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Ulaanbaatar, /MONTSAME/
From foreign press

According to the 1933 obituaries in both Time Magazine and the New York Times, Li Ching-Yun was reported to have buried 23 wives and fostered 180 descendants by the time he died at the age of 256.
Was he really that old? Could he have forgotten his own birthday or exaggerated his claim? Environmental Graffiti investigates.
"Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog." These were the words of advice Li gave to Wu Pei-fu, the warlord, who took Li into his house to learn the secret of extremely long life.
Li maintained that inward calm and peace of mind were the secrets to incredible longevity. His diet after all, was mainly based on rice and wine.
Unsurprisingly, not much is known about Li Ching-Yun's early life. We know he was born in the province of Szechwan in China, where he also died. We also know that by his tenth birthday, Ching-Yun was literate and had travelled to Kansu, Shansi, Tibet, Annam, Siam and Manchuria gathering herbs. After that, it gets a bit fuzzy…
Apparently, for over one hundred years, Li continued selling his own herbs and then subsequently sold herbs collected by others. He also (according to Time) had six-inch long fingernails on his right hand.
You might be thinking that he looked decrepit, shrivelled, leather-like and creepy, however sources at the time were astonished at his youthfulness. Was this suspect? Was Li Ching-Yun as old as he claimed he was, or was his birthday a clerical error or exaggeration? Let's take a brief look at both sides…
By his own admission he was born in 1736 and had lived 197 years. However, in 1930 a professor and dean at Minkuo University by the name of Wu Chung-chien, found records "proving" that Li was born in 1677. Records allegedly showed that the Imperial Chinese Government congratulated him on his 150th and 200th Birthdays.
So the question is, had he forgotten his own birthday? Was this even the same Li Ching-Yun?
Looking at all of this from a medical and documented perspective: Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 so far holds the title for the person who has roamed the earth the longest: 122 years, which is a phenomenal length of time.
That means, that if the records discovered by Wu Chung-chien were accurate, Li Ching-Yun's age would surpass the official record by more than 130 years. Is this even medically possible?
The detail, which seems to prove both arguments and debunk them at the same time, is Li's youthful appearance, noted in a 1928 article from the New York Times. Visually and physically, he appeared to look like a typical 60 year-old. Does this therefore signify a superhuman body capable of lasting one quarter of a millennium, or is the story of Li Ching-Yun based on a series of half-truths, lies or exaggerations?
Unfortunately, we may never know. You may draw your own logical conclusions.

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Nicole Kidman, UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador and international spokesperson, is taking part in the campaign Say No! Unite to End Violence against Women.
Nicole Kidman is campaigning to raise awareness of the plight of millions of women around the world, highlighting the infringement of women's rights amid shocking statistics: 70 per cent of women suffer some form of violence from men.
A joint citizen of the United States of America and Australia, Nicole Kidman has campaigned for years in favour of humanitarian causes (Ambassador of Sydney Children's Hospital, Patron of the Australian Theatre for Young People, UNICEF Ambassador for Australia, Honorary Patron of FARA - a charity which helps orphans - an advocate for cancer research for women in the USA, Chair of the UCLA Women's Health Fund) and now lends her voice to UNIFEM's campaign to bring public awareness to the shocking statistics which reveal the true scope of violence against women: more deaths and disabilities than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and acts of war combined.
UNIFEM reveals that around 70 per cent of women suffer violence from men in their lifetime. It starts early on and it is not confined to developing countries: In the USA, 83 per cent of girls from 12 to 16 suffer some form of sexual harassment at school. It continues into professional life: up to 50 per cent of women in the EU suffer sexual harassment of some form at the workplace.
Violence affects hundreds of millions of women around the world, every single day. In India, 22 women are murdered every day in dowry-related killings. Daily, in Guatemala, 2 women die. In South Africa, a woman is murdered every 6 hours. In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.
800.000 women and girls are trafficked annually, 79 per cent of these for sexual exploitation. 3 million girls a year suffer female genital mutilation in Africa, a scourge which has been visited upon up to 140 million women worldwide. More than 60 million girls are forced to be child-brides every year.
The UNIFEM campaign of which Nicole Kidman is Ambassador: Say No! - Unite to End Violence against Women, was launched last November in Kenya. The aim is to bring public awareness to the seriousness and depth of this unacceptable continued barbarity and to reach 100.000 actions by March 2010, one million by November.
On screen, Nicole Kidman caught the public eye for her performance in Dead Calm (1989). In 2002 she received an Oscar nomination for her role in Moulin Rouge and won the Academy Award for Best Actress in The Hours in 2003. Other movies in which she has appeared include "Far and Away," "Portrait of a Lady," "To Die For," "The Others," "Cold Mountain," "Dogville," and "Birth."
You can add your voice to the protest against gender violence and aid Nicole Kidman's campaign by visiting the UNIFEM-sponsored site http://www.saynotoviolence.org/about-say-no.