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"Politics Wasn't First on List of NY Sen. Clinton's Career Picks" PURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) _ She's a former first lady, a United States Senator, and a potential 2008 presidential candidate. But to hear Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tell it, all of that pales in comparison to her real childhood dreams. "I wanted desperately to be an Olympic athlete,"....

The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, is 12 feet shorter than previously thought, Chinese scientists who measured the peak earlier this year said Sunday. Their survey determined that the mountain was 29,017 feet, or 12 feet smaller than it was measured to be 30 years ago, said Chen Bangzhu, a spokesman with the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. The survey was carried out by a team of 50 Chinese experts in May, Chen said at a press conference. The new figure is based on the "most elaborate and precise data ever obtained by Chinese or foreign scientists," said...

A Nepalese couple have exchanged wedding vows on top of Mount Everest, the first people ever to marry there. They briefly took off their oxygen masks and put on plastic garlands, while the groom symbolically applied red powder on the bride's forehead. Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa were part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition earlier this week. They had kept the plan secret as there was no guarantee they would reach the top of the world's highest peak. Arriving back in Kathmandu, the bride said it would not have been possible to meet all the religious requirements,...

It got bigger only recently, but now it may be shrinking. What on earth is happening to Mount Everest? News reports from China yesterday said there was official concern that the top of the world's tallest mountain is getting lower ­ and melting glaciers caused by global warming may be to blame. A scientific team is to be sent to the mountain ­ known in Chinese as Mount Qomolangma, or Goddess Mother of the World ­ to remeasure its height, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily . But Everest was last measured in 1999, and found to be higher...

SEE that mountain over there?" Reinhold Messner asked, pointing to a steep and icy peak here in the Dolomite Alps. "In my head, I already see a line up that mountain," he said. "I can see it and project it on the wall. Then I'll climb it." That is not an idle boast. Mr. Messner is widely acclaimed as the greatest mountain climber of his generation, the first to scale Everest without bottled oxygen, the first to do it solo and the first to conquer all 14 of the world's peaks over 8,000 meters (26,200 feet). Jon Krakauer, author of...

A Korean climber has died descending from the Summit of Everest from the North side. A Japanese woman has also died descending from the North side of Everest. Shoto Ota was with the Adventure Guides QOMOLANGMA EXPEDITION 2004. After the summit she lost consciousness coming down and died. She was 63. Other Korean climbers and their Sherpa who had been attempting to save the life of the Korean climber who died, and are now unaccounted for. It is unclear if the Sherpas are accounted for. On the South side of Everest, a small team of Gustavo Lisi (Argentina) and...