Norwegian climber sets her sights on 14 peaks record

Norwegian climber sets her sights on 14 peaks record
This photograph taken on May 13, 2022 by 8K Expeditions shows Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila posing on route to summit Mount Everest. (AFP)
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Updated 12 June 2022

Norwegian climber sets her sights on 14 peaks record

Norwegian climber sets her sights on 14 peaks record
  • Kristin Harila has already climbed six mountains over 8,000 meters high, including Everest, in the last two months

KATHMANDU, Nepal: A Norwegian climber is on track to beat the time record for summiting the globe’s 14 highest peaks, part of her quest to change how the mountaineering world views women athletes.

Kristin Harila has already climbed six mountains over 8,000 meters high, including Everest, in the last two months.

The 36-year-old hopes to match or surpass Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja and his groundbreaking 2019 record of six months and six days, an achievement that smashed the previous record and was profiled in a popular Netflix documentary.

“In history and until now, it has been the strong macho men going out climbing mountains,” said Harila.

“When I talk to people that are not in this sport, they believe that men are more capable than women ... If we are going to change, we need to get attention and show that women are just as capable.”

Male climbers and guides far outnumber women in the top tier of the sport, with only a handful of women mountaineers getting attention and sponsorships for their expeditions.

Out of nearly a thousand climbers who visited Nepal’s famed Himalayan peaks this year, only around a fifth were women, according to Nepali government data.

Harila’s first notable climb was on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in 2015, but she made headlines last year for becoming the fastest woman to travel between the summits of Everest and Mount Lhotse in Nepal.

She accomplished that feat in 12 hours, but broke her own record this year, knocking four hours off her time.

But neither record was enough to convince major sponsors to back her current endeavor.

“There are lots of girls and women (who want) to climb, they want to have the sponsorship from the brands,” she said.

“It’s easier for the brands to believe in what the men are presenting.”

The former cross-country skier was able to find support from Bremont Watches and some other brands, but still had to sell her apartment to fund the project, she said.

Only around 40 people in history have summited all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter-plus peaks.

None have come close to Nirmal Purja’s 2019 expedition. He demolished the previous record for accomplishing the feat with supplemental oxygen, set by Poland’s Jerzy Kukuczka in the 1980s at seven years, 11 months and 14 days.

Harila said the Nepali climber was an “inspiration.”

“But for me, it is not a competition against him, I don’t care much about that,” she added.

Nonetheless, she climbed her first six peaks in just 29 days, accompanied by her Nepali guides Pasdawa and Dawa Ongju Sherpa, breaking an earlier record set by Purja.

“She is a very strong and determined climber. The first phase has been record-breaking,” said Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, Harila’s expedition organizer.

The team is now preparing to leave for Pakistan to climb their next five mountains, including K2 and the 8,126 meter Nanga Parbat, while she raises more funds for the expedition.

Maya Sherpa, the president of the Everest Summiteers Association, said Harila’s project was a welcome effort to bring more women into the male-dominated climbing world.

“Climbers like her are very important to set an example,” Sherpa said.

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  • Petition was for a drug case that saw Leila de Lima accused of conspiring to commit illegal narcotics trade in a Philippine prison

MANILA: A Philippine court has denied a bail request from Leila de Lima, a former senator and staunch critic of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, the defendant’s lawyer said on Wednesday, thereby prolonging her detention.
“Sad to inform you that the court denied Senator Leila’s bail application,” Filibon Tacardon, her legal counsel, told reporters.
The petition was for a drug case that saw de Lima accused of conspiring to commit illegal narcotics trade in a Philippine prison.
De Lima was arrested in 2017, just a few months after she launched a senate investigation into Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign during which thousands of users and dealers were killed, many by police or in mysterious circumstances. She has been in police detention ever since.
A Philippine court in 2021 dismissed a drug case against de Lima, 63, while another court in May acquitted her from a charge that she received drug money from prison inmates.


Russian drone attack kills two civilians in Ukraine’s Sumy region

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Updated 07 June 2023

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KYIV: A Russian drone attack killed two civilians and wounded one in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, said on Wednesday.

Yermak said on the Telegram messaging app that a Iranian-made “Shahed” drone had destroyed a private house and caused a fire. The president’s office said in a statement that Russia shelled the border region in the northeast several times at overnight and on Wednesday morning.


Pope Francis to undergo intestinal surgery under general anesthesia

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Updated 47 min 5 sec ago

Pope Francis to undergo intestinal surgery under general anesthesia

Pope Francis to undergo intestinal surgery under general anesthesia
  • Pontiff would be hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for several days
  • Statement says pope is suffering from a blocked laparocele, which is a hernia that formed over a previous scar

ROME: Pope Francis is going to the hospital for abdominal surgery Wednesday to treat an intestinal blockage, two years after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed because of an inflammation and narrowing of the large intestine.

