India is one of the largest buyers of military equipment from Russia. Since the 1960s, the countries have signed military contracts worth $65 billion.

Now, trade deals between the countries are estimated at $12 billion. India is ready to purchase Russia's S400 air-defense system in a $5-billion deal. However, the sale is being heavily opposed by the United States, which is also trying to stop a similar deal between Russia and Turkey.

Defense deals between Russia and India are currently denominated in US dollars. The countries have discussed various ways of bypassing US sanctions, including payment in third currencies like the Singapore dollar. Talks are being conducted between Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank on the Indian side and Russia’s top creditor Sberbank.

An option that is now ruled out is paying in US dollars to non-sanctioned Russian entities. “This option was decided against as it would have opened up a lot of legal and audit issues, especially as defense deals are looked at very closely. No one wanted to take a chance,” a top official involved in the talks told the Indian daily.

Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar made the remarks when meeting with Finnish Ambassador to Mongolia Jarno Syrjala.

Tsogtbaatar also expressed his willingness to enhance economic and trade cooperation with Finland, and hold joint business meetings.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on international and regional issues of mutual concern.

"I will put all efforts in expanding bilateral trade and economic cooperation during my tenure," said Syrjala.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The two countries are preparing for the regular meeting of the Mongolia-Finland Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation in September in Finland's capital of Helsinki.

In accordance with the currently effective Law on Currency Settlements and the Law on Central Bank (Bank of Mongolia), the Bank of Mongolia regulates currency circulation, and holds and manages the foreign exchange reserves. However, according to the bill initiator, the rationale for drafting the amendment was the fact that the Bank of Mongolia has no authority to negotiate with a legal entity earning a large amount of foreign currency, except for buying currencies.

Furthermore, the amendment to the Law on Currency Settlements was drafted with the purpose of creating legal arrangements for the Bank of Mongolia to ensure the stability of national currency, hold and manage the foreign exchange reserves, and carry out the cash transactions and settlements of a legal entity with currency earnings from the exploitation of a mineral deposit of strategic importance, in frames of its duty to increase the foreign exchange reserves of Mongolia.

In compliance with the draft amendment, the Bank of Mongolia will be allowed to register the transaction account of a legal entity, which established an investment contract with the Government, exploits a mineral deposit of strategic importance, and with foreign exchange earnings in the amount set by the Bank of Mongolia.

Citizens were allowed to submit suggestions for the draft amendment to the Law on Currency Settlements between May 11th and June 18th, 2018, through the official website of the President’s Office.

Source: president.mn

The notice didn't say how the theft of 35 billion won ($32 million) worth of cryptocurrencies occurred or which ones were taken.

The exchange said it will compensate the loss from its own funds and that all customers' assets have been "securely saved" in the company's "cold wallet."

Bithumb said it will announce further information in due course.

It's the latest in a series of thefts reported by cryptocurrency exchanges in recent months.

Just last week, another cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Coinrail, said hackers stole about 30% of its virtual currencies.

South Korea emerged last year as one of the world's major markets for trading in bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

The company received strong support from existing shareholders and demand from new investors, driven by the recent exploration success at its flagship Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia.

Xanadu chief executive officer Dr Andrew Stewart said: “The placement enables us to further strengthen our share register and balance sheet, allowing Xanadu to complete the resource drilling program at Kharmagtai unencumbered, and provide an updated mineral resource estimate before the end of 2018.

“Xanadu will also progress testing of high-priority targets to make new discoveries and grow existing deposits.

“Xanadu believes being fully funded to complete this exciting phase places the company in a very advantageous position to maximize the benefits from the high demand and high prices for copper and gold.”

The company’s recent high-grade subsections from drilling at the Zaraa copper-gold porphyry discovery at Kharmagtai includes 30.4 metres at 0.95% copper and 0.80 g/t gold.

These new results follow a discovery hole which intersected 928.4 metres at 0.30% copper and 0.27 g/t gold from 458 metres.

The Zaraa discovery comes at a time when global consumers are searching for projects to fulfil future demand for copper, which is set to increase with the proliferation of electric vehicles.

Xanadu will now complete resource drilling at the Kharmagtai Open Pit and proceed with a scoping study, continuing exploration at the Kharmagtai and Red Mountain projects in Mongolia.

The project, which is of great importance to the Mongolian economy, is being financed by a loan from India, which was announced during a visit to the country in 2015 by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The refinery will have a processing capacity of 1.5 million tons of oil per year and will annually produce 560,000 tons of gasoline and 670,000 tons of diesel fuel, as well as 107,000 tons of liquefied gas. The refinery, to be ready for operation by 2022, is expected to boost Mongolia's gross domestic product by 10 percent.

Because Mongolia currently has no refining capacity, it has to export its crude oil to China while importing practically all of its petroleum products from Russia.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods in retaliation for what the US president called the country's "predatory" trade practices. Beijing also ratcheted up the rhetoric accusing the US of "extreme pressure and blackmailing".

Copper – used as barometer for economic prospects thanks to its widespread use in industry, transportation, power networks and construction – fell to $3.036 a pound or $6,700 a tonne, down over 8% or $600 since touching four-year highs just a fortnight ago.

Nickel, which has been immune to weakness in the sector also succumbed on Tuesday and is now trading 6% below multi-year highs hit earlier in June at $14,820 a tonne. Among industrial metals only nickel remains in positive territory for the year. Zinc down 8% year to date is the worst performer as the price declines to just above $3,000 a tonne.

