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The highest point on Earth got a bit higher Tuesday (Dec 8) as China and Nepal finally agreed on a precise elevation for Mount Everest after decades of debate. The agreed height unveiled at a joint news conference in Kathmandu of 8,848.86m was 86cm higher than the measurement previously recognised by Nepal, and more than four metres above China's official figure. The discrepancy was due to China measuring the rock base on the summit and not - as with the new reading - the covering of snow and ice on the peak.

Cuba, China and Russia on Tuesday were elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council -- a move that the U.S. branded a “mockery” of the body's intended purpose and as proof that Washington was right to leave the council in 2018. The three countries, all with a history of authoritarianism and human rights abuses, were elected by the U.N. General Assembly, along with countries including Bolivia, France, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom. Saudi Arabia was on the ballot but failed to drum up enough support to win a seat.

China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan are tipped to finish top of Tuesday’s election for seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, prompting disbelief from freedom campaigners and exiled dissidents alike. U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group, said allowing these countries anywhere near the council “is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade.”

The Maldives government is now alarmed at the amount of debt it owes to China. With the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism-dependent islands are now finding it difficult to repay the Chinese debt that the previous government took. India and China have been trying to gain clout in the region. Under Former President Abdullah Yameen’s government, China invested millions of dollars in infrastructure projects under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, in 2018 Yameen faced election defeat. In an interview with BBC, the current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed said that the Chinese debt amounts to...

A human body cut into pieces was found inside a suitcase at Baniyatar area of Gongabu in the Capital on Sunday morning. Police found the body after locals informed them of an unclaimed suitcase in the area. The head and some other body parts were found about 300 metres from the suitcase, according to Ishwar Karki, superintendent of police at the Metropolitan Crime Division. “Trained dogs were mobilised which recovered the head and some other body parts a bit further from the incident site.” The body is of a man aged possibly between 35 and 40 years but his identity...

China sent scientists to climb Mount Everest while the world’s highest peak is empty of commercial climbers because of the coronavirus pandemic. China and Nepal canceled spring climbing on their sides of the mountain to prevent infections from spreading as expedition teams traveled to the region and lived for weeks in tightly packed camps at high altitudes with little access to emergency medical help. The official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday a 53-member team from the Ministry of National Resources has been conducting preliminary scientific work since early March and survey work on the mountain is due to begin this...

Just had both of my EffBook accounts jailed for posting this news item. I guess they had issues with my calling these subhuman scum muzlims and hindus. This is beyond disgusting. I foolishly looked at the video. Effing diversity.

Hundreds of stranded Americans left Nepal on a repatriation flight Tuesday, days after a complete lockdown was imposed in the Himalayan nation to help fight the coronavirus. A Qatar Airways flight arranged by the U.S. government flew 302 Americans from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport to Washington, D.C. The elderly, families with children and people with a medical condition were given priority on the flight. The U.S. Embassy in Nepal estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 Americans are still in the country but says not all of them are seeking to leave. Plans for future flights to evacuate more of the Americans...

A Queens Uber driver passed away from the coronavirus Tuesday morning — more than two weeks after he stopped driving to avoid contracting the deadly disease, according to his family. Anil Subba, a Nepalese immigrant in his 40s from Jackson Heights, died at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning at Elmhurst Hospital, his family told The Post. Subba checked into the hospital about two weeks ago, according to his cousin Munindra Nembang. He had been hooked up to a ventilator for about two days before he passed, with no contact with his wife and three children, ages 22, 20 and 11.

Although the Nepalese government resisted pressures to deport back to China the refugees who are already in Nepal, it will deport those of them who will enter Nepal in the future.In October, Bitter Winter reported how President Xi Jinping’s visit to Nepal had failed to persuade the authorities of the Himalayan kingdom, under pressure from their own public opinion, to deport back to China under a proposed extradition treaty a good number of the some 20,000 Tibetan refugees living within Nepalese borders. It was an unexpected defeat for the Chinese leader, who reacted very angrily. The CCP, however, never stops...

