Last Friday’s tragedy on Mount Everest in which at least 13 Sherpa guides were killed in an avalanche has led others among that group of Nepalese who lead foreigners up the world’s tallest mountain to issue some demands — and threaten to boycott the soon-to-start climbing season if their requests aren’t granted.
NPR News
Japan Says It Will Temporarily Scale Back Whale Hunt
Japan says it will kill fewer whales when its seasonal Pacific hunt begins next week and will only observe whales in the Antarctic, after a U.N. court ordered it to stop taking the marine mammals from the Southern Ocean.
Rescue Workers Erect Memorial To Washington Mudslide Victims
Rescue workers still searching for bodies from the March 22 landslide that killed at least 39 people near the town of Oso, Washington, erected a simple, but moving memorial to the victims of the tragedy.
‘Murder,’ South Korean Leader Says Of Ferry Captain’s Actions
According to Yonhap News, Park condemned Captain Lee Jun-seok for not moving more quickly to evacuate the 476 or so people who were on board and for being among the first who were able to get to safety.
Teen Survives Flight To Hawaii In Jet’s Wheel Well, FBI Says
According to The Maui News, the unidentified teen survived the trip “halfway across the Pacific Ocean unharmed despite frigid temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen, FBI and airline officials said.”
Even Chimps Know That A Firm Bed Makes For Quality Sleep
In the wilds of Africa, chimpanzees consistently choose to make their sleeping nests in a particular tree that offers the “just right” kind of comfort that Goldilocks famously preferred.
‘Completely Unique’: Cave-Dwelling Female Insects Have Penises
Four new insect species found in Brazil have rather strange sex lives — to say the least. Their sex organs are reversed: Females have penises and males have vaginas, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
Scientists Spot A Planet That Looks Like ‘Earth’s Cousin’
Scientists who have been hunting for another Earth beyond our solar system have come across a planet that’s remarkably similar to our world.
BP Exec Who Led Cleanup Settles On Charges Of Insider Trading
A former BP executive who led the company’s cleanup of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has agreed to pay $224,000 in penalties and restitution in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly trading on inside information on the disaster.
China Admits That A Fifth Of Its Farmland Is Contaminated
Unbridled industrialization with almost no environmental regulation has resulted in the toxic contamination of one-fifth of China’s farmland, the Communist Party has acknowledged for the first time.