Bill on repayment of pension-backed loan to be submitted www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. The Cabinet today decided to submit a Bill on a full and one-time repayment of all pension loans to the Parliament for a very urgent consideration.

MIAT Mongolian Airlines reduces its fares www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Mongolian national flag carrier MIAT Mongolian airlines is operating flights in one domestic and 12 international destinations with Boeing 767 and Boeing 737 jet airliners as of today. Mongolian air transport demand is heavily affected by the seasonality with high air traffic in summer and 2-3 times decrease during winter season.

Liquor license of 14 factories revoked on breach of regulations www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Based on the conclusion by the Specialized Inspection Department and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, the Cabinet today agreed to revoke liquor licenses of 14 alcoholic beverage factories.

Mongolia’s new ecological police force www.news.mn

Earlier yesterday (6 January) the Mongolian Cabinet decided to establish an ecological police force to tackle environment issues. Over 100 ecological police officers will work in over 10 provinces. The Cabinet approved funding for 170 ecological police officers in 2020 State Budget. The ecological police will work to protect the environment and to prevent poaching and harm caused for the environment.

2019 profits of some state owned companies soared to record high www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. In 2019, profits of some large state-owned enterprises reached an all-time high as follows:

Bank of Mongolia purchases 15.2 tons of gold in 2019 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. In 2019, the gold purchase of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) reached 15.2 tons, which means the amount of gold purchase decreased by 6.7 tons or 30 percent compared with the previous year.

How to facilitate the transition out of coal www.mining.com

Consulting firm GlobalData and the Stockholm Environment Institute joined forces to provide a series of recommendations on how to address the social challenges related to the closure of coal mines.

Australia bushfires might burn for months, Morrison warns www.bbc.com

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that the devastating bushfires raging in the country might go on for months.

At least 24 people have died since the fires began in September. Air quality in the capital Canberra was this weekend rated the worst in the world.

Mr Morrison announced the creation of a recovery agency to help those who have lost homes and businesses in the fires.

He has faced fierce criticism over the speed of his response to the crisis.

The weekend saw some of the worst days of the crisis so far, with hundreds more properties destroyed. Rural towns and major cities saw red skies, falling ash and smoke that clogged the air.

Conditions eased in Victoria and New South Wales on Sunday after temperatures and wind speeds dropped and some light rain fell. But authorities warned that the danger was far from over.

"We're in uncharted territory," said the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian. "We can't pretend that this is something that we have experienced before. It's not."

John Steele, 73, who was evacuated with his wife from their rural property north of Eden late on Saturday, told the AFP news agency: "Visibility was down to about 50 metres, if that, and we had lots of debris falling out of the sky and a lot of white ash.

"The sky is still red. We're not out of the woods yet."

Prime Minister Morrison on Saturday announced the largest military call-up in the country's recent history, mobilising up to 3,000 reservists to assist exhausted volunteer firefighters.

Mr Morrison, who cancelled a planned visit to India because of the crisis, faced further condemnation on Sunday, after the head of the NSW Rural Fire Service revealed the service had only learned of the plan to call up reserve troops through the media.

In an indication of the long road ahead, Mr Morrison warned that the fires might burn for many months, and said that the newly-created recovery agency would run for at least two years. The body will help bushfire-hit communities recover, media reports said, through work ranging from rebuilding infrastructure to providing mental health support.

Queen Elizabeth on Sunday said she was "deeply saddened" by the fires, and thanked the emergency services "who put their own lives in danger" to help communities.

Fundraiser nets A$20m in 48 hours
A fundraiser for fire services launched by the Australian comedian Celeste Barber on Friday raised more than A$20 million (£10.6m; $13m) in just 48 hours

"Please help any way you can. This is terrifying," Ms Celeste wrote in a Facebook appeal.

She called the rush of donations "incredible", and said the proceeds would go to NSW Rural Fire Service - a government-funded agency staffed by volunteers - and the Brigades Donations Fund, which channels charitable donations directly to fire brigades.

