China will defend WTO rights if Trump moves on duties: Official www.chinadaily.com

China will defend its rights under World Trade Organization tariff rules if US President-elect Donald Trump moves toward executing his campaign threats to levy punitive duties on goods made in China, a senior Chinese trade official said on Wednesday.

2017 hunting quotas approved www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On Wednesday, the cabinet approved thequota for hunting in 2017. It permitted hunting 68 male bighorn sheep, 75 male ibexes, 32 otters, 10 roe deers, 10 boars, 100 gazelles and 400 game birds, for special purposes, and 500 taimens for sport fishing.

Insurer to cover virtual currencies www3.nhk.or.jp

Dalai Lama's visit hurt the political foundation of China-Mongolia relations www.gogo.mn

ULAANBAATAR (GoGo Mongolia/ANN) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China has issued three statements this year regarding the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama paid his 9th visit, with the last being in 2011, to Mongolia on November 18-22.
A day after his arrival, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama greeted devout Mongolians at the Gandantegchinlen Monastery, the centre for Buddhism in Mongolia, on November 19. On the next day, His Holiness delivered a unique teaching to his Mongolian followers reaching over 10 thousand people, jammed in the 5,000-seating capacity sports complex of Buyant Ukhaa.
The purpose of his teaching in Ulaanbaatar was to enhance Mongolia’s benefaction, and therefore, to diminish the obstacles and traverses in Mongolia’s path to prosperity.
Moreover, The Dalai Lama took part in a discussion called 'Science and Teachings of the Buddha.'
The 14th Dalai Lama had first visited Mongolia in 1979. When he arrived back in 2002, the Chinese side had protested the visit and had closed the border with Mongolia for two days.
In 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China released three statements with regard to the 14th Dalai Lama's Visit to Mongolia.
Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia U. Khurelsukh was scheduled to pay a working visit to China to attend the inter-governmental meeting to be held on November 28. However, the Chinese side has indefinitely postponed the meeting on mining and energy.
Spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Geng Shuang's delivered remarks explaining the reason for cancelling the meeting.
"We have expressed our solemn position on Dalai's visit to Mongolia. The erroneous action taken by the Mongolian side on Dalai's visit has hurt the political foundation of China-Mongolia relations and has exerted a negative impact on the development of bilateral relations. The Chinese side requires the Mongolian side to genuinely respect China's core interests and major concerns, take effective steps to remove the negative impact caused by its erroneous action and bring the China-Mongolia relations back to the track of sound and steady growth," he said.
Earlier, on November 20, Shuang had stated that in sheer disregard of China's repeated dissuasion, Mongolia had insisted on inviting the 14th Dalai Lama for a visit. The Chinese side is dissatisfied with and opposed to this step.
He added that the 14th Dalai Lama is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion, with the aim of breaking Tibet away from China. The Chinese side firmly opposes any anti-China separatist activities conducted by Dalai in any capacity or name in any country and opposes all forms of contact by officials of any country with him.
China has urged Mongolia to see through the nature of the Dalai clique, respect China's core interests and major concerns and take concrete actions to remove the negative effects, so as to prevent the disruption of the sound development of China-Mongolia relations.
However, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ts.Munkh-Orgil has given a statement on the Dalai Lama`s visit. “The Government of Mongolia has nothing to do with the visit”, he stated.
Moreover, he emphasised that the 9th visit of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia is taking place at the invitation of the Center of Mongolian Buddhists – The Gandantegchinlen Monastery, and is a solely religious courtesy.
He added that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ts.Munkh-Orgil`s visit to China and Russian-Mongolian-China trilateral ministers meeting have cancelled.
In regards, we will discuss with China on the cancellation of these meetings, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia.

TPP's death hurts America and helps China + Russia www.cnn.com

America is receding from the global economic stage, opening the way for China to take a lead role and a supporting one for Russia.
Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a controversial trade deal, wasn't taken well by world leaders.
"The TPP without the United States is meaningless," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
Others had another message: We'll move on without you and strike alliances with other nations.