The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia for the procedure Wednesday afternoon and would be hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for several days.

The pope was undergoing what the Vatican said was a “laparotomy and abdominal wall plastic surgery with prosthesis” to treat a “recurrent, painful and worsening” constriction of the intestine.

A laparotomy is open abdominal surgery. It can help a surgeon both diagnose and treat issues. The statement said Francis was suffering from a blocked laparocele, which is a hernia that formed over a previous scar.

“The stay at the health facility will last several days to allow for the normal post-operative course and full functional recovery,” the statement said.

In July 2021, Francis spent 10 days at Gemelli to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his large intestine. He had suffered what the Vatican said was a severe inflammation and narrowing of the colon. In an interview with The Associated Press in January, Francis said the diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, that had prompted the 2021 surgery, had returned.

Francis had come out of the 2021 surgery saying he could eat whatever he wanted, but he lamented that he hadn’t responded well to the general anesthetic used in the longer-than-expected procedure. That reaction in part explained his refusal to have surgery to repair strained knee ligaments that have forced him to use a wheelchair and walker for over a year.

The fact that he is going back for surgery suggests he had little choice but to treat the intestinal issue, especially given the rigorous upcoming travel schedule this summer.

The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man. He also suffers from sciatica nerve pain. In late March, Francis spent three days at Gemelli for an acute case of bronchitis, during which he was treated with intravenous antibiotics. He emerged April 1 saying “Still alive!”

Francis initially went to the Gemelli on Tuesday for what the Vatican said were medical tests. It revealed no details at the time.

The 86-year-old had appeared in good form Wednesday morning at his audience in St. Peter’s Square, zipping around the square in his popemobile greeting the faithful. He also had two meetings beforehand, the Vatican said.

Francis has had a packed schedule of late, with multiple audiences each day. The Vatican has recently confirmed a travel-filled August, when the Holy See and Italy are usually on vacation, with a four-day visit to Portugal the first week of August and a similarly long trip to Mongolia starting Aug. 31.

In a sign that the trips were very much on, the Vatican on Tuesday released the planned itinerary for Francis’ visit to Portugal for World Youth Day events from Aug. 2-6. The itinerary confirms a typically busy schedule that includes all the protocol meetings of an official state visit plus multiple events with young people and a day trip to the Marian shrine at Fatima.


UN court finds Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga unfit for trial

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THE HAGUE: Judges at a UN war crimes court ruled that elderly Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga is unfit to stand trial but said slimmed-down legal proceedings in his case can continue, in a decision published on Wednesday.

The former businessman and radio station owner was one of the last suspects sought by the tribunal prosecuting crimes committed in the 1994 genocide, when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.

Kabuga is in his late 80s, though his precise date of birth is disputed. He was arrested in France in 2020 after more than 20 years on the run.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” a decision published on the Hague court’s website said.

The decision came after doctors found Kabuga suffered from dementia.

Instead of halting the trial, the judges said they would set up an “alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction.”

It was not immediately clear what form such proceedings will take or what will happen to Kabuga who is in the court’s detention center in The Hague.

The former coffee and tea tycoon has denied the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Prosecutors say Kabuga promoted hate speech through his broadcaster, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), and armed ethnic Hutu militias.

Kabuga has been on trial at The Hague branch of the United Nations mechanism that took over operations of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since September last year. His lawyers have tried since his arrest to get the case dropped over health concerns due to his advanced age.

It is rare for suspects before international courts to be declared mentally unfit to stand trial, though many defendants try.


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According to the province’s forest fire prevention agency, more than 150 forest fires were burning in the province on Tuesday, including more than 110 deemed out of control. The intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern US and parts of Eastern Canada in a haze, turning the air acrid, the sky yellowish gray and prompting warnings for vulnerable populations to stay inside.
The effects of hundreds of wildfires burning in Quebec could be felt as far away as New York City and New England, blotting out skylines and irritating throats.
Late Tuesday, authorities issued an evacuation order for Chibougamau, Quebec, a town of about 7,500 in the remote region of the province. Authorities said the evacuation was underway and promised more details Wednesday.
“We’re following all of this from hour to hour, obviously,” Premier François Legault told reporters in Sept-Îles, Quebec. “If we look at the situation in Quebec as a whole, there are several places where it is still worrying.”
Legault said the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in northwestern Quebec is an area of particular concern, with the communities of Normétal and Lebel-sur-Quévillon under threat.
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