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A Japanese improved a record of a compatriot to become the oldest man to climb Mount Everest Thursday, the Ministry of Tourism said. 

Yuichiro Miura, 70, climbed the world's tallest peak with his son, Gota, 34 although they are not the first father son pair to climb the peak. He climbed the peak on his second attempt, the first attempt was Wednesday.

They planned to ski down the summit along the southeast ridge to the team's advance base camp; it was not known it they recorded the feat. Miura Senior improved a record set by Tomiyasu Ishikawa who climbed Everest from the north last year when he was 65 years and 176 days old. 

Miura was the first man to ski down the South Col, the fourth camp site of Everest expeditions, to lower camps in 1970. Noriyuki Muragutchi, 47, recorded the feat on camera assisted six Sherpa guides.

John Edwin Baker, 49, a British scuba driver based in Sharjha, also climbed Everest Thursday with three Sherpa guides as a member of the Peak Promotion Everest 2003 expedition, base camp reports said. As a scuba diver, Baker has dived 200 meters down to the bottom of the high seas-- considered a remarkable feat. 

Reports reaching Kathmandu from base camp said so far 35 climbers of four expeditions including 14 from the joint Nepal-India expedition have climbed Everest Thursday as more reports are filtering down from the mountain.

"When I climbed Everest in 1973, I never tried to be the youngest to climb the peak," Sambhu Tamang said. "But deep inside me, I was always thought if others would be able to record the feat." Sambhu climbed Everest when he was 18 and held the record for 28 years until it was broken by Pemba.

The youngest Japanese climbed the peak Thursday at 20 years of age. nepalnews.com br May 22

Summiteers of joint Nepal, India army expedition

Capt. Sunil Singh Rathour, Sub. Hari Bahadur Basnet, 44, Sgt. Lok Bahadur Magar, 37, and Nayak Dutta Bahadur Budha, 42, of the Royal Nepal Army climbed the peak.

Maj. Saurav Singh Shekhawat, 33, Sub. Chhiring Anchok, 45, and Hav. Jagat Singh Negi, 25, were members of the Indian Army team.

Pasang Rinzi Sherpa, 25, Pemba Chhring Sherpa, 42, Pasang Rita Sherpa, 25, Pemba Rinzi Sherpa, 26, Lhakpa Sherpa, Pemba Gyalzen Sherpa and Nima Sherpa, 24, accompanied the Nepali and Indian army men to the summit. nepalnews.com br May 22

Youngest Japanese climbs Everest

Takeshi Yamamura, 20, became the youngest Japanese to climb Mount Everest Thursday morning between 6.50 to 8.40 in the morning, the Ministry of Tourism said.

Yamamura is a student from Kanagawa. He stepped on the highest point on earth with four other Japanese and three Sherpa guides. They were members of a Tokyo University of Agriculture Alpine Club.

The Army and Japanese teams earlier climbed Lhotse, the world's fourth tallest peak.

Pemba Tsheri Sherpa, 17, is the youngest person to climb Everest. The record will never be broken until the Ministry of Tourism lifts a ban on teenagers climbing Everest. nepalnws.com br/km May 22

Nepali, Indian army men climb Everest

Seven Nepali and Indian army men accompanied by seven Sherpas climbed Mt. Everest Thursday morning, base camp reports said. 

The names of four Nepali and three Indian soldiers and seven Sherpas were not immediately available. The expedition climbed the 8848m high Mt. Everest to commemorate its ascent 50 years ago by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary. Bad weather foiled the first attempt Wednesday. 

The Royal Nepal army jointly climbed Everest with Japanese and Chinese eight years ago.

Meanwhile, the first live television pictures were broadcast from the summit of Everest on Wednesday, days before the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, CNN website reported. 

The broadcast was made by Chinese mountaineers, who reached the 8,848-meters (29,035-ft) peak via the northern slope, which lies in Tibet. They beat a U.S. cable station which was hoping to become the first to beam images from the summit. 

Climbers Awang Luobo and Zhaxi Ciren reached the summit first, followed soon after by Nima Ciren, according to The Associated Press. All three are ethnic Tibetans. 

The pictures on state-run China Central Television (CCTV), which reaches hundreds of millions of people, showed the jubilant but exhausted climbers resting at the summit in yellow, red and purple parkas, some wearing oxygen masks and goggles. nepalnews.com br May 22/(cnn.com)

Opposition to capture CDO offices

After violence during attempts to capture district development offices in 75 districts Wednesday, five opposition parties will attempt a takeover of the offices of the chief district officers nation-wide Thursday morning as part of their protests against the King who, they said, acted regressively while dismissing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on October 4 last year.

According to reports from Biratnagar more than three dozen political workers along with National Assembly parliamentarian Ashok Koirala were injured while they were conducting the meeting of the Morang District Development Committee. 

Police intervened during the meeting and charged the workers with batons injuring five of them seriously. Koirala sustained serious injuries in the head during the attack and was given six stitches. 

