.

“Everybody moves to the city,” Samdan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation wrapped in a felt jacket outside his ger, a traditional white, circular herder’s tent or yurt made of felt.

“There are too many people there.”

About one quarter of Mongolians still live a traditional nomadic life in the Central Asian country sandwiched between Russia and China which has four times the land mass of Germany but is thinly-populated with about three million people.

But life is changing fast and about 68,000 herders a year have moved to the city since 2001, according to Ulaanbaatar’s Deputy Mayor Batbayasgalan Jantsan, setting up sprawling informal ger districts lacking facilities like water and power.

The population of Ulaanbaatar has almost doubled in the last 10 years to 1.4 million people, according to the Mongolian National Statistics Office, with about 55 percent of the city’s population - or 750,000 people - living in ger districts.

“That’s almost an entire province,” said Jantsan in an interview in his office in central Ulaanbaatar, a city shrouded in a dense smog during winter months due to air pollution.

As winter temperatures can drop below minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), ger dwellers burn raw coal to stay warm, driving pollution levels eight to 14 times higher than global guidelines, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Air pollution is estimated by the WHO to cause more than 4,000 deaths a year in Mongolia and is now one of the nation’s most challenging issues, with the burning of coal accounting for 80 percent of air pollution from November to April.

“It’s a threat to national security,” said Jantsan.

LIFE TRANSITION
Bazarragchaa Altantsetseg, a land use specialist at land consultancy Vector Maps LLC, said dwellings were traditionally designed to move in Mongolia and it was not after Soviet control in 1921 that fixed properties became more prevalent.

The Russians also had a major impact on herding. The state owned the nation’s herd and grazing land, with herders paid a wage for working in collective farms. The herd wsa kept at about 25 million in line with land capacity assessments.

But that changed after Mongolia became a parliamentary democracy in 1990 and privatization followed, prompting a surge in numbers with the herd hitting 56 million in 2015, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Since 1990 everything was chaos ... everyone wanted to have the land ... and animals,” Altantsetseg said.

Some herders have welcomed the new post-Soviet system.

“The conditions are fair for everyone. Compared to the previous regime you can work hard to have a better life, you can grow your herd and get a car,” Samdan said.

But the dramatic increase in the herd has brought problems of over-grazing exacerbated by desertification, as witnessed by Samdan’s daughter Altantsetseg Jugdur, aged in her 30s.

“When I was a child ... you couldn’t see the animals in the grass. Now look at what we have. Only dust and soil,” she said.

Herders’ accounts of climate change are backed by data with a 2014 report from Japan’s Ministry of the Environment stating Mongolia’s annual mean temperature rose by 2.14 percent between 1940 and 2008 with drier weather leading to more dust storms.

The report also highlighted an increasing frequency of cold and snow damage from so-called dzuds since the early 1990s - the name for a severe winter that comes after a summer drought.

“If there is grass beneath the snow then the animals will survive. When there is no grass beneath the snow then it is dzud,” explained herder Altangerel Dolgor.

DEATH ON THE STEPPE
Mongolia’s recent winter killed more than 700,000 livestock left weak after a drought last year, the highest toll since 2011, according to the country’s statistics bureau.

The steppe around Tuvshruulekh is littered with animals that have frozen to death. Stray dogs and groups of vultures dot the landscape scavenging the frozen carcasses.

Samdan said he can read the signs of climate change around him. Lizards are appearing for the first time while some plants are disappearing, including those used in traditional medicines.

“Before we used to have a leaf which we would boil and drink for stomach problems. Now I can’t find it anymore,” he said.

But it is not just the damage to livestock and the land concerning herders but social changes.

Bayarmaa Vanchindorj, deputy director of the National Mental Health Center, said there has been rising numbers of cases of addiction, depression, trafficking and sexual abuse of children.

Thousands of Mongolians protested in front of parliament in Ulaanbaatar in March to demand more action to prevent child abuse after the widely-reported rape of a young boy.

“Mongolians for many centuries roamed unlimited spaces of their own free will. So I think urbanization took its toll on people’s minds,” she said.

