Twenty-nine-year-old Ed Fernon conquered the gruelling Mongolian Derby, crossing the finish line with South African Barry Armitage in equal first after a nail-biting race to the finish.

The 2017 race saw 12 men and 24 women from nine countries riding 1,000 kilometres across Mongolia on semi-wild horses.

Mostly riding full tilt, they charge through the rugged terrain of the Mongolian Steppes, fording rivers, deserts and wide open plains on a course that is designed to recreate Genghis Khan's ancient postal system.

It puts to the test the competitor's survival skills, horsemanship and sheer endurance.

Competitors change horses every 40 kilometres and camp out under the stars or stay with local herders.

Horses will often injure the participants if badly handled, and riders are also given penalties if they overwork the tough Mongolian ponies.

Although city born, he spent time on a family farm near Wagga Wagga in NSW where he first threw his leg over a horse.

His love of riding inspired him to take up the modern pentathlon, mastering the five disciplines of swimming, fencing, running, shooting and show jumping.

He started the sport as a 20-year-old and four years later represented Australia in the 2012 London Olympics.

Needing a new challenge post-Olympics, Fernon did a charity ride across the snowy mountains.

The ride retraced the 1,100 kilometre journey of Archer, the legendary horse that walked from NSW to Melbourne before winning the inaugural Melbourne Cup in 1861.

"Following the Legend of Archer" raised over $50,000 for The Black Dog Institute, offering support for people suffering from depression and bipolar disorder.

Fernon crossed the finish line of the Mongolian Derby exhausted and exhilarated.

"Regardless of winning, what I came here for was to challenge myself, give it my all, and I've done that. I'll sleep well tonight," he said.

Just to complete the hardest horse race in the world is an achievement few can boast.

Mongolia hosts the meeting for the first time and leaders and representatives from the International Labor Organization and Trade Unions of over 30 countries, including Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia are participating in the two-day meeting.

The meeting will discuss and approve 2018 budget of the Asia- Pacific Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-AP), working plan, guidelines and its report. " - Hosting the event in Mongolia has a significance to share experiences and achievements of Mongolia in the field of labor relations and social partnership with the leaders of trade union organizations of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region," said Chairman of the International Relations Division of the Confederation of Trade Unions E. Amarsanaa. Mongolia, Taiwan and Indonesia had competed for hosting the meeting.

“I have mentioned before an idea that may be an empty dream, but if NATO were to shift its headquarters to Moscow it might allay whatever misapprehensions Russians may feel,” the Dalai Lama said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

The Dalai Lama’s comments come as NATO is bolstering deployments to the Baltic States and Poland ahead of Russian military exercises in Belarus in September.

Aware that his controversial suggestion might not be well received in Washington, the Dalai Lama said: “I'm afraid now that after such a suggestion, I won’t be allowed to go to America!”

The Buddhist spiritual leader is a contentious figure in Russia. He last visited in 2004, and authorities in Moscow have repeatedly denied him permission to return ever since. China has publicly thanked the Kremlin on each occasion it bars the Dalai Lama.

In an outspoken interview in 2014, the Dalai Lama criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for being self-centered. "His attitude is: I, I, I. This is the root of the problem,” he told a German newspaper.

This time, he told Kommersant he saw positive changes. “I look at Russia and I see protests against corruption and so on. In Stalinist times that was impossible,” he said. “Perhaps not as quickly as we would want, but change is happening.”

“I believe in a big future for Russia,” he added. “Russia could become a real bridge between East and West.”

The Dalai Lama was in New Delhi for the first ever conference of Russian and Buddhist scholars.

Following the visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan in December last year, Moscow and Tokyo agreed to start joint economic activities on the islands. Putin will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Vladivostok in September to continue the discussions. The countries plan to develop fishing, tourism, healthcare and ecology in the region.

Russia is looking for Japanese investment in the Far East, while Japan hopes to recover the territories lost after WWII. However, Russia has repeatedly rebuffed Japanese claims.

