A rectangular structure sits on the mountaintop, where a Mongolian team believes Genghis Khan is buried. (Photo by Zagd Batsaikhan, courtesy EurasiaNet.org)

It spanned large parts of Central Asia and China. As for Genghis himself… he’s kind of a mixed bag:

He’s remembered both as a brutal tyrant and an enlightened ruler. And strangely enough, no one seems to know for sure where he was buried. So we’re putting the question to you.

What’s the name of the mountain range that’s believed to be Genghis Khan’s final resting place?

“The area where he’s most likely buried is about 100 miles from Ulan Batar the capital of Mongolia near the Russian border. I got about 50 miles away which is the farthest the road goes.”

Stick around for the answer…

Josuha Kucera has written about the search for Genghis Kahn in the Khentii Mountains in Mongolia, the answer to our Geo Quiz.

The Search for Genghis Khan

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  The World Health Organization today gave a mixed assessment of where things stand with the global swine flu pandemic.  On the positive side, agency officials said there’s no evidence that the virus has mutated.  That means the H1N1 vaccines slowly making their way to the public should confer good protection.  On the negative side, the virus is spreading quickly in the northern hemisphere and that spread could accelerate as winter approaches.  WHO flu expert, Keiji Fukuda.

KEIJI FUKUDA:  We remain quite concerned about the patterns that we are seeing, particularly again because a sizeable number of people do develop serious complications and death.

WERMAN:  Nations continue to take new measures to deal with the pandemic.  Today, Norway made the flu medicines, Tamiflu and Relenza available without a prescription.  Russia has ordered its border guards to wear face masks and rubber gloves.  In a few minutes, we’ll hear how Venezuela is trying to protect a remote Amazonian tribe, but first we go to Ukraine.  The Eastern European country has responded aggressively to swine flu but as Brigid McCarthy reports, that response may say more about Ukraine’s politics and culture than about the nature of the epidemic there.

BRIGID MCCARTHY:  The government of Ukraine has imposed some of the Draconian measures of any country in response to the swine flu.  Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko has closed all schools for three weeks and banned public gatherings.  This after the country’s health minister announced an unusual spike in acute respiratory illnesses in Western Ukraine. People across the country have emptied pharmacies of pills, vitamins and surgical masks.  When the country ran out of masks, Prime Minister Tymoshenko urged people to make their own out of gauze bandages.  Ukranians have also been stocking up on garlic and vodka.  Sergei Lyemets, a reporter for Ukrainska Pravda, says people are panicking.

SERGEI LYEMETS:  Fear, fear, fear.

MCCARTHY:  And their fear is being stoked by saturation media coverage.

LYEMETS:  From the TV, from newspapers, from internet.

MCCARTHY:  Especially the internet.  Rumors have been spreading faster than the virus.  Some bloggers worn people to keep their windows shut because government helicopters were spraying disinfectants.  Others warned that this was in fact something even more terrifying and lethal, pneumonic plague.  In fact, the World Health Organization said there’s no evidence Ukraine’s swine flu outbreak is especially severe so why the extreme response?  Prime Minster Tymoshenko launched her presidential campaign less than two weeks ago.  Reporter Sergei Lyemets says swine flu gave her the perfect opportunity to look decisive.  He says it’s unfortunate but if he were in her position, he too, would make every effort to portray the flu outbreak as especially dangerous.

LYEMETS:  So I could tell that I was the person who took the challenge of this horrible disease and I was the one who won the disease, won the fight.

MCCARTHY:  Even so, you might think working parents would be up in arms after the Prime Minister cancelled all schools for three weeks but not in Ukraine.  Khrystyna Pavaroznyk is a teacher at public school 92 in downtown Kiev.

KHRYSTYNA PAVAROZYNK:  We have no problems with it because the flu is very dangerous.

MCCARTHY:  And because closing schools is nothing new for Ukraine.  Almost every year government officials close schools for a week or two when there’s an outbreak of flu or other contagious diseases but three teenage girls wandering around Kiev’s mostly empty Dream Town Shopping Mall said they’ve never had school cancelled for three weeks.