Aluminum prices have given up all the gains from a sharp rise following the US imposition of sanctions on Russia and tariffs on imports from China, Europe, Canada and others.

China consumers more industrial metals and minerals than the rest of the world combined and the country imports more than two-thirds of the world's seaborne iron ore.

The import price of the steelmaking raw material declined 3% on Tuesday to $66.45 a tonne according to Metal Bulletin data. Iron ore has lost 9% of its value so far in 2018. The benchmark Australian export price of premium steelmaking coal at just below $200 a tonne is up year to date, but down sharply from levels above $250 hit in May.

Weakness on metal markets spilled over to the sector's big names with another day of across the board losses on Tuesday. The top diversified and industrial mining companies have seen a combined $57 billion wiped from their market value over the past two weeks (see chart). On a percentage basis China Molybdenum, Anglo American and Vale have fared worst.

KPMG audits had shown an "unacceptable deterioration" and will be subject to closer supervision, the Financial Reporting Council said.

The FRC added all the Big Four - which also include PwC, EY and Deloitte - needed to reverse a decline.

KPMG said it was "disappointed" and was taking steps to improve audit quality.

Every year the watchdog reviews the audits of Britain's biggest companies to ensure they meet certain standards. The FRC noted problems at all the firms, but KPMG was singled out for the poor quality of its work.

"There has been an unacceptable deterioration in quality at one firm, KPMG," the FRC said in a statement. "50% of KPMG's FTSE 350 audits required more than just limited improvements, compared to 35% in the previous year."

Stephen Haddrill, head of the FRC, said: "At a time when public trust in business and in audit is in the spotlight, the Big Four must improve the quality of their audits and do so quickly.

"They must address urgently several factors that are vital to audit, including the level of challenge and scepticism by auditors, in particular in their bank audits. We also expect improvements in group audits and in the audit of pension balances."

He said firms "must strenuously renew" their efforts to improve audit quality to meet the legitimate expectation of investors and other stakeholders.

'Taking action'
The increased scrutiny of KPMG will involve the FRC inspecting 25% more audits done by the firm in the 2018-19 financial year, the first time the FRC has taken such action.

Michelle Hinchcliffe, head of audit at KPMG, said: "We are disappointed that our overall audit quality score for our 2016/17 audits has decreased by 4% and that the steps taken in previous years have not resulted in the necessary improvements to audit quality. We are taking action to resolve this."

KPMG came in for criticism over its audit of collapsed construction firm Carillion earlier this year, and the FRC has opened an investigation into the group under the Audit Enforcement Procedure.

The auditor was also recently fined £3.2m by the watchdog over its audit of insurance firm Quindell. Last year, the FRC opened an investigation into KPMG's audit of the accounts of aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce.

Auditors review the accounts of firms to see if the figures are a true and fair reflection of companies' financial health.

But the accounting industry has faced a lot of criticism in the last few years over whether their verdicts on companies' accounts can be trusted.

Singh will depart for Ulaanbaatar on June 21 after attending the International Yoga Day celebrations in Lucknow the same day, a Home Ministry spokesperson said today.

He will participate in ground breaking ceremony of an oil refinery at Ulaanbaatar on June 22, the spokesperson said, adding that the home minister will also attend a reception hosted by the Mongolian prime minister on the same day.

Singh will call upon Mongolian president the next day, the spokesperson said.

The home minister will also visit a Buddhist monastery and hold a meeting with his counterpart and Mongolia's Minister for Justice and Interior Affairs on June 23.

He will also visit the headquarters of Mongolia's Border Protection Force there before returning to the national capital on June 24.

Singh was to visit Mongolia late last year. However, the visit was postponed after he suffered a hairline fracture.

The home minister's visit is likely to further intensify the bilateral relations in various key areas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2015 visited Mongolia, first ever visit by an Indian prime minister.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also in Mongolia in April this year where she discussed economic cooperation in infrastructure development, energy, services and information technology with her Mongolian counterpart.

The two countries also agreed to explore the possibility of launching direct air connectivity between New Delhi and Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.

Swaraj is the first Indian foreign minister to visit the resource-rich country in 42 years.

Diplomatic relations between India and Mongolia were established on December 24, 1955. India was the first country outside the then Socialist Bloc to establish diplomatic ties with Mongolia.

India had supported Mongolia in getting the United Nations and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) berths. Both the countries also share common concern on terrorism.

In particular, the Ministry of Finance and the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) Secretariat will jointly hold the Program Consultative Commission Meeting on June 21-22 in Ulaanbaatar and during the meeting participants will discuss about the National Investment Program, government policy and funding opportunities for priority sectors such as agriculture and mining. Over 100 representatives from Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade and Economy of the GTI member countries: Mongolia, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation, executives of EXIM Bank, local authorities engaged in the program and research institutes will participate in the meeting.

Aside from representatives from the GTI member countries, discussions on the programs will involve embassies in Mongolia, international financial organizations and development partners. At the consultation meeting, issue of strengthening economic cooperation in Northeast Asia, priorities and future action plans will be discussed.

The Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) is an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism that was founded in 1995 with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. It aims at strengthening economic cooperation, and attaining greater growth and sustainable development in Northeastern Asia.
M.Anudari