Nepal

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Nepal Holds Cabinet Meeting on Everest

(Newser) - Nepal’s cabinet held a chilly outdoor meeting on a Mount Everest plateau today, in a stunt to show their support for action on climate change. Sporting thick coats, wool, and in some cases oxygen masks, the cabinet set up shop at 17,192 feet, just next to an Everest...

Nepal Suffers Shortage of Sacrificial Goats

Country running short of goats ahead of major Hindu festival

(Newser) - Baa-ad news. Nepal is facing a severe shortage of sacrificial goats ahead of one of the Hindu calendar's biggest festivals, the BBC reports. Officials are searching the countryside for as many as 4,000 goats to buy and bring to Kathmandu ahead of the Dashain festival, in which goats are...

US Embassy Guards in Kabul Living Lurid Lifestyle

(Newser) - Guards hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and staff at the US embassy in Afghanistan live and work in a Lord of the Flies environment in which they are subjected to hazing and humiliation by supervisors, a government oversight group says. In a 10-page letter to Hillary Clinton,...

Nepali Women Protest $600 'Marry-a-Widow' Incentive

(Newser) - Hundreds of women marched through Kathmandu yesterday to protest a government plan to offer $600 to anybody who marries a widow, the Independent reports. The government says the scheme will help overcome social stigmas attached to widowhood, but the women say it is insulting and warn that it will lead...

Pollution Dulls Nepal's Beauty
 Pollution Dulls Nepal's Beauty 
Aug 1, 2009 6:45 AM CDT

Pollution Dulls Nepal's Beauty

(Newser) - Nepal's once-pristine natural beauty has been ravaged by years of civil war, neglect, and corruption, the Washington Post reports. Dangerous levels of pollution now cloud Kathmandu, forcing many residents to wear masks. Even the top of Mount Everest is marred by litter left behind by generations of climbers, and many...

'Typing Difficxult': Climber Tweets From Everest

Irish mountaineer expected to summit today

(Newser) - He calls it the "highest blog in the world": Gavin Bate, an Irish mountain climber, has been scaling Mount Everest for the past month, sending 140-character updates on his progress via Twitter. Today he's expected to reach the summit, where he'll try to post several sponsored tweets to raise...

Abuse of Child 'Witches' Burgeoning

Growing number of kids suspected of witchcraft worldwide

(Newser) - Children dubbed “witches” are facing increasing abuse in Nigeria and elsewhere, advocates say. “They would take my clothes off, tie me up and beat me,” said a 14-year-old, whose grandfather concluded he was a “witch” 2 years ago when he cried at the threat of being...

Royal Murders Continue to Haunt Nepal

New regime reopens probe into 8-year-old palace massacre

(Newser) - In an effort to cover up their own difficulties, the Maoist rebels-turned-rulers who govern Nepal have relaunched a probe into the royal massacre that helped bring them to power, Time reports. The incident 8 years ago—the crown prince killed the king and nine other relatives before taking his own...

Himalaya Adventurers Find 'Yeti Tracks'

Traces aren't animal, experts say, 'look human'

(Newser) - The legendary abominable snowman of the Himalayas remains camera-shy, but a Japanese team has made a breakthrough, discovering what the lead researcher says are yeti footprints. "Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognize bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard...

18 Killed in Everest Plane Crash

German, Swiss tourists killed after Nepali flight crash-lands

(Newser) - A small tourist plane has crashed on Mt. Everest, killing 18 passengers and crew, AFP reports. Most of the passengers on the Yeti airlines flight from Kathmandu to Lukla were German tourists, officials said. Two Swiss nationals and five Nepalis were also on the passenger manifest. Witnesses said the plane...

Nepal Names New Living Goddess

Three-year-old will leave family to live in temple

(Newser) - A new 3-year-old “living goddess” has been named in Nepal, Reuters reports, and she took up her post today, clad in red and gold, in an ornate 15th century temple in Kathmandu. Matina Shakya has left her family to live as the Kumari, appearing in a window to be...

Skydivers Jump From Everest
 Skydivers Jump From Everest 
Oct 5, 2008 11:32 AM CDT

Skydivers Jump From Everest

Trio spends 15 years, $24K for 29,500-ft. leap from world's highest peak

(Newser) - Three skydivers bounded into record books today, completing the first parachute jump from Mt. Everest, the BBC reports. “It was amazing, just spectacular,” gushed one adventurer, who, along with her fellow divers, shelled out $24,000 each and 15 years of planning on the 29,500-foot leap. The...

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu
 Sacred History
 Resonates in
 Kathmandu
GLOSSIES
Aug 17, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu

Traditional building practices coexist with global trade in Nepal's capital

(Newser) - Decades of restoration have kept up the medieval splendor of a region long hidden from the world: Kathmandu Valley. Started by Germany in the 1960s and later spearheaded by a Harvard professor, the repairs have maintained many of the area's stupas and pagodas, Lucinda Lambton writes for Vanity Fair—but...

Piglets-for-Girls Bargain Saves Thousands

Nepalese spared from slavery, sent to school by non-profit program

(Newser) - An American’s plan to keep poor Nepalese families from selling daughters into slavery by offering them pigs has saved thousands of girls in the Himalayan country, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The non-profit founded by Olga Murray gives pigs (which, grown, fetch the same $35-75 buyers would pay for...

Nepal to Become a Republic
 Nepal to Become a Republic 
May 28, 2008 7:26 AM CDT

Nepal to Become a Republic

People celebrate as monarchy ends

(Newser) - Nepal is becoming a democratic republic today—and it's getting its first taste of democracy's hiccups. As thousands gathered in the streets of Kathmandu to celebrate, the newly-elected constitutional assembly met to abolish the country’s monarchy. But the momentous vote has been delayed a few hours over disagreements about...

Nepal Detains 560 Tibetan Women

Cracks down on 3 all-female protests against China

(Newser) - Nepalese authorities today arrested 560 Tibetan women, including Buddhist nuns, for protesting China's actions in three all-female rallies across Kathmandu. They marked the first protests of their kind, and the largest round-up since China's crackdown in the region in March; the prisoners will be freed later. Nepal, home to 20,...

Tibetans Storm Chinese Embassy in Nepal

200 protesters detained, including monks and nuns

(Newser) - At least 300 Tibetan protesters, many of them monks and nuns, stormed the Chinese embassy in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu today. The demonstrators threw debris into the embassy compound and tried to break down the gates. "We want our freedom. Stop China!" they chanted. Some 200 protesters...

Nepal Boots Pro-Tibet US Climber

American banned from Everest for two years over protest banner

(Newser) - Nepal deported an American climber yesterday, the Times of India reports, after police at a Mount Everest base camp found a pro-Tibetan banner in his backpack. Nepal, staunchly pro-China, has enacted restrictions—and authorized security forces to use guns—to prevent protests when the Olympic torch ascends the world's tallest...

Nepal OKs Deadly Force Against Torch Protesters

Flame will ascend Everest next month

(Newser) - Nepal has plans for protesters intent on disrupting the Olympic flame's ascent up Mount Everest, the AP reports. An official today authorized the use of deadly force "to stop any protest on the mountain using whatever means necessary." Climbers are scheduled to reach the summit in the border...

Nepal Set to Abolish 240-Year-Old Monarchy

Voters out in droves for first election in 9 years

(Newser) - Voting is under way in Nepal's parliamentary elections, where citizens of the Himalayan nation are expected to endorse parties that will oust the 240-year-old monarchy, reports AFP. UN observers have commended a high turnout despite eight deaths in protests ahead of today's polling, the centerpiece of a peace deal between...

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