Mongolia

BEIJING - As the U.S. men's indoor volleyball team joyously and raucously celebrated its unlikeliest of gold medals, its coach, Hugh McCutcheon, found a private corridor to collect his thoughts. Yesterday afternoon, this bedrock of serenity and strength during unspeakable family tragedy finally experienced a moment that overwhelmed him. McCutcheon's steady demeanor after his father-in-law was killed here on the first Saturday of the Games, on the eve of Team USA's opening match, had permeated his squad, which struggled to express proper awe and admiration for its leader after its 3-1 victory over Brazil.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia -- With an important round of Middle East peace talks scheduled in London tomorrow, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright "has no reason to believe" that she will be able to bridge the gaps between Israelis and Palestinians, her spokesman said here yesterday.Albright, who has been on a trip to Asia, spoke Friday night with Vice President Al Gore, who was in Israel for the country's 50th anniversary. And she has been in daily contact with the American special envoy, Dennis Ross, who has been speaking to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

Long before the throngs of audience members generate "oohs" and "ahhs," the staff of the UniverSoul Circus begins to craft its unusual performances, spending months combing the globe for fresh acts. The result includes performers such as the Shaolin Kung Fu acrobats from China and hip-hop contortionists from Guinea. With this array of international talent, it's fitting that this year's tour has been entitled "US. " "In our mind, when you come to UniverSoul, you see a culture that really mirrors society," said Paula Murphy, executive vice president of the traveling circus, which performs at Security Square Mall through Sunday.

BOSTON -- Hey, you want to contribute to a fund that helps Pillsbury advertise its baked goods overseas? Or maybe kick in a few bucks to promote Chicken McNuggets abroad?How about donating to a program that subsidizes affluent U.S. exporters so they can sell their wares to foreign buyers at a discount?Better yet, how about sending some cash to bankroll those foreign buyers directly?Perhaps you prefer to spend your money closer to home.If so, why not underwrite the $250 million U.S. catfish industry by chipping in for one of its pet projects, a fish-farming lab in Arkansas.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia -- It is International Olympic Day in Mongolia, and under a wide, blue sky, traditional wrestlers are practicing their archaic sport. They circle like mythical birds, grappling sometimes for hours on end, finishing their bouts with a sudden heave that leaves one fighter on the grass and the crowd roaring.Along with archery and horseback riding, wrestling is one of the manly sports that have defined Mongolian life since the 12th century and Genghis Khan. But like many other certainties in Mongolia, the country's wrestling establishment is being challenged as never before.

We can't see it from here, but there is a total eclipse of the sun early tomorrow morning. The path will sweep from Canada's arctic territory of Nunavut, across northern Greenland and Siberia, into Mongolia and China. The eclipse begins at 5:21 a.m. EDT and ends at 7:21 a.m. NASA TV will cover it live from China ( www.nasa.gov/eclipse), beginning at 6 a.m. EDT. The total eclipse there occurs at 7:08 a.m. EDT. Biggest audience under the moon's shadow? Xian, China, population 3.9 million.

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities, fearing rising ethnic nationalism in Inner Mongolia, have quietly stepped up a crackdown against dissent there over the last year, a report by an international human rights groups said yesterday.Despite the repression, Inner Mongolians seeking unification with the independent state of Mongolia along the Chinese region's northern border have held about a half-dozen demonstrations since November, the Asia Watch report said.These protests may have turned violent at times, with one unconfirmed report claiming that protesters in one city exchanged gunfire with Chinese army troops, the report said.

Poverty's decline in Asia reportedly world's fastestWASHINGTON -- Poverty has declined faster in Asia than anywhere in the world thanks to strong economic growth, but nearly 1 billion people from Mongolia to India still live on less than $1 a day, a new report says.Poverty has been largely eradicated in the four Asian "tiger" economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan and has sharply declined in Indonesia and Thailand, the World Bank report said."This decline in poverty is probably completely unprecedented in human history," said Michael Walton, who helped edit the report.

BEIJING - An American Buddhist group that spent $3 million renovating an 800- year-old temple in rural northern China said yesterday that police and soldiers took back the temple last week by arresting its spiritual leader and forcibly removing 70 Chinese and a small group of Americans. Earlier this month, police arrested eight underground Roman Catholic priests in a northeastern village after a nighttime house-to-house search, according to a U.S.-based foundation that monitors religious persecution in China.

On learning that 2005 was the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, we decided that it was time to fulfill a lifelong desire of riding the rail line and visiting Lake Baikal, which contains 20 percent of the world's freshwater. After a flight to Moscow, we spent a day and a half revisiting Red Square and surrounding attractions, and meeting the travel agent who put together our journey, which also would include trips to Mongolia and China. The first rail segment was a 30-hour ride to Yekaterinburg, during which we communicated using our Russian-English dictionary and learned how to survive the remaining five segments of our railway travel.