Nepal bans solo climbers on mountains
Compiled from news services
KATHMANDU,Nepal — Nepal has banned solo climbers on its mountains, including Mount Everest, in an attempt to promote safety and reduce accidents, an official said Saturday.
“The mountains in Nepal are unique, and it’s always better for climbers to go with guides,” said the official, Santa Bir Lama, who is president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. “This is good for their own safety.”
Nepal, a Himalayan nation between India and China, has eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. Alpinists from all over the world pay tens of thousands of dollars for climbing permits and Sherpa guides.
The ban will start soon, he said, and should apply to the spring climbing season.
Climbers with physical disabilities also will be required to obtain health clearance from their doctors before the tourism ministry issues local climbing permits.
Accidents are common on Nepal’s peaks, with avalanches, blizzards and complications from high altitude sickness killing climbers every year.
Starr, Gibb to be knighted
LONDON— A Beatle and a Bee Gee are among the celebrated citizens who have been selected for knighthood and other awards given in the name of Britain’s monarch.
Britain’s Cabinet Office publishes a list of the people receiving honors for merit, service or bravery twice a year: just before New Year’s Eve, and on the Saturday in June when Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday is officially observed.
The New Year’s Honors List made public late Friday revealed that Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Barry Gibb, the oldest and last surviving of the brothers who made up the pop group the Bee Gees, have been tapped as knights.
Gunman calm in video
CAIRO — Video clips circulating on social media Saturday show the gunman who opened fire outside an Egyptian church and a nearby store owned by a Copt in an attack that killed at least nine people walking armed and unchallenged on a residential street for nearly 10 minutes.
The gunman, the videos show, stops only occasionally to shoot at his pursuers before he is himself shot.
The sight of the gunman’s calm just minutes after Friday’s attack contrasted with the self-congratulation progovernment media basked in on Saturday; their coverage focused on how police “successfully” prevented the Islamic State group militant from breaking into the church and detonating an explosive device said to have been found on him.
Morsi gets three years
CAIRO — Egypt’s deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was sentenced Saturday to three years in prison and ordered to pay damages on charges of insulting the judiciary.
The Cairo Criminal Court, which issued the sentence, convicted Morsi of defaming the judiciary in a public speech he made more than four years ago “with the aim of spreading hate,” according to state television.
In 2013, Morsi, when he was in office, accused a judge of overseeing fraud in previous elections.
The court Saturday ordered Morsi to pay about $56,000 to that judge.
The court also sentenced 19 co-defendants in the same case, including former Parliament speaker Saad alKatatni, to three years in prison each.
Five others each were ordered to pay a fine of about $17,000.