UNICEF donates measles vaccines to Mongolia www.news.mn

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Mongolia has donated 577,000 doses of measles vaccine, syringes and safety kits worth USD 500,000 the Health Ministry reported on Tuesday.

Engineers India Ltd secures order from Mongolia www.equitybulls.com

Engineers India Limited (EIL) has signed a contract with 'M/s Mongol Refinery, State Owned LLC' for providing its PMC Services for Construction of a Crude Oil Refinery Plant in Mongolia. The Contract was signed in the presence of Mr. D. Sumyaabazar, Hon'ble Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry of Mongolia.

Mongolia attaches great importance to Mongolia-China expo: agriculture minister www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia attaches great importance to the biennial Mongolia-China expo, which is a great platform to showcase Mongolian products to Chinese consumers, Agriculture Minister Chultem Ulaan said Tuesday.

Working group on ‘World Expo 2020’ holds meeting www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Government made a decision regarding Mongolia’s participation in the ‘World Expo 2020’ to be held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. A working group was established with Foreign Minister D.Tsogtbaatar as Commissioner-General and T.Duuren, CEO of Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as Deputy Commissioner.

Inner Mongolia’s Trade with Belt & Road Countries up 13.6% www.beltandroad.news

North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region saw a year-on-year foreign trade growth of 13.6 percent to 23.8 billion yuan (about 3.48 billion U.S. dollars) with countries along the Belt and Road in first four months of 2019.

Indian leading companies introducing their products and services www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ India-Mongolia Oil and Gas Exhibition yesterday opened at Buyant Ukhaa Sport Palace. Present at the opening ceremony were Cabinet Secretariat of the Government L.Oyun-Erdene, Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar, MP L.Bold and representatives of some Embassies in Mongolia.

WhatsApp discovers 'targeted' surveillance attack www.bbc.com

Hackers were able to remotely install surveillance software on phones and other devices using a major vulnerability in messaging app WhatsApp, it has been confirmed.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, said the attack targeted a "select number" of users, and was orchestrated by "an advanced cyber actor".

A fix was rolled out on Friday.

The attack was developed by Israeli security firm NSO Group, according to a report in the Financial Times.

On Monday WhatsApp urged all of its 1.5bn users to update their apps as an added precaution.

The attack was first discovered earlier this month.

How was the security flaw used?
It involved attackers using WhatsApp's voice calling function to ring a target's device. Even if the call was not picked up, the surveillance software would be installed, and, the FT reported, the call would often disappear from the device's call log.

WhatsApp told the BBC its security team was the first to identify the flaw, and shared that information with human rights groups, selected security vendors and the US Department of Justice earlier this month.

"The attack has all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems,” the company said on Monday in a briefing document note for journalists.

The firm also published an advisory to security specialists, in which it described the flaw as: "A buffer overflow vulnerability in WhatsApp VOIP stack allowed remote code execution via specially crafted series of SRTCP packets sent to a target phone number.”

Who is behind the software?
The NSO Group is an Israeli company that has been referred to in the past as a "cyber arms dealer".

Its flagship software, Pegasus, has the ability to collect intimate data from a target device, including capturing data through the microphone and camera, and gathering location data.

In a statement, the group said: "NSO's technology is licensed to authorised government agencies for the sole purpose of fighting crime and terror.

"The company does not operate the system, and after a rigorous licensing and vetting process, intelligence and law enforcement determine how to use the technology to support their public safety missions. We investigate any credible allegations of misuse and if necessary, we take action, including shutting down the system.

"Under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating or identifying of targets of its technology, which is solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. NSO would not or could not use its technology in its own right to target any person or organisation."

Who has been targeted?
WhatsApp said it was too early to know how many users had been affected by the vulnerability, although it added that suspected attacks were highly-targeted.

According to Facebook's latest figures, WhatsApp has around 1.5bn users worldwide.

Amnesty International, which said it had been targeted by tools created by the NSO Group in the past, said this attack was one human rights groups had long feared was possible.

