Nepal’s Everest heroines to break new ground in mountaineering

August 4th, 2009 Everest Re extends CEO's contract to end of 2010NEW YORK — Insurer Everest Re on Tuesday said it extended the employment contract of Chairman and CEO Joseph V. Taranto to Dec.

July 4th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Want to save Mt Everest, the universal symbol of grandeur, toughness and adventure? Then eat an apple pie. A mountaineer and entrepreneur has hit upon the novel scheme of selling apple pies to save the world's tallest peak from becoming the highest garbage dump littered with cans, bottles, tents and other refuse left behind by careless climbers.

June 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepals Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Wednesday expanded his 11-member cabinet to induct 10 new ministers. However, the protracted squabble with allies over power sharing continued even three weeks after Nepal assuming office with the parties from Terai not sending any new faces to the cabinet.

June 10th, 2009 17-year-old California resident scales EverestLOS ANGELES — A 17-year-old California resident reached the summit of Mount Everest as part of his trek to become the youngest person to scale the tallest peaks on each of the world's seven continents. Johnny Strange, a senior in high school who resides in Malibu, Calif., reached the top of the 29,035-foot mountain on May 20.

May 21st, 2009 KATHMANDU - In May 1959, six years after Mt Everest had been first climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, India sent its first expedition to Mt Everest. But the Indian Army team led by Brigadier Gyan Singh was defeated 'by the fury of elemental forces'.

May 21st, 2009 KATHMANDU - A poor yak herder's son who became a porter at the age of 12 to feed his family Thursday re-established his image as the greatest living Everest legend, conquering the world's highest peak for an incredible 19th time. Apa Sherpa, who in the 1980s attempted to climb Mt Everest to eke out a living, this year led the Eco Everest Expedition 2009 to draw attention to the perils of climate changes in the Himalayas, causing glaciers to melt and imperilling the lives of the people living in high altitudes.

May 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - An Indian Army team has become the country's first to scale the 8,167-metre high Dhaulagiri peak in Nepal, the seventh highest in the world, an army official Monday said. Dhaulagiri is considered one of the world's toughest peaks to climb.

April 21st, 2009 British cricket teams play on Everest for recordKATMANDU, Nepal — Two teams of British cricketers played on the foot of Mount Everest Tuesday in an attempt to set a high-altitude record for field sports. The teams played the Twenty-20 cricket match on Tuesday at Gorakshep, located 16,940 feet (5,165 meters) above sea level on the southern side of world's highest mountain in Nepal.

April 20th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Twenty-three years after his death, the controversy over Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, one of the two men to step on Mount Everest for the first time continues, with British climbing legend Chris Bonington saying that the Everest hero was wronged. On May 29, 1953, Tenzing reached the summit of the 8848m peak along with New Zealander, Edmund Hillary.

April 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Everest T20 has survived a googly by Nepal's national park wardens to proceed with the unique match next week, tourism officials said. The incredible idea of playing a Twenty20 match on Gorakh Shep, a plateau 5165 metres above sea level and just 200 metres below the Everest base camp, seemed to have been stumped Sunday when the wardens of the Sagarmatha National Park, where the plateau is located, said they would not allow the match to be held in a place that contained rare flora and fauna.

April 12th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Cricket, described as the glorious game of uncertainty, lived up to its reputation in Nepal Sunday as state officials barred entry to the two teams of western amateur cricketers headed to play Twenty20 at the foot of Mt Everest. Thirty amateur players accompanied by 20 support staff had left Kathmandu Saturday to journey to the Himalayan region in north Nepal and play a match at Gorakh Shep, a plateau 5,165 metres above sea level.

March 15th, 2009 WELLINGTON - A New Zealand mountaineer has criticised a claim by author Jeffrey Archer in a new book that a British climber conquered Mount Everest years before Sir Edmund Hillary, a newspaper reported Sunday. Archer's book, Paths of Glory, is a fictionalised account of the life of George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924, 29 years before Hillary climbed the world's tallest peak with Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

March 7th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Till a few years ago, Nepali women were not allowed to inherit parental property, undergo an abortion or even go abroad without the consent of their husbands. But after a series of sweeping changes that transformed the world's only Hindu kingdom into a secular republic where women are striving to make their voices heard, an unusual group is aiming for the sky.

January 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Air Force (IAF) is all set to climb 'Seven Summits', the highest peaks in the seven continents, and become the first air force in the world to achieve the feat. Living up to its motto of 'touching the sky with glory', the expedition team of the IAF, led-by Wing Commander R.C.

December 23rd, 2008 BANGALORE - Kannada actor Puneet Raj Kumar's forthcoming film 'Raaj - The Showman' is set to have an interesting dance sequence where he will shake a leg with yesteryears heroines who had worked with his father, the late Rajkumar. According to sources close to the project, the dance sequence would feature actress-turned-MP Jayaprada, Jayamala, who is now president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, multilingual actress Ambika, Roopa Devi and Bharathi Vishnuvardhan.