CALCULATOR POWERED BY CALCULATOR POWERED BY
"Another agreement can take its place, but not with U.S. participation," Peru President Pablo Pedro Kuczynski told Russia's state-run news outlet RT on Nov. 11. "It would include China, and Russia as well."
Trade is a top priority for many world leaders, especially Kuczynski. Last weekend, he hosted the APEC conference, a trade summit that drew President Obama and China's President Xi Jingping, along with leaders from Latin America and the Asia Pacific.
A day after APEC ended, Trump announced he would withdraw from TPP the day he arrives at the White House. That's not going over well with the 21 world leaders of APEC.

"We reaffirm our commitment to keep our markets open and to fight against all forms of protectionism," the leaders said in a joint statement.
As America under a new leader backpedals on doing business with other nations, China and Russia appear poised to fill the gap. China is already pushing its own trade deal known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It includes many countries, such as Japan and Australia, that would have been in TPP.
If RCEP succeeds, China would be in a stronger position to lead a bigger free trade area in the future. Already in Asia, some countries, like the Philippines, are aligning themselves with China.
Chinese officials are also welcoming Latin American nations to RCEP, a clear pick up from the rubble of TPP.
And it makes sense. China and even Russia are already vying to take away American influence from Latin America, a region once considered the U.S.' backyard according to experts.
China and Russia have made major investments in Latin America in recent years.

China's state banks have poured $120 billion in investments into Latin America since 2005, according to the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank in Washington. Since 2008, Russia has sent military arms to Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, among other nations, while cutting an oil exploration deal with Mexico, according to R. Evan Ellis, a professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College.
Even though China's growing ties to Latin America have been rocky at times, Trump's withdrawal from TPP may smooth that out.
The path ahead remains unclear but the rest of TPP nations are willing to strengthen trade ties without America.
"Concrete damage to U.S. interests has already been done," Eric Farnsworth, vice president at Council of the Americas, said referring to two Asia-focused trade agreements: the RCEP and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), another potential trade deal that would include nations in Latin America, southeast Asia and Australia.
"The U.S. retreat on TPP has breathed immediate life back into" those deals, says Farnsworth, who attended the APEC meet in Lima, Peru.

Skyscanner sold to China travel firm Ctrip in £1.75bn deal www.bbc.com

Skyscanner, the UK-based travel search business, has been bought by Ctrip, China's biggest online travel firm.
The deal values Skyscanner at about £1.4bn ($1.75bn).
The firm, which has its headquarters in Edinburgh, is available in more than 30 languages, with about 60 million monthly active users.
It was set up to let users compare prices from different travel sites when searching for flights, hotels, and rental cars.
Skyscanner said it would continue to run independently, with the same management team.
'Powerful technology'
Ctrip was founded in 1999 and is one of China's best-known travel businesses.
The deal would "strengthen long-term growth drivers for both companies," said James Jianzhang Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of Ctrip.
"Skyscanner will complement our positioning at a global scale and Ctrip will leverage our experience, technology and booking capabilities to Skyscanner's," he added.
Skyscanner was set up in 2003, and co-founder and chief executive Gareth Williams said the deal took his firm closer to its goal "of making travel search as simple as possible for travellers around the world".
"Ctrip and Skyscanner share a common view - that organizing travel has a long way to go to being solved. To do so requires powerful technology and a traveller-first approach," Mr Williams said.
The sale comes about a year after Skyscanner announced a fresh round of investment to help it expand. Its backers include investment firm Sequoia as well as the Malaysian government's strategic investment fund, Yahoo Japan and fund manager Artemis.

Hollywood Star Steven Seagal Eyes Investment in Russian IT Firm www.themoscowtimes.com

American actor Steven Seagal has offered to invest in Russian IT company Galaktika, the Vedomosti newspaper reported Wednesday.

BRICS bank plans $2.5bn in loans for emerging economies in 2017 www.rt.com

The BRICS' New Development Bank (NDB) is to allocate $2.5 billion in loans to member states next year. In 2016 the bank provided over $1.5 billion in financial assistance.
Headquartered in Shanghai, the BRICS bank was founded in 2014 by China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa and officially opened for business a year later. The goal of the bank, with an initial authorized capital of $100 billion, is to fund sustainable development infrastructure projects in emerging economies.