SPEAKER: [RUSSIAN] they say they’re kind of afraid because you know, they think it’s a serious illness if they do catch it.  But so far, they don’t know anyone in their class or in their school who has been sick.

MCCARTHY:  Two teenage boys walked by.  One of them was clutching his three year old sister’s hand and looking morose.

SPEAKER:  [RUSSIAN] he said he’d rather be in school than have to babysit his little sister for three weeks.

MCCARTHY:  This boy wasn’t worried about the swine flu.  Neither was a college student killing time at the mall.  She was furious that her university was closed and blamed it on politics.

SPEAKER:  [RUSSIAN] because in Russia, even though there are more cases, confirmed cases of swine flu, nobody’s closing down schools everywhere because they don’t have an election coming up.

MCCARTHY:  Ukrainska Pravda reporter Sergei Lyemets says shutting down schools and offices is a sure fire way for politicians to win voters’ hearts.  He says half the population works for the government and Ukranians are, in their soul, still more Soviet than European.

LYEMETS:  They have a deep, deep memory from the times of USSR.  People here like not to work.

MCCARTHY:  But they love their soccer, which is probably why the government’s ban on all public gatherings didn’t extent to last night’s European champion’s league showdown between Kiev’s top professional team and a team from Milan.  Swine flu or no swine flu epidemic.  By the way, Milan won.  For The World, I’m Brigid McCarthy in Kiev.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman.  This is the World.  If you live in Berlin and like stadium rock, well today could be your lucky day.  That’s Irish supergroup, U2.  The band is performing a free concert in Berlin tonight to mark twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The anniversary is Monday.  Ten thousand Berliners and tourists snapped up free tickets for the concert, organized by MTV.  U2 will play in front of the Brandenburg Gate.  It’s a famous landmark visible from different parts of the city, only it won’t be so visible tonight.  The concert organizers are blocking off the view for those without tickets and their method is time tested.  They put up a temporary twelve foot high wall.  I know, weird.  I wish I were kidding.  There will be plenty of other parties in Berlin this weekend, presumably with greater access than that one at the Brandenburg Gate.  But for many living in what was once the Eastern Bloc, this anniversary isn’t much cause for celebration.  The last twenty years brought some welcomed freedoms, but they’ve also brought hardship and uncertainty, especially for young people growing up after Communism.  The World’s Laura Lynch begins our story in a high school in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

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MARCO WERMAN: One other piece of news out of Pakistan. It’s currently Pakistan Fashion Week.  Surprising right?  Well the four day event is billed as a chance for Pakistan’s top fashion designers to show off their wares.  It’s also an opportunity for the country to promote an image that doesn’t include violence and militant extremism.  You can see that alternative image of Pakistan on the runway in Karachi.  Models strutted in short or backless dresses.  Others showed bare midriffs.  Ayesha Tammy Haq is Chief Executive of the fashion week.  She says that the event is necessary to boost business.

AYESHA TAMMY HAQ:  These people who are here, all of them employ hundreds and thousands of people so we need jobs to continue, we need that job market to grow.  You know, we kick start this economy.  Fashion is a big thing, let’s make it bigger.

WERMAN:  Pakistan’s fashion week was twice delayed over security concerns and one of the models taking part, Nadia Hussain, says she was a little scared as she got ready to take to the runway.  But Hussain says life has to go on.

NADIA HUSSAIN:  I think fashion has also made it a point that fashion will continue as well.

WERMAN:  Still, not everyone feels that way it seems. Journalists from major international fashion magazines were expected to attend, but in the end, few showed up.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. While President Obama decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan his Afghan counterpart is making decisions about his new government. Hamid Karzai returned to power after a presidential runoff election was abandoned on Monday. And he’s under pressure to form a government that will more effectively battle corruption and terrorism. But any hopes Karzai may have had about turning his political rival into an ally were dampened today. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports that Abdullah Abdullah says he’s not about to play ball with Karzai.