"They're able to infect your phone without you actually taking an action," said Danna Ingleton, deputy programme director for Amnesty Tech. She said there was mounting evidence that the tools were being used by regimes to keep prominent activists and journalists under surveillance.

"There needs to be some accountability for this, it can't just continue to be a wild west, secretive industry."

On Tuesday, a Tel Aviv court will hear a petition led by Amnesty International that calls for Israel's Ministry of Defence to revoke the NSO Group's licence to export its products.

Strong gold results point to further potential in Mongolia www.mining-journal.com

Standouts included 112m at 5.9g/t gold from 13m at Bayan Khundii's Midfield zone; 3m at 40g/t at depth in Striker West about 210m west of the proposed pit boundary; and 1m at 51.9g/t at depth beyond the resource perimeter in southern Bayan Khundii.

Mongolia: UN expert warns against setbacks in rule of law and shrinking space for civil society www.ohchr.org

ULAANBAATAR (13 May 2019) – Mongolia must ensure that reforms to its legal framework promote rather than restrict the work of human rights defenders, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, said today.

While Mongolia has often – and rightly so – been depicted as champion of democracy in East and Central Asia, recent legislative amendments are of concerns and are sending mixed messages, Forst said in a statement at the end of a two-week visit to the country.

“Having carefully considered the information received from the Government, civil society and other stakeholders, I conclude that, Mongolia is a relatively safe country for human rights defenders,” the UN expert said. “Although some cases of attacks and abuses against human rights defenders were reported, I did not observe a pattern of systematic attacks against them.

“However, this relatively safe environment does not translate into a conducive environment for human rights defenders. Obstacles such as stigma, the lack of understanding of who human rights defenders are, and dangerous amendments to several laws instil fear and hinder their work.”

The Special Rapporteur expressed concerns regarding amendments allowing political interference into the judiciary and public prosecution and reforms preventing administrative courts from overseeing Cabinet’s decisions. “These reforms may deter judges and prosecutors from taking action against corruption, and ultimately prevent people from speaking out against discrimination, or from calling for justice.”

“During the visit I heard about cases of intimidation, discrimination, harassment and stigmatization of human rights defenders, including LGBTI rights defenders and children rights defenders,” Forst said. “Environmentalists and investigative journalists who are working on corruption or environmental issues have also faced threats and pressure. Some have died in circumstances that are still to be properly investigated.

“Defenders also mentioned more diffuse strategies of social or economic threats against their relatives - like difficulties to access jobs, scholarships and projects - or rumors that these kinds of reprisals might happen whenever they get more vocal on sensitive issues such as corruption or environmental protection. Given that the community in Mongolia is small and interconnected, these pressures create an environment of suspicion and fear which has a serious adverse deterrent impact on human rights defenders who would like to expose wrongdoings.”

The Special Rapporteur concluded that the adoption of a law on human rights defenders would be critical to promote and recognise the vital and legitimate work of human rights defenders, and to penalize and end impunity for attacks against defenders in a concrete way. He urged Mongolia to become the first country in the region to enact such a law.

Forst met the President of Mongolia, State officials and other authorities, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives from the private sector. He also heard the testimonies of more than 100 defenders in Ulaanbaatar, Airag and Sainshand/Zuumbayan.

The Special Rapporteur will present his final report and recommendations on the official visit to Mongolia to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2020.

ENDS

Background: The UN has a very extensive and broad definition of human rights defenders, which has been enshrined in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by consensus 20 years ago, in December 1998. Human rights defenders are those who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights, nationally and internationally, in a peaceful manner.

Mr. Michel Forst (France) was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in 2014. Mr. Forst has extensive experience of human rights issues and specifically of the situation of human rights defenders. He was the Director General of Amnesty International (France) and Secretary General of the first World Summit on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. He is a former UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Haiti.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

New economic forum to seek effective ways to solve economic problems www.zgm.mn

The main objects of the New Economic Forum are to identify the challenges of economic development and to seek realistic opportunities in a scale of the national producers of excellence, international organizations, and the private sector developers.