Free Republic

Three people hiking on Indonesia's Mount Dukono have died after the volcano erupted on Friday morning. Videos and pictures of the eruption show the volcano, located on North Maluku island, spewing a column of ash stretching 10km (six miles) into the sky. Indonesian officials said they had issued warnings against climbing Mount Dukono which were widely disseminated through social media as well as on banners at trail entrances, but some hikers had ignored them. The three victims were part of a group of 20 Singaporeans and Indonesians hiking on the mountain despite restrictions. The rest of the group was eventually...

It was the call the family of a young British climber who went missing on Everest 100 years ago had given up hope of ever getting.Last month, a team of climbers filming a National Geographic documentary stumbled on a preserved boot, revealed by melting ice on a glacier.This boot was believed to belong to Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine, who disappeared while attempting to climb Everest in June 1924 with his partner George Mallory.What's more, it could potentially help solve one of mountaineering's biggest mysteries: whether or not the pair succeeded in becoming the first people to summit Everest, 29 years...

As the rift between the US and China over the balloon saga widens, so has the divide within the global community scrutinising their high-stakes dispute. The latest testy exchange took place on Saturday, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China's foreign affairs minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, in the first high-level meeting since the row began. Mr Blinken said they would not "stand for any violation of our sovereignty" and said "this irresponsible act must never again occur". Mr Wang, meanwhile, called the episode a "political farce manufactured by the US"...