AARON SCHACHTER: Many Afghans didn’t seem to care much how the August presidential election was held or whether there was a runoff vote. Most suspected that by hook or crook Karzai would be reelected. Now Afghans like Wajma Jan just want to move beyond the election mess.

WAJMA JAN: [SPEAKING DARI]

TRANSLATOR: We Afghans want peace and stability. Whenever we come out we’re scared. It does not matter if Karzai is the president or Abdullah. We want peace.

SCHACHTER: It was Abdullah who withdrew from the planned runoff. Still today he called the Karzai illegitimate and criticized Afghanistan’s government appointed election commission for declaring Karzai president.

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: [SPEAKING DARI]

TRANSLATOR: This decision to award Karzai the presidency has no legal basis and a government coming to power as a result of an illegal decision by a discredited body cannot introduce the rule of law and fight administrative corruption in the country.

SCHACHTER: But Abdullah’s credibility could be called into question as well. He portrayed his pullout from the runoff election as a selfless act. But today’s Washington Post quotes Afghan and Western officials as saying Abdullah was negotiating to join Karzai in a power-sharing deal. They say Abdullah demanded several key positions in the government for his allies and quit the race only after he was turned down. For his part Karzai has promised to eradicate the stain of corruption that has tainted his country and his government. He vowed to reform Afghan laws and strengthen an anti-corruption panel formed last year. But former presidential challenger, Sarwar Ahmedzai, says there’s no chance that Karzai will change his spots.

SARWAR AHMEDZAI: There is absolutely no rule of law. There’s absolutely an increase in the drug business. He has promised so many slots in cabinet to warlords and drug lords.

SCHAHCTER: Ahmedzai had promised Iran-like street demonstrations if the elections were tainted and Karzai returned to power. He says he called those off when he realized it could lead to violence. Still, he says, there is simmering anger among the Afghan people in the wake of the elections, the cancelled runoff, and the continuation of a government widely considered corrupt and ineffective. For The World I’m Aaron Schachter.

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[MUSIC]

MARCO WERMAN: Sikh musicians welcomed a group of religious leaders from around the world this week. The priests, rabbis, imams, and others gathered at Windsor Castle in England. They met to collaborate on an issue that the world’s governments are having a hard time agreeing on – climate change. The conference came just weeks before a global summit on climate change in Copenhagen. The World’s religion editor, Jane Little, was there in Windsor.

[MARCHING BAND]

JANE LITTLE: It’s not everyday that you see an army of black, white, red, and orange robes processing up the cobbled hill to Windsor Castle. But these religious men, and women, are on their way to lunch with Prince Phillip, the Queen’s husband, and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon both of whom have thrown their weight behind religious efforts to tackle climate change. Ban addressed the assembled.

BAN KI MOON: Together the major faith groups have established, run, or contributed to over half of all schools worldwide. You are the third largest category of investors in the world. Your potential impact is enormous.

LITTLE: That’s why the UN is helping to fund an array of plans developed by members of nine world religions from Muslims and Christians to Bahais and Sikhs. The organizers at Windsor say that between them the religions represented here claim more than 85 percent of the world’s population. That’s convinced long time secular environmentalists that they’re vital allies. Patrick Holden is a leader in the organic food movement.

PATRICK HOLDEN: I think the power of four billion people, if it is that, ought to drive change especially because faith communities think long term. They have fantastic communication networks and they’ve got resources. Should not be underestimated.

LITTLE: The meeting marks a significant evolution in the relationship between many religious traditions and environmentalism. Martin Palmer is head of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

MARTIN PALMER: I think the real problem for Christianity, and to some extent for Judaism and Islam as well, was fear of paganism. They saw respect for nature as being tantamount to worship of nature. And all sorts of deep barrier to theological traps kind of went bing, bing, bing when the environmental movement came into being.

