UN chief in flood-ravaged Mongolia

Al-Jazeera.net: Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, has arrived in Mongolia in order to highlight the impact climate change is having on people's everyday lives, his office has said. Ban planned to spend time in a traditional Mongolian herder community on Sunday, meeting people whose livelihoods are being hit by water shortages and desertification.

People in Ulan Bator, Mongolia's capital, were still trying to cope on Sunday with the effects of severe flash flooding, the worst since the 1960s according to aid workers. The flooding first hit in and around the city on July 17, killing a total of 24 people and damaging thousands of homes.

Conditions worsened on July 22 when more heavy rain and hail storms hit the country, signs environmentalists point to climate change. The flash floods may have been exacerbated by deforestation that allowed water to rush down bare hillsides, said Francis Markus, from the International Red Cross….