Samsung Group, pension fund offices raided in growing South Korea scandal www.reuters.com

South Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Samsung Group on Wednesday, a prosecution official said, after media reports of alleged links with a confidante of President Park Geun-hye who has been indicted in an influence-peddling scandal.

Prosecutors also raided South Korea's largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), an NPS spokeswoman said. The Yonhap news agency reported that investigators were probing NPS's decision to approve the $8 billion merger of Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries last year.

The raids signaled that prosecutors are expanding their investigation into allegations of influence-peddling in the corruption scandal that has rocked Park's presidency over the relationship between the government and big businesses.

NPS, the world's third-largest pension fund, has come under scrutiny by the media and civic groups over its approval as a major shareholder of the merger between two affiliates of Samsung Group, South Korea's largest family-run conglomerate.

Its backing was seen as crucial to the success of the merger and some South Korean media reports said its approval came under mysterious circumstances.

A Samsung Group spokeswoman confirmed prosecution officials had visited the group's headquarters but she could not provide further details. The NPS spokeswoman declined to give further details.

Prosecutors raided four locations - the NPS headquarters, NPS Investment Management office headquarters, Samsung Group offices and the office of a former NPS investment management official - said a prosecution official who was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified.

Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, are under investigation for allegedly improperly pressuring major conglomerates, including the Samsung Group, to raise funds for foundations that backed Park's policy of promoting the cultural and sports communities.

"DRAWBACKS TO BUSINESS"

Lee Young-ryeol, the senior prosecutor directing the probe, said on Sunday 53 conglomerates, "fearing direct and indirect drawbacks to business activities such as tax audits", were "coerced to contribute funds" to the foundations.

Park Ju-gun, head of research firm CEO Score, said there was little surprise that prosecutors were now seeking evidence in Samsung Group offices about how the merger may have been influenced by the conglomerate's contributions to the foundations.

The merger of the Samsung affiliates was approved by shareholders in July 2015 and prosecutors said the two foundations involved were set up in the following six months.

"This was expected. Due to the circumstances in this case, prosecutors cannot help but be suspicious about the genuine intent behind the donation, such as the timing," CEO Score's Park said.

President Park, through her lawyer, has pushed back on a request by prosecutors to question her about the case, potentially the first time a sitting South Korean president would be interrogated in a criminal case.

Park, who's five-year term ends in February 2018, has resisted calls to resign but has apologized twice, saying she only sought to benefit the economy and not herself, but acknowledges carelessness in her ties with Choi.

However, the growing calls for her to resign and Park's virtual withdrawal from public activities has left a worrying power vacuum in South Korea.

Choi and former presidential aide An Chong-bum were indicted on Sunday and charged with abuse of power, a major blow to the president's fight for political survival.

NPS has defended its decision in the face of criticism that the deal helped the Samsung Group family to cement control of the merged firms at the expense of other shareholders.

"The reason we approved the merger was due to taking a comprehensive view of the merger's synergy effect and potential for stock value increase," it said in a statement last week.

There were "special circumstances" where NPS-owned stakes in both firms were valued at a similar amount, it said. The size of NPS' combined stakes in both firms was about 2.4 trillion won ($2.05 billion), or 3 percent of NPS' domestic stock portfolio.

However, according to records of the NPS Investment Office committee's decision to back the merger in July 2015, acquired by an opposition lawmaker and seen by Reuters, the NPS had calculated a merger ratio of 1:0.46 of Cheil Industries shares to Samsung C&T shares, based on its valuations of the two firms.

This differed from Samsung Group's proposed ratio of 1:0.35, which the NPS committee noted was comparatively unfavorable to Samsung C&T shareholders.

(Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim, Yun Hwan Chae and Ju-min Park; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates and Paul Tait)

Twitter accidentally suspends its CEO's account www.cnn.com