LITTLE: Palmer adds that many American Evangelicals were resistant because they saw environmental destruction as a necessary prelude to the end times when Christ would return.

[PRAISE HIM PSALM 148]

But the presence here at Windsor of many Evangelicals including a choir from the Baltimore New Psalmist Baptist Church reflects a significant conversion. Many have been moved to look again at their bibles and encouraged to see that respect for nature doesn’t mean worship of it. Creation care has become a new buzz term. Perhaps the most ambitious initiative announced here was the Muslim’s seven-year action plan. Sheikh Ali Goma’a, the influential Grand Mufti of Egypt, spoke of protecting the earth as a religious duty. The plan calls for the construction of so-called green mosques and even cities as well as a TV channel for Islam and the environment. Goma’a also announced the greening of pilgrimage cities including Medina in Saudi Arabia.

ALI GOMA’A: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

TRANSLATOR: First they will increase the green area. Second they will work very hard to create a natural balance for the carbon. Third replace everything that’s being wasted in friendly environmental way.

LITTLE: Millions of Korans will also be published on sustainably sourced paper. Meanwhile Jews from America and Israel pledge to try to cut meat consumption among their communities in half by 2015. Livestock production is a major source of greenhouse gases. And Shintos in Japan and Daoists in China will convert thousands of temples to green energy. It’s an ambitious agenda perhaps. But Martin Palmer says the goals announced here are achievable. Maybe more so than what political leaders are attempting at the UN’s climate summit in Copenhagen next month.

PALMER: I’ve been asked a number of times; do you think the governments of the world will take this seriously? And my answer’s been the same every time. I really don’t care. Because the religions are going to do this anyway.

LITTLE: And he adds if governments can’t come through at Copenhagen religions will just have to show them the way. For The World this Jane Little, Windsor.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. General Motors had it all planned. The car maker was going to sell its European unit Opel. GM had a buyer lined up – a Canadian car parts firm called Magna. But now GM has abandoned the sale. A company spokesman says GM will revert to its original restructuring plan for Opel. Reactions have been mixed in Europe but not in one European country. Germany had offered big loans to secure the sale of Opel. Now that the deal’s fallen through the German’s are furious. Brett Neely reports from Berlin.

BRETT NEELY: The fate of Opel has been corporate Germany’s biggest soap opera. The German government lent the near-bankrupt company more than two billion dollars last spring. The idea was to keep Opel afloat until it found a new owner. Now that GM has spurred Magna’s overtures the German government also feels jilted.

RAINER BRUEDERLE: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

NEELY: In Berlin today German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said GM’s behavior was quote totally unacceptable and said GM was to blame for the deals collapse. The negotiations involving the government, Opel, and Magna have been going on and off since February. So why did GM back out now just weeks before the deal was due to be closed? In some ways says Coventry Business School professor David Bailey it’s not a surprise. With economies in Europe and the US recovering and GM out of bankruptcy things have changed since last spring.

DAVID BAILEY: Clearly GM thinks that their financial position is such that they can afford to restructure GM in Europe.

NEELY: Magna also wanted to take over Opel’s technology center in Ruesselsheim outside Frankfurt. Opel’s developing a new generation of small fuel efficient cars there – something that GM desperately needs says Bailey.

BAILEY: GM actually needs GM Europe to produce the small cars that it will have to sell in America in order to meet its environmental obligations.

NEELY: He says Magna had planned to take that technology and transfer it to its Russian partners and that might of squeezed GM out of a growing Russian car market. GM says it will need about 4.5 billion dollars to restructure Opel, far less than Magna needed. Bailey says GM might be able to come up with some of that money itself though it can’t use any of the money lent to it by the US government.

BAILEY: I also think that they will probably go to European governments, including the German government, and ask for financial assistance. So I think they will be back knocking on the door asking for support.

NEELY: Belgium, Britain, and Spain all have Opel plants and their government signaled today they’re willing to talk. Still Opel’s 25,000 German workers are upset by GM’s about face. Here’s what some of them at a factory in Bochum had to say today.

