Central Asian News Update – 2000 years later, Mongolian barbarians finally take down Great Wall (Shanghaiist)

2000 years later, Mongolian barbarians finally take down Great Wall (Shanghaiist)
And no, unfortunately it’s not the Great Firewall. Apparently around 300 feet of the actual great wall,, located in a remote part of Inner Mongolia, has been irreparably damaged by Mongolian gold prospectors . The section, an historical artifact built during the Qin Dynasty between 220BC and 206BC, is more like reinforced earth than the formidable stone structure snaking through Beijing, but …

Uzbekistan denies closing border with Kazakhstan (Space War)
Tashkent (AFP) Nov 25, 2009 – Uzbekistan on Wednesday denied reports it had unilaterally sealed its border with Kazakhstan, saying it had only imposed a heightened safety regime to combat the spread of seasonal flu.

Kyrgyz Parliamentary Changes Undermine Opposition (Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
Battered Social Democrats lose influence in committee shakeup. The opposition Social Democratic Party has been sidelined in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament by a shake-up which deprived it of the two committee chairmanships it believes it is entitled to.

High Targets, Low Outputs, Say Uzbek Farmers (Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
Systematic over-reporting casts doubt over the accuracy of optimistic cotton harvest figures produced by the Uzbek authorities.

Runaway Inner Mongolia school principal arrested for fraud (People’s Daily)
A former principal of a traditional medical school in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region who had fled to Mongolia has been arrested on fraud charges, local police said Tuesday. Ethnic Mongolian Batuzhangga, also known as Batzangaa, 35, the former head of the Ordos Mongolian-Tibetan Medical School, was formally arrested in Ordos City on Nov. 12 after he was repatriated from Mongolia …

Security experts to discuss anti-terrorism efforts in Kyrgyzstan (Russian Information Agency Novosti)
Experts from regional and international security organizations will take part on Tuesday in an international conference on efforts to fight terrorism and extremism due to open in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

Korea Gas to Study Coal-Bed Methane Development With Mongolia (Bloomberg)
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Korea Gas Corp. will study the development of coal-bed methane gas resources in Mongolia, the South Korean government said.

Onjuul Drilling Update (ITNews)
VANCOUVER, November 24 /PRNewswire/ — Robert L. Card, President of Gulfside Minerals Ltd. (TSX.V – GMG) (“Gulfside” or the “Company”), is pleased to report from the Mongolian camp site that the first hole of Gulfside’s drilling program on the Onjuul coal project in Mongolia has been completed, and yielded preliminary information for comparison.

Uzbekistan denies closing Kazakh border but says flu quarantinerestrictions imposed (Interfax)
TASHKENT. Nov 25 (Interfax) – Uzbekistan has imposed temporary quarantine restrictions on the border with Kazakhstan over the spread of seasonal flu, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said.

Uzbek Opposition Leader Released into Changed World (Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
With little popular support, Sanjak Umarov hoped the West would back his calls for political change, but this proved illusory.

Lukashenko “confident” Kyrgyzstan will join Customs Union (Interfax)
MINSK. Nov 27 (Interfax) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he expects Kyrgyzstan to become a member of the Customs Union set up within the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) in the near future. “I am confident that Kyrgyzstan will join us.

Tashkent Facelift Tears Up the Past (Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
Historians in Uzbekistan are looking on aghast as historical monuments and historical buildings are torn down in the capital Tashkent in the name of modernity.

Uzbekistan 2020 Celebrated in Paris the Astronomer Mirzo Ulughbeg in presence of Buzz Aldrin (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, permanent representative of the Republic of Uzbekistan to UNESCO and founder of Fund Uzbekistan 2020, opened today, the International Astronomy Conference held in Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris – CNRS, “A tribute to the Uzbek astronomer Mirzo Ulughbeg”.

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