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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of July 12, 1996
MONGOLIA'S
Democrats won 48 of 76 seats in its second parliamentary election, ending 75 years of rule by the Communists. A peaceful revolution in 1990 forced the government to legalize the opposition.Week of June 21, 1996
FIRES DOUSED
The worst forest and grass fires to hit Mongolia this century are coming under control. Rains in some regions finally managed to douse them, but renewed winds could revive the blazes. They destroyed 10.7 million hectares of land and killed 26 people. One fire, 100 km north of Ulan Bator, is still burning, covering the city in a pall of smoke.Week of June 7, 1996
COUNTRY IN FLAMES
A dense pall of smoke settled over Ulan Bator after forest fires 100 km to the north began moving toward the city. Some 345 forest and grassland fires have broken out in Mongolia in the last five weeks, with scores of them remaining out of control. About 80,000 sq km have been lost to the blazes, with no help from a change in the weather in sight.Week of March 22, 1996
Ulan Bator: March 21, 1990
After tens of thousands of people took part in a series of anti-government rallies demanding political reform, the communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party relinquished its constitutionally mandated dominant role in the government on this day. The move paved the way for the first free elections in Mongolia since 1921. The four major opposition parties were out-maneuvered by the MPRP, though. The Hural legislature, with a 93% MPRP majority, refused to dissolve itself. The new electoral law merely promised to hold balloting "within the framework of socialism" and made no provisions for non-socialist candidates. President Gombojavyn Ochirbat held the elections in July. Since non-socialist parties were barred, the MPRP maintained its dominance.Week of January 5, 1996
PRE-HISTORIC TLC
An 80-million-year-old fossil of a bird sitting on a nest of up to 22 eggs found in Ukhaa Tolgod in Mongolia indicates for the first time that pre-historic animals cared for their young. Called an Oviraptor, the meat-eating biped resembled a small ostrich with a tail. The discovery is also the first clear link of dinosaurs to the evolution of modern birds.News from Mongolia in 1995
