|
|
|
Weekly Update: Oldest Everest climber
KATHMANDU: Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura, 70, said on Monday he felt he had been “in heaven” when he became the oldest man to climb Everest last week.
Miura, 70 years and 222 days old, on Thursday broke the record of compatriot Tomiyasu Ishikawa, who at 65 years and 176 days, was the previous record-holder.
He beamed with pride as he related his achievement, but said he would not mind if his record was beaten in future.
He reached the 8,848-metre peak with his son Gota, 33 and another member of his team.
Miura is a professional skier and first won fame as the first person to ski down the South Col of Everest in 1970. “I could not ski down from the summit but I did ski down from the height of 8,000 metres a little below the south col to Camp Three around 6,000 metres.
He said he was pleased to have returned to Kathmandu to take part in the celebrations marking the golden jubilee of the first ascent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa on May 29, 1953.
Nepal’s King Gyanendra is to present medals to all those who have summited the mountain and made it to Kathmandu for the anniversary. — AFP
Launch of Mars Exploration Rover postponed
WASHINGTON: The launch of the first of two Mars Exploration Rover robots for geological research on the red planet has been delayed until June 8 to give NASA engineers more time to prepare, the space agency said on Tuesday.
According to George Diller, NASA spokesman at Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida, the scheduled June 5 launch date gave “just not enough time to complete the reviews we need to be sure we are ready for launch. But there have been “no technical problems,” he stressed.
The second launch was scheduled for June 25.
The first robot is scheduled to reach Mars January 4, 2004 regardless of launch date as long as it is by June 19.The second robot is scheduled to arrive on Mars January 25, 2004 if it is launched by July 15. — AFP
Sub-Antarctic island cleared of rats
WELLINGTON: New Zealand declared a remote sub-Antarctic island predator-free on Monday after spending 2.6 million NZ ($1.5m) dollars to lay 120 tonnes of poison to exterminate an infestation of rats.
Authorities claim the mass destruction of more than 200,000 Norway rats on Campbell Island marks a world record for the largest island cleared of rats, although few will ever appreciate the efforts because of appalling weather and savage seas that buffet the island.
Campbell Island, 600 kilometres south of New Zealand, no longer has permanent human residents, and has since been overrun with rodents introduced by whalers in the 1830s, which gobbled everything in sight.
The government began the poisoning campaign last year on the 11,300-hectare island, which used New Zealand expertise to decimate its rodent population to hold the dubious world record.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter hailed the efforts of New Zealand’s 20-member team of Pied Pipers, who used a fleet of helicopters to spread the rat bait.
Carter said the rat had been on the island for 200 years but the island’s millions of seabirds would now be free from the predator, allowing the Department of Conservation (DOC) to reintroduce the rare Campbell Island teal, a flightless relative of the endangered brown teal.
The teal is the world’s rarest duck, although “Daisy the duck” several years ago saved the species when, in captivity, she reared 24 ducklings that produced 39 more birds. — AFP
Unclean water causes liver infections
KARACHI: Inadequate availability of potable water and inappropriate sanitation facilities is causing increased incidence of Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E induced liver infections among the local population including neo-nates and infants.
Experts at Aga Khan University Hospital, on Tuesday said that seeding for liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer does occur in childhood owing to hepatitis A and E virus, stressing timely diagnosis, treatment and above all prevention. — APP
|
|
|
|