A row over the yeti has pitted experts against officials - and, for once, it is not about whether or not the mythical creature actually exists. Instead, it is how the creature looks. "This is not right. The government can't just do as it wants," passer-by Reshma Shrestha says, shaking her head in front of the 7ft (2.1m) tall statue at the centre of a row. "If you did not tell me, I would not have known that it was a yeti." 'It's a sumo wrestler' The arrival of the first of more than 100 statues emblazoned with the words...

The peak of the world's highest mountain and one of the most inhospitable places on Earth is not exactly the kind of spot where you'd expect to get stuck in a queue. But that is exactly the situation that confronted around 200 climbers this May as they attempted to reach the summit of Everest - captured in a photo that went around the world. Now, climbers who were caught amid the chaos which claimed 11 lives in just nine days, have spoken out about what happened. They tell how bad weather and inexperience combined to produce tail-backs at the top...

Indian PM Narendra Modi has warned Pakistan he means what he said about not wasting a single drop of ‘Indian water’, after Islamabad stated that any attempt to divert rivers would be viewed as an ‘act of aggression.’ “Once I decide to do something, I always accomplish that,” the PM told an election rally on Friday, slamming the opposition party for allowing a portion of India’s river water to leave the country. However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Faisal had accused India of not just planning to utilize its water share to the max, but plotting to actually divert the rivers,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Sunday that any attempt to divide China will be crushed, as Beijing faces political challenges in months-long protests in Hong Kong and U.S. criticism over its treatment of Muslim minority groups. FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing, China May 15, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter “Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones,” he told Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in a meeting on Sunday, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV....

Elderly man jailed in Nepal for handing out bibles AN ELDERLY Christian who was arrested in Nepal for distributing bibles has ended up in hospital after spending two traumatic weeks in jail, as criminal treatment against the religion intensifies. Christian leaders in Nepal are issuing pleas for unity against the persecution which is rising to “near-genocide” levels in some parts of the world. Cho Yusang, 73, was arrested on July 23 for allegedly forcefully converting Nepali locals to take Christian literature. Pastor Sagar Baiju, a senior Christian leader in Nepal warns police and politicians are targeting Christians, he said: “When...

India’s government on Monday revoked the special status of Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate its only Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country, the most far-reaching move on the troubled Himalayan territory in nearly seven decades. Interior Minister Amit Shah told parliament the federal government would scrap Article 370, a constitutional provision that grants special status for disputed Kashmir and allows the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws.

Welcome to Captive Nations Week. Never heard of it? You’re not alone. Yet this usually-forgotten, federally mandated occasion — now in its 60th year — is worth resurrecting in the 21st century. Congress created Captive Nations Week in 1959, making the third week in July a time to show Americans’ solidarity with the nations dominated by communism. The original law listed 22 captive nations, most of which had substantial communities of citizens in major American cities. After the law’s passage, these communities began to hold parades and rallies every year, from Miami to New York to Los Angeles to Chicago...

Tourist board criticised for new regulations, which also prohibit solo ascents with the aim of reducing the number of accidentsSolo climbers, blind people and double amputees have been banned from climbing Everest under new rules the Nepalese tourism ministry believes will reduce the number of deaths on the mountain. The changes have provoked criticism from the US ambassador to Nepal and a former Gurkha soldier planning to scale the peak after losing both legs in Afghanistan. The new rules have been under discussion for a month and were implemented this week, Nepalese officials told the Himalayan Times. British cancer patient...

Sharp unrescuable, says Chinese mountaineer Updated: 2006-05-28 09:14 Chinese female mountaineer Luo Lili regretted David Sharp's death in the Mount Qomolangma but said the British climber was at a nearly unrescuable height. "Mountaineers all know the height above 7,000m is very dangerous and usually deemed as an unrescuable height," said Luo on Saturday, who just returned from a May 15 scaling of the world highest peak. Sharp, 34, ran out of oxygen and died in a snow cave just 300 meters from the summit on his way down the Himalayan mountain. Dozens of people had walked right past him, unwilling...

Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain. Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for...