New Zealanders will help ease the fallout from another disastrous winter in Mongolia, says Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Robson.

New Zealand is donating NZ$100,000 to a joint appeal from the Mongolian Government and the United Nations, following a second year of harsh winter conditions in Mongolia, known as the ‘dzud’.

‘Dzud’ is the Mongolian term for the mass starvation and death of livestock as a result of severe winter weather. The conditions are the most severe to have been experienced in Mongolia in 50 years.

"An estimated 6.6 million livestock are expected to die, representing about 20 per cent of the national herd," says Matt Robson.

"The impact on herding families and the Mongolian economy has overwhelmed officials’ efforts to cope with the problem."

The New Zealand grant will assist the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its livestock survival project.

The funds come from the New Zealand Official Development Assistance Programme's disaster relief allocation.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>