District Secretary of CPN-UML Naresh Pokhrel has also been injured seriously, according to reports from the district published in the leading vernacular newspapers. 

Similarly the number of political leaders injured in the police intervention has been quoted in dozens. There were injuries reported in similar police interventions in Pokhara, Narayangadh, Bara, Kavre, Bhadrapur, Mahottari and Rautahat, according to published reports.

The office bearers of the local bodies were out to call the council meetings of the District Development Committees (DDC) that were dissolved around a year back after their five-year term came to an end. 

The government was not able to hold the elections to the local bodies due to the growing violence and killings taking place in different parts of the country. Government appointees from the civil service have been running the local bodies.  

The government has warned it will deal sternly with protesters attempting to create obstructions during the protest Thursday. The agitation entered its second week Friday. nepalnews.com br/am May 22

NCCBL to open three outlets

Nepal Credit and  Commerce Bank Ltd. (NCCBL) will open three outlets in Biratnagar, Mahendranagar  and Birgunj, Managing Director Narendra Bhattarai of the Bank said.

The Bank's ninth branch will be opened in Biratnagar Friday; the Birgunj outlet will start operations on May 30 and the Mahendranagar branch on June 4.

The Bank was launched seven years ago in Siddharthanagar as a joint venture  with the Sri Lanka's Bank of Ceylon that has now withdrawn. nepalnews.com br May 22

Rupee appreciates again

The rupee appreciated  52 paisa against the dollar in the last two days. The rupee gained 25 paise against the dollar Thursday following a gain of 27 paisa Wednesday.

The Nepal Rashtra Bank fixed Thursday's selling rate at Rs.76.84 to the greenback. The Nepali and the Indian rupee began appreciating against the dollar following the U.S.-led war on Iraq. nepalnews.com br May 22

Monkey disease not diagnosed yet

American doctors are here to help diagnose an unidentified disease plaguing the monkeys of Swoyambhu. A four member medical team has collected stool, urine and  blood samples of 47 monkeys, the RSS said.

Since a monkey from one group does not mix with those from another group, samples from all four groups living in the vicinity have been taken.

The samples are to be taken to US and the information about the disease will be provided in two weeks time, informed general secretary of the Swoyambhu Management and Preservation General Committee Mahendra Ratna Buddhacharya.

Twenty-five monkeys have died of this disease so far and the otherwise docile monkeys have bitten eight persons from the area recently. nepalnews.com br May 22

Private schools threaten indefinite closure

The Private and Boarding Schools Nepal (PABSON) announced Wednesday that it would go for indefinite closure of 8,500 private schools across the nation from next week if the government continued to become a mute spectator to the closing down of the account sections of 35 private schools.

The revolutionary students have padlocked the account section of the schools demanding the restructuring of the fees. The government Wednesday formed a committee to settle the row between the student wing and the operators of private schools. nepalnews.com am May 22

RPP meeting demands formation of all-party govt.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) at the end of its three-day long central committee meeting demanded for the formation of an all-party government having executive powers. The demand according to the leaders has been made in order to forge consensus among the political parties and thereby address the political crisis in the country.

The party in its resolution passed at the end of the meeting said, "the meeting has decided to opt for an all-party government will full-fledged executive powers."

Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand boycotted the meetings despite his promises to participate in them. nepalnews.com am May 22

Despite the current "thaw' in India-Pakistan relations, neither HRD minister Murali Manohar Joshi nor any of his junior ministers or ministry officials will be attending a key meeting of South Asian education ministers in Islamabad beginning May 21, the Times News Network reported from New Delhi Wednesday. 

Though most SAARC members are sending ministers or deputy ministers to head their official delegations, India has just decided to send only a research fellow from the National Institute of Education and Public Administration, the Network reported. nepalnews.com br May 21

Two more appear before CIAA

On the third day after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) began acting of the Lamsal property commission report, a politician and a former IGP appeared before it on summons Wednesday, agency sources said. 

Former minister of state Mohan Bahadur Busneyt and former IGP Achut Krishna Kharel appeared before the agency which asked them to be present again in one week. 

Fifteen politicians, civil servants and police officers collected questionnaires from CIAA on summons Monday and Tuesday; the agency asked them to return the questionnaires with property details in one week nepalnews.com. br May 21

All party mechanisms for local bodies

Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand Wednesday called for a meeting with opposition and other parties to discuss forming all party bodies to run dissolved local bodies, an official announcement said. 

The then government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba dissolved local bodies last year but could not hold elections because of a communist insurgency after their five-year tenure ended. 

Chand called the all party meeting after his Deputy and Home Minister Badri Prasad Mandal said elections are not possible before February 2004. 

Opposition have, in the past, spurned calls by PM Chand to discuss national issues saying the government is illegal. nepalnews.com br May 21

Rs.35 million Swiss grant

Switzerland Wednesday gave Nepal a Rs.35 million grant to run projects under the Education, Health and Agriculture Ministries, the Finance Ministry said. 

Representatives of the two governments signed the grant agreement. nepalnews.com br May 21