The Kuril Islands stretch between the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Kamchatka.

The entire archipelago is currently administered by Russia, which received them after WWII under the 1945 Potsdam Declaration.

Japan claims sovereignty over the two southernmost large islands of Iturup and Kunashir, as well as the Shikotan and Habomai islets, citing their history as Japan’s northern territories. Russia and Japan did not sign a peace treaty after WWII over the issue.

Moscow claims sovereignty over the islands based on the post-war agreement signed by the Allies in 1945. The pact stipulated the South Kurils became part of the USSR following the war which Japan lost. According to the Kremlin, as the rightful successor of the Soviet Union, Russia's sovereignty over the territories is recognized internationally and not in doubt.

During the meeting, Ambassador Mansoori noted that the two countries are marking the 15th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries this year. Qatar is seriously focusing on investing in Mongolia. Mr Mansoori confirmed that Qatar is planning to open Embassy in Mongolia.

Because of the this decision, the routes of seven buses will be changed from 15th of August.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies may have boosted oil prices by cutting production, but they’re losing revenue in the process and their position “is not sustainable over a long period,” Citigroup’s Ed Morse said in a Bloomberg television interview on Tuesday. On the other hand, U.S. shale drillers have adapted to survive prices as low as $40, he said.

“In the end, the markets are going to win, and it’s going to be shale,” Morse said. “If we’re in a $40 to $45 world, we’ll have enough drilling to add to the surplus in the world as a whole.”

Oil prices have lost 12 percent in London this year, trading near $50 a barrel, as output curbs by OPEC, Russia and other partners fail to drain a global surplus. U.S. shale explorers have boosted drilling and are poised to reach a record output next month, plugging some of the gap left by OPEC’s cutbacks.

The steadiness of crude prices on the forward curve at about $50 a barrel suggests that U.S. oil producers are active in using futures contracts to lock in -- or “hedge” -- their output for this year and next, according to Morse.

Despite some weaker guidance from operators, the oil-rich Permian Basin “is going to grow at a hefty rate this year, and probably the same rate next year,” he said.

Wong told the Singapore Regional Business Forum that Singapore and China have agreed to carry on cooperation in three areas for the building of the Belt and Road - infrastructure connectivity, financing of Belt and Road projects, and cooperation of companies of the two sides for doing projects in third countries.

He said the infrastructure connectivity is being operationalized through the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative (CCI).

Both sides are now working to jointly develop the CCI Southern Transport Corridor that will link western China to Southeast Asia through Chongqing, a municipality in western China and Singapore, and connect the overland Silk Road Economic Belt with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The corridor is expected to offer a shorter and more direct trade route between western China and Southeast Asia, and will lower logistics costs, enhance cross-border trade flows, and catalyze the economic development of both regions, in particular the provinces along the corridor, said the minister.

He said Chongqing and Singapore can be the two hubs in Asia, linking up the Belt and Road, and enlarging the possibilities for connectivity across western China and Southeast Asia.

Speaking of the financing of Belt and Road projects, Wong said there are large infrastructure gaps in Asia, and Singapore, as a major center for the financing of infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, can play a role in it.

He said 60 percent of projects in Southeast Asia enjoy project finance and advisory services from Singapore-based banks, and Chinese banks in Singapore are also expanding their presence and doing more to finance Belt and Road projects.

"Beyond financing, we are home to a full suite of high-quality professional services that are necessary to bring infrastructure projects into being, including project advisory, dispute resolution, and legal services," he added.

Wong said Singapore also wants to encourage Singaporean and Chinese companies to forge partnerships and do projects together in third countries, as well as work together on human resource development in countries along the Belt and Road.

He said Singaporean companies are natural partners for Chinese companies in expanding to the region, as Singaporean companies have good market knowledge of Southeast Asia and can do engineering design and master-planning, project management, financing, logistics and servicing.