Members of the comedian's family were evacuated from the town of Eden in New South Wales, where officials told residents to leave immediately and head north if they did not have a bushfire response plan.
A number of celebrities have also donated money to support the firefighting effort in recent days - among them the US singer Pink and Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, who pledged $500,000. "Our family's support, thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the fires all over Australia," she wrote on Instagram.

News of the donations was praised by Australians on social media, but some lamented that private citizens were raising funds they said should have been put in place by the government.

Nearly 200 fires are still burning across the country, with every state and territory affected. More than 1,200 homes have been destroyed and millions of hectares of land scorched.

Tens of thousands of homes in NSW were left without power and thousands of people have been evacuated from coastal towns over the past week. The town of Cooma suffered a further blow on Saturday night when a large tower carrying millions of litres of water exploded, flooding homes and sweeping away vehicles.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro told ABC News the incident was a "massive disaster".

Japanese authorities vow to tighten immigration rules after Carlos Ghosn's escape www.cnn.com

(CNN Business)Japanese officials on Sunday criticized Carlos Ghosn's escape from the country as "unjust" and vowed to tighten immigration rules in their first public remarks since the former auto executive fled for Lebanon a week ago.

Ghosn left Japan "illegally by unjust methods," said Justice Minister Masako Mori, the country's top judicial official. She said that authorities have no official record of Ghosn's departure from Japan, and that prosecutors are investigating the case.
Mori also said she has ordered the country's immigration department to "further tighten" rules for leaving the country "so that the same situation won't be repeated."
Mori's statement — along with a similar one published Sunday by a Tokyo prosecutor — marked the first time Japanese authorities addressed Ghosn's stunning escape last week. Government offices in the country had been closed all week for the New Year holiday.

Ghosn — the former chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, and former chairman and CEO of their alliance partner, Renault — had been awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial wrongdoing. As a condition of his release on bail, Ghosn was required to stay in Japan. But the case was upended after Ghosn revealed that he had fled Japan for Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system.
Mori defended the country's justice system on Sunday, adding that it assured "fundamental human rights" and set out to "find out the truth of the case."
She also said that Ghosn's bail has been "canceled," and confirmed that the Japanese government asked Interpol, the international police agency, to issue a "red notice" for Ghosn. Lebanon said last week that it had received that notice, confirming that Ghosn is wanted by police.
Takahiro Saito, Tokyo's deputy chief prosecutor, said in his own statement Sunday that Ghosn "deliberately ignored" Japan's justice proceedings by fleeing the country, even though his bail barred him from overseas travel. Saito added that Ghosn's escape "could be a criminal act."
"Ghosn broke his own promise to attend the court and run away from Japan," Saito said. Both he and Mori called the event "regrettable."
Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 and has since faced a litany of charges, including allegations that he understated his income for years and funneled $5 million of Nissan's money to a car dealership he controlled. He was ousted from his posts at Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in November 2018, and later resigned from Renault. He has denied the charges against him.
Ghosn's Japanese lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, said Saturday that the defense team would resign after contacting Ghosn this week. Hironaka had earlier told reporters that Ghosn's escape was a "complete surprise."
Authorities, meanwhile, have been scrambling to figure out how Ghosn pulled off the escape. Prosecutors in Tokyo raided the home where he had been staying last Thursday. Ghosn has denied reports that his family were involved in helping him flee.
Last week, a Turkish company that charters private jets confirmed that two of its planes were used "illegally" to transport Ghosn without the knowledge of company management. That company, MNG, said it has filed a criminal complaint.
-- Yoko Wakatsuki reported from Tokyo, Akanksha Sharma reported from Hong Kong and Amy Woodyatt wrote from London.

Sales revenue of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi reaches USD 1 billion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Sales revenue of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC reached USD 1 billion or MNT 2.7 trillion in 2019. The company exported 14.3 million tons of coal last year and earned net profit of MNT 1 trillion.