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Mongolia’s ruling party picks a new prime minister candidate after leader’s resignation

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Mongolia’s ruling party selected a new candidate for prime minister Sunday after the last head of government, Zandanshatar Gombojav, resigned after only nine months on the job.

Uchral Nyam-Osor, the current party chairman who is serving as speaker of the Parliament, was nominated at a meeting of the Mongolian People’s Party, according to state news agency Montsame. Uchral first joined the MPP in 2009, and is seen as a compromise candidate amid different party factions.

Zandanshatar’s resignation came after one of his senior ministers faced allegations of corruption. He also faced a boycott from the opposition Democratic Party, which has refused to attend parliament sessions since earlier this month, citing concerns over a concentration of power within the ruling party.

The turmoil is likely to exacerbate distrust in the government. Mongolia is a relatively new democracy, transitioning from a one-party Communist system in 1990. While it has continued to hold elections, its people complain of corruption and a resulting political system designed to benefit elites.

Foreign investors have been wary of Mongolia’s political volatility and the short tenure of successive governments.

The country of 3.4 million people is heavily dependent on mining exports to neighboring China and has struggled with shifting regulations and corruption concerns.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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