LIMA, Peru – A Peruvian rescue team found the bodies of three American mountaineers killed during an icy climb high in the Andes mountains, authorities said yesterday.
A 15-member team located Brennan Larson, 24, of Vacaville, and Kristen Yoder, 21, and her brother, Dustin Yoder, 23, on Sunday afternoon in a 100-foot-deep crevasse on Artesonraju peak, said police Maj. Edmundo Vidal of the High Mountain Rescue Unit in Yungay.
The Yoders' mother, Kathy Yoder of Tucson, arrived in Yungay on Sunday. Larson was a geology student about to start his senior year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, said Wayne Laccoarce, his uncle.
Associated Press
Beijing-to-Tibet train makes debut
LHASA, China – After rolling under snow-covered peaks and crossing 2,500 miles, the first train to travel from Beijing to Tibet pulled into a station in Lhasa yesterday, inaugurating the world's highest railway and opening a new chapter in China's relentless assimilation of the once-remote mountain territory.
The Washington Post
Fighting kills 13 in Indian state
SRINAGAR, India – Clashes between government forces and suspected Islamic separatist militants killed 13 people in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, officials said yesterday.
More than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.
Associated Press
Thousands flee Philippines clashes
MANILA, Philippines – At least 5,000 villagers have fled their homes in nearly a week of sporadic clashes between Muslim guerrillas and pro-government militiamen in the southern Philippines, rebels and officials said yesterday.
Col. Felipe Tabas Jr., the military chief in the area, said clashes continued between Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and civilian volunteers armed by the local government in two villages of Maguindanao province's Mamapasano town, but that no new casualties have been reported.
Provincial administrator Nori Unas said 5,000 residents from nine municipalities “have evacuated to wherever it is safe, mostly along the national highway.”
Associated Press
6 Pakistan soldiers killed by explosion
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Six Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed when their vehicle was hit by an explosion in Timergarah in North West Frontier Province, police and hospital officials said.
Reuters
