What is Goldman accused of?
The firm helped raise $6.5bn (£5bn) for the Malaysian development fund, advising on three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013.

Prosecutors allege more than $2.7bn was later embezzled, used to bribe government officials and buy luxury items.

In November, Goldman's lead banker on the deals, Tim Leissner, pleaded guilty in US court to participating in the bribery and money laundering schemes.

Malaysia's attorney general then charged Goldman with helping to "dishonestly misappropriate" money from the fund.

He noted that the $600m Goldman earned for its work was "several times higher" than industry norms.

The firm remains under investigation in the other countries, including the US, and is also facing lawsuits from investors.

What does Goldman say?
Goldman says the Malaysia charges are "misdirected".

It says the firm's compliance officers were deceived about aspects of the deal, including the role of Malaysian financier Jho Low, whom the bank had previously rejected as a client.

But news reports have described the firm's former chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, meeting Mr Low and former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Mr Leissner, Goldman's South East Asia chairman until he left the firm in 2016, has said the decision to hide information from Goldman's compliance officers was "very much in line" with company culture.

What penalties could Goldman face?
Malaysian authorities are seeking fines of more than $3bn.

Goldman has warned investors of the risk of "significant" penalties and increased the money set aside for legal liabilities to $1.8bn.

As its legal costs surge, it has also said it will withhold millions due to some of its top executives, including Mr Blankfein, pending the outcome of the probes.

The festival is aimed at promoting the Mongolian culture and traditions, developing winter tourism and attracting both domestic and foreign tourists to the capital city.

The festival program consists of a traditional part, featuring traditional games, a folk concert and a parade of people in national costumes, and a modern segment featuring figure skating, hockey, skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing and dog sledding.

The Mongolian government has been making efforts to develop the tourism sector and promote the country's economic growth.

Oviraptorosaurs were a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America. Despite the abundance of nearly complete oviraptorosaur skeletons discovered in southern China and Mongolia, the diet and feeding strategies of these toothless dinosaurs are still unclear. In this study, Lee and colleagues described an incomplete skeleton of an oviraptorosaur found in the Nemegt Formation of the Gobi desert of Mongolia.

The new species, named Gobiraptor minutus, can be distinguished from other oviraptorosaurs in having unusual thickened jaws. This unique morphology suggests that Gobiraptor used a crushing feeding strategy, supporting previous hypotheses that oviraptorosaurs probably fed on hard food items such as eggs, seeds or hard-shell mollusks. Histological analyses of the femur revealed that the specimen likely belonged to a very young individual.

The finding of a new oviraptorosaur species in the Nemegt Formation, which consists mostly of river and lake deposits, confirms that these dinosaurs were extremely well adapted to wet environments. The authors propose that different dietary strategies may explain the wide taxonomic diversity and evolutionary success of this group in the region.

The authors add: “A new oviraptorid dinosaur Gobiraptor minutus gen. et sp. nov. from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation is described here based on a single holotype specimen that includes incomplete cranial and postcranial elements. The unique morphology of the mandible and the accordingly inferred specialized diet of Gobiraptor also indicate that different dietary strategies may be one of important factors linked with the remarkably high diversity of oviraptorids in the Nemegt Basin.”

Reference:
Sungjin Lee, Yuong-Nam Lee, Anusuya Chinsamy, Junchang Lü, Rinchen Barsbold, Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar. A new baby oviraptorid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. PLOS ONE, 2019; 14 (2): e0210867 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210867

During the meeting, Mr. Oyun-Erdene assigned the DBM's authorities to urgently consolidate information on repayments of loans issued by the DBM and the percentage of outstanding loans and report it next Tuesday. Moreover, he said that the Cabinet Secretariat of Government resolves to set up a working group for inspecting repayments of bonds of the DBM.

“Kamoa-Kakula will become the world’s second-largest copper mine with peak annual production of more than 700,000 tons of copper metal,” Ivanhoe founder Friedland said Wednesday at a mining conference in Cape Town.

Friedland announced the findings of an independent pre-feasibility study after Ivanhoe invested $800 million in exploration and development. The capacity of the project’s first phase, producing 6 million tons of ore a year, could later be tripled, the company said. Initial mine grades will average 6.8 percent copper, with production expected to start in 2021.

Ivanhoe’s Congo success follows deals with ties to the government
“Grade is king,” said Friedland, who is co-chairman of Ivanhoe. “Nothing even comes close to Kamoa-Kakula.”

The first mine will be able to finance two further mines and a smelter, with investment of US$1.1 billion, he said. “That is mind-boggling and we’ve never seen that before,” said Friedland.

Ivanhoe is developing Kamoa-Kakula with its Chinese joint-venture partner Zijing Mining Group Co. and the Congolese government.

EXCITING PROSPECT
The results from drill hole DD1450 at Kamoa North, released by Ivanhoe last week, were “nothing short of extraordinary,” Paul Gait, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in a note. They confirm that “the broader Kamoa-Kakula region is by far the most important and exciting mining project in the world today,” he said.

Ivanhoe shares have climbed 21 per cent in Toronto since it reported the results of the drill hole at Kamoa North on Jan. 30. That gave the company a market value of $2.94 billion (US$2.2 billion).

Nothing even comes close to Kamoa-Kakula

Over more than two decades, mining investor Friedland and his small team have made some of the biggest mineral discoveries in the world.

In addition to unearthing Africa’s largest copper deposit, other projects include building the Oyu Tolgoi copper-and-gold mine in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and discovering the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Canada, which he sold in 1996 for more than US$3 billion. Ivanhoe is also developing a platinum mine in South Africa.

Bloomberg.com

However, international railway and flights will be conducted on regular schedules on these days

The new rule was put in place to prevent the deadly virus from spreading to China from Mongolia, and protect the domestic livestock sector, China's General Administration of the Customs said in a statement published on its website.

China has not approved the import of the Mongolian pork. However, meat is often smuggled into China.

Indie synth pop soloist SISSTER, born in Chula Vista CA outside of San Diego, is a composer, songwriter, producer and singer. From an early age SISSTER showed musical and artistic talent, and as a teen, she picked up the guitar and focused on singing and composing original songs. She has performed in acoustic pop, rock bands, blues and rockabilly and synth pop concerts. She has shared stages with artists such as Enjambre, Siddharta, Julieta Venegas, La Santa Cecilia, Flor Amargo, among others in both the US and Mexico. Her debut EP features songs produced by herself, John Avila (bassist Oingo Boingo) and Anton Soder. Her debut album is set for release February 6 in Los Angeles.