FIRST MAN: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: It’s not nice. I have no idea what else will be happening here in Bochum if Magna doesn’t take over. There are rumors that Opel in Bochum will be closed now. Let’s wait and see.

SECOND MAN: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

TRANSLATOR: Anyone could have guessed that GM would keep Opel. I knew it.

NEELY: German unions are planning a protest strike tomorrow and they’re urging other Opel workers in Europe to join. The drama’s not likely to end soon. Like any soap opera stay tuned for the next episode. For The World I’m Brett Neely in Berlin.

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MARCO WERMAN: It was on this day in 1922 that British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutenkamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. It was filled with extravagant treasures that made both the pharaoh and the man who discovered his tomb famous. Today Howard Carter’s headquarters was opened as a museum. The BBC’s Yolande Knell took a tour.

TOUR GUIDE: We are in the office of Howard Carter. He used to sit in the office to write his own diary.

YOLANDE KNELL: Conveniently close to the entrance of the Valley of the Kings Howard Carter stayed in this rest house during the difficult years when he was employed by Lord Kanavan, owner of a vast collection of Egyptian artifacts obsessively searching for the burial place of a relatively unknown pharaoh named Tutenkamen. His discovery of the tomb exactly 87 years ago was to make the boy king and the archeologist famous around the world.

TOUR GUIDE: He was the most famous and the most luckiest to find a tomb like Tutenkamen with all the treasures inside almost intact. It is the same story as Tutenkamen, why he’s famous. How about the rest of the kings and queens like Rameses II, Thutmose III, Hatshepsut – they were more important than Tutenkamen. But Tutenkamen he became the most famous because of the treasures inside his tomb.

KNELL: Mustafa Wasari from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities oversaw the restoration of the house now reopened as a museum. Among the first visitors were cousins of Howard Carter and the great grandson of Lord Kanavan who inherited his title. He says a lot of work went in to the eventual discovery.

LORD KANAVAN: It’s rather forgotten that there were many years here spent working on the West Bank before Tutenkamen – before anyone even heard of Tutenkamen. But they persisted right into the concession in the Valley of the Kings and to be honest it was their last year of work when they found Tutenkamen’s tomb. They really weren’t going to on and spend anymore time after that because money was really running out.

TOUR GUIDE: We are standing now so close to the Tomb of King Tutenkamen.

KNELL: Every day thousands of international visitors come to the Valley of the Kings. It’s a short decent to the underground chamber where Tutenkamen mummy still lies. Although this is the smallest tomb here it remains a big attraction. It was through this doorway that Howard Carter finally made a tiny breach. Peering in he said he could see wonderful things. But those wonderful things over 5,000 objects were destined to stay in Egypt. Many including the golden burial mask are on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Museum director Wafaa el-Saddiq is grateful to early legislation on antiquities.

WAFAA EL-SADDIQ: Thank God because without this law it was in 1991 that collections can’t be divided and at the same time unique objects cannot leave the country. I know that Howard Carter and Lord Kanavan want very much to have some objects or the whole collection even to bring them back to Britain but because of that law we saved Tutenkamen.

[APPLAUSE]

KNELL: New archeological discoveries are still being made across Egypt. But increasingly now Egyptians themselves are responsible. This applause greeted the announcement of several finds by the first all-Egyptian team to carry out excavations in the Valley of the Kings. Salima Ikram who teaches Egyptology at the American University in Cairo says it’s a sign of the times.

SALIMA IKRAM: There are more opportunities for the Egyptians to work and so they are now taking up the work because before that I think frequently they either didn’t have the training or were denied the permission to do this. So this is really sort of the democratization and accessibility for people to learn themselves and teach others about their own history.

KNELL: Egypt’s chief archeologist believes most of the country’s monuments still lie under the sands. With his protégés now searching for several missing royal tombs, there is hope they will lay claim to yet more famous finds. For The World this is Yolande Knell in Luxor, Egypt.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.