News stories by Michelle Tolson, page 2

TOV PROVINCE, Mongolia, Oct 10 (IPS) - Mongolia, 90 percent dependent on fuel imports from Russia and vulnerable to price hikes, is seeking to develop its oil shale deposits of at least 800 billion tons.

KOH KONG PROVINCE, Cambodia, Oct 05 (IPS) - The quiet Cambodian village of Chouk, set in the beautiful forests of the Cardamom Mountains near the Thai border, seems peaceful. But things are difficult in this largely empty village of simple wooden houses, populated mainly by children and the elderly.

PHNOM PENH, Jul 27 (IPS) - As Cambodia readies for general elections this coming Sunday , the youth of Cambodia, who make up 36 percent of the country have signaled they are eager for ‘change.'

SELENGE PROVINCE, Mongolia, Jul 19 (IPS) - Tsetseghkorol, a Mongolian herder, stares out nostalgically at the Orkhon River, the longest in the country.

PHNOM PENH, Jun 20 (IPS) - The violence that defined Cambodia during the years of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) may have been relegated to the realm of history, but the actions of the ruling party ahead of the Jul. 28 election smack of the dirty politics that once ruled this Southeast Asian country.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, May 06 (IPS) - Genghis Khan knew about hard times. The founder of the Mongol Empire, which spanned most of Eurasia until roughly 1227, Genghis and his clan had to survive on their wits and natural surroundings, often resorting to meals of "green leafy things" when food was scarce.

KAMPOT, Cambodia, Mar 15 (IPS) - Dotted with rice fields flanked by palm trees, Cambodia's southeastern province of Kampong Speu is nothing short of picturesque.

But behind the idyllic exterior is an on-going struggle to turn this region's natural beauty into a global attraction and improve the lot of poor local farmers, as the neighbouring beachside Kampot province did just three years ago.

PHNOM PENH, Feb 22 (IPS) - Times are tough in this Southeast Asian nation of 14 million people, where over 68 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Formal employment is hard to come by and many workers find themselves drifting in the murky waters of the "informal" market, where wages are unregulated and labour laws are seldom honoured.

PHNOM PENH, Feb 14 (IPS) - Nean Narin, a humble man and father of three children, says his family is going hungry.