- China's Yin has 'goosebumps' as she romps to LPGA win in Shanghai
- Pakistan to re-use Multan pitch for second England Test
- Blair and King Charles hail Salmond's 'devotion' to Scotland
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- England captain Stokes in line for second Pakistan Test return
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- Israel widens Lebanon strikes as troops fight Hezbollah along border
- Bowlers' graveyards: Pakistan's placid pitches under fresh fire
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Vietnam, China to expand rail links, cross-border payments
- Americans get their belief back as Pochettino makes his mark
- Vietnam, China to boost economic, defence cooperation
- Winning start for Pochettino's American adventure
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- US firms brace for more tariffs as election approaches
- Winning start for Poch's American adventure
- Morocco's tribeswomen see facial tattoo tradition fade
- Centre-left set to win as pro-Ukraine Lithuania votes
- Colombia guerilla group urges delegations not to attend COP16 in Cali
- Pakistan frets over security ahead of SCO summit
- Ronaldo scores 133rd Portugal goal in Nations League win over Poland
- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
Few Catholics in Mongolia, but Pope's visit eyes geopolitics
Pope Francis heads to Mongolia this week, an unlikely choice given the isolated nation's small Catholic community, but a strategic one due to the young democracy's geographical position between two superpowers.
In venturing to the sparsely populated, vast Buddhist-majority nation, the pope may eye Mongolia as a way to help build bridges with its neighbours China and Russia, given its strategic location and neutrality in the volatile region.
The trip, which involves a nine-hour flight from Rome on Thursday to the capital of Ulaanbaatar, will also be closely watched as a stamina test for the 86-year-old pope, who underwent hernia surgery in June and suffers pain when walking.
A former Soviet satellite state that has been a democracy since 1992, Mongolia has one of the world's youngest and smallest Catholic communities, estimated at approximately 1,400 people among its population of 3.3 million.
It has just 25 Catholic priests -- only two of them Mongolian -- and 33 nuns, according to the Vatican, although its ranks include the global Church's youngest cardinal.
Pope Francis's trip to rapidly urbanising Ulaanbaatar represents the Jesuit's desire to bring the Church's message to remote, largely ignored areas far from Rome while championing interfaith dialogue.
It will be "the opportunity to embrace a Church small in numbers but vibrant in faith and great in charity," the pope said Sunday.
But the trip, lasting until September 4, also has undeniably geopolitical aims.
The Vatican's long-term thinking is "to retain a presence and openness in countries where that's not an inevitability", Paul Elie, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs in Washington, told AFP.
"If going to Mongolia keeps the door open to that whole region, it's an effective visit with relatively few downsides," he said.
- 'Rediscovery of values' -
Once part of the empire of Genghis Khan, landlocked Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China, dependent on the former for energy imports and on the latter for the export of its raw materials, primarily coal.
But Mongolia has sought to toe a neutral line with its expansionist neighbours, while reaching for balance among powers including the United States, Japan and South Korea.
That makes Mongolia potentially helpful for Vatican relations with both Beijing, with whom the Holy See last year renewed a deal on the thorny issue of bishop appointments, and Moscow, with which Pope Francis has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
Mongolia also maintains relations with North Korea.
"It has no disputes with its neighbours -- in Asia that's pretty rare," said Mongolia expert Julian Dierkes, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
"And it's really the only post-Socialist democracy in Asia, all the others have fallen by the wayside."
That has spurred a "rediscovery of values" between democratic nations and Mongolia, he said, amid rising Russian aggression and concern over an unchecked China.
- First papal visit -
The first pope to visit Mongolia, the pontiff arrives Friday morning but will have a day of rest before formal meetings Saturday, including with Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, members of civil society, diplomats, priests and missionaries.
On Sunday, he will address an interreligious meeting -- one of five public addresses scheduled -- and preside over a mass inside a newly built ice hockey arena.
He is not scheduled to venture outside Ulaanbaatar, where a decade-long mining windfall has fuelled a construction boom.
Pope Francis may use his trip to address his concerns about the impacts of climate change, which along with mining and overgrazing is fuelling desertification across swathes of Mongolia's territory.
Extreme weather, from severe floods to drought and sandstorms, has killed off herds on the vast grasslands, forcing nomads who make up one-third of the population to migrate to Ulaanbaatar.
Shantytowns inhabited by displaced nomads now surround the capital.
In December, protests broke out over a coal industry corruption scandal, exacerbated by ongoing popular discontent over a weak economy and high inflation tied to Covid and the Ukraine war.
- Youngest cardinal -
The pope's visit follows a flurry of diplomatic activity for Mongolia in recent months, including Luvsannamsrai's visit to Washington this month and a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron in June.
A Mongolian delegation of Buddhist monks and Catholic priests visited the Vatican last year to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Mongolia.
It was led by Italian Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, who at 49 is the Church's youngest cardinal, appointed by Pope Francis last year.
As the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, the missionary who has worked for 20 years in Mongolia -- helping establish the first church in a "ger", the nomads' traditional round tents -- is the country's highest-ranking Catholic official.
F.Pedersen--AMWN