Narantuya Nijir is one example. She lost all her livestock in a 2010 dzud and now lives in a ger in her landlord’s yard at the edge of Ulaanbaatar where the city meets the open pasture.

“It’s quite difficult living in someone else’s yard. Even when they don’t give us a hard time we worry a lot,” she said.

Up the road lives Samdan’s son Chudur with his young family. He has adapted to city life better, having bought a small plot of land where he has just built a small house, in the process learning the skills to start a small double-glazing business.

Back on the steppe Samdan concedes herding is a tough life but his pleas for young people to stay go unheeded.

His 16-year-old grandson Tsendmandakh Altantsetseg has no romantic view of the traditional nomadic life.

“Nature is changing. The grasslands are turning into deserts. Rivers and streams are disappearing,” he said.

“I’m planning to go to university in the city after I graduate. I’ll follow my profession, work in the city and build a life there.”

Reporting by Max Baring, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Twitter tells 330 million users to change their passwords www.bbc.com

Twitter has warned its 330 million users to change their passwords after a glitch exposed some in plain text on its internal network.

Russia cuts oil exports to Europe & ramps up trade with China www.rt.com

China has significantly boosted oil imports from Russia, while the latter has been selling less crude to Europe. An analyst told RT that Beijing has become a more preferable partner in the oil trade for Moscow.
RT’s source in Russia’s largest oil exporter Transneft has said that since January 1, the country is pumping more oil to China, while exports to Europe have plunged. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Russia will have shipped 19 percent less oil through its ports on the Baltic and Black Seas in the first five months of 2018, and sold 43 percent more oil to China through March.

North Korea to provide supplies & workforce for new motorway bridge to Russia www.rt.com

Pyongyang is all set to provide workers and supplies for the construction of a bridge across the border with Russia, according to the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East.
“In June, both Russian and North Korean technical experts are set to hold consultations on building a motorway bridge between the two countries,” Deputy Minister Aleksandr Krutikov told RIA Novosti. “North Korea is to provide the project with workforce as well as with construction materials, while Russia will give the necessary equipment and building supplies.”

Aero Mongolia plans to buy Russian Superjets www.news.mn

Aero Mongolia has signed a letter of intent with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) for two Sukhoi Superjets, with the intention to make a final decision by the end of 2018. If positive, deliveries are expected in 2019.

Aero Mongolia, based at Ulaanbaatar International airport, operates domestic services and a range of international flights to nearby countries. Its fleet currently consists of four ageing 50-seat Fokker 50 turboprops, but the bigger capacity and greater distance capabilities offered by the 100-seat Sukhoi Superjet 100s would allow the airline to enhance both its route network and its geographical reach.

The Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ100) is produced in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East. Since the first flight of the twin-engine aircraft in 2008, it has proved a very successful aircraft. To date, 159 have been sold.

More information about the new contract possibilities may emerge at an upcoming 7-8 June series of events being held in Ulaanbaatar and jointly organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mongolia. Talks will cover the current state of Russian-Mongolian trade and economic relations, as well as prospects for future joint projects.

Xiaomi submits 'world’s biggest' IPO application since 2014 www.chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese mainland tech company Xiaomi has submitted its application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, expected to be the world's biggest IPO since 2014.

Rio Tinto to double number of autonomous drills at Pilbara mines www.mining.com

Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) plans to double its fleet of autonomous production drill rigs this year at its iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where driverless trucks already haul over a quarter of both ore and waste material.

Electric buses on UB road trials before July www.news.mn

Mongolian companies are currently manufacturing two electric buses named MON-30. Apart from boosting local automotive manufacture, the zero-emission buses are aimed at decreasing air-pollution. The MON-30 electric bus is extremely economical. These buses are expected to use MNT 820 thousand worth of electric power per full charge, which is significantly cheaper than a diesel bus. The MON-30 is able to run 300km when fully charged.

Mongolian Copper Corp considers international fight for Erdenet mine www.reuters.com

LONDON/ULAANBAATAR, May 2 (Reuters) - Mongolian Copper Corporation (MCC) is considering international arbitration ahead of an expected government appeal against a court ruling the state’s attempt to buy MCC’s stake in one of Asia’s biggest copper mines is illegal, the company said.