WORLD
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Japanese man, 80, oldest to top Mount Everest By Binaj Gurubacharya Associated Press
KATMANDU, NEPAL — An 80-year-old Japanese man who began the year with his fourth heart operation became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest on Thursday, a feat he called “the world’s best feeling� even with an 81-year-old Nepalese climber not far behind him. Yuichiro Miura, a former extreme skier who also climbed the 29,035foot peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05 a.m. local time, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura’s Tokyo-based support team. It was a moment Japanese news agency Kyodo captured on video from 6 miles away, using a camera crew at 18,000 feet elevation on another mountain. “We have arrived at the summit,� Miura said in a radio transmission to Kyodo from the world’s highest point. “80 years and 7 months. ... The world’s most incredible mountaineering team had helped me all the way up here.� Miura and his son Gota made a phone call from the summit, prompting his daughter Emili to smile broadly and clap her hands in footage shown by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. “I made it!� Miura said over the phone. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.� Nepalese mountaineering official Gyanendra Shrestha, at the Everest base camp, confirmed that Miura had reached the summit and was the oldest person to do so. The previous oldest was Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, the 81-year-old on Miura’s heels. Sherchan is preparing to scale the peak next week despite digestive problems he suffered several days ago. On Wednesday, Sherchan said by telephone from the base camp that he was in good health and “ready to take up the challenge.� The two elderly mountaineers have crossed paths before. Miura, who had become the oldest Everest climber with his ascent at age 70, would have reclaimed the title in 2008 as a 75-year-old, but Sherchan, then 76, reached the summit just a day before he did. Emili Miura said Wednesday that his father “doesn’t really care� about the rivalry. “He’s doing it for his own challenge.� Sherchan’s team leader, Temba, who uses one name, said Sherchan will congratulate the new record holder when he returns to the base camp, and he won’t turn back until he completes his mission. Sherchan got good news Thursday when Nepal’s government approved financial aid for his climb. The Cabinet approved $11,200 for Sherchan’s expedition and waived $70,000 in permit fees, said Bimal Gautam, the press adviser to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Miura conquered the mountain despite undergoing heart surgery in January for an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, his fourth heart operation since 2007, his daughter said. He also broke his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident.
Friday, May 24, 2013
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Suspect identified in murder of British soldier By Gregory Katz and Paisley Dodds Associated Press
LONDON — A man seen with bloody hands wielding a butcher knife after the killing of a British soldier on the streets of London was described as a convert to Islam who took part in demonstrations with a banned radical group, two Muslim hardliners said Thursday. Police raided houses in connection with the brazen slaying of the off-duty soldier, identified as Lee Rigby, of the 2nd Rigby Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who served in Afghanistan. In addition to the two suspects who were hospitalized after being shot by police, authorities said they had arrested a man and a woman, both 29, on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Police would not say whether it appeared Rigby had been targeted specifically because of his mili-
Sang Tan/AP Photo
A POLICE SEARCH TEAM leaves the scene of a terror attack in which Lee Rigby, a British soldier, was killed by two men in Woolwich, England. tary service. Although he was not in uniform at the time he was killed, he was said by witnesses to be wearing a T-shirt for a British veterans’ charity. Authorities have not identified either of the two wounded suspects and have not said when they would do so. Officials in Britain usually
wait to name suspects until charges have been filed. Anjem Choudary, the former head of the radical group al-Muhajiroun, told The Associated Press that the man depicted in startling video that emerged after Rigby’s death was named Michael Adebolajo, a Christian who converted to Islam around
2003 and took part in several demonstrations by the group in London. The BBC broadcast video from 2007 showing Adebolajo standing near Choudary at a rally. Omar Bakri Muhammad, who now lives in Lebanon but had been a radical Muslim preacher in London, also said he
recognized the man seen on TV as Adebolajo and said he attended his London lectures in the early 2000s. Bakri, speaking from Lebanon, said he remembers Adebolajo as a “shy person� who was keen to learn about Islam and asked interesting questions. “He used to listen more than he spoke,� Bakri said. “I was very surprised to learn that he is the suspect in the attack.� Mary Warder, who has lived in the Woolwich area for more than 30 years, told the AP said she had seen both of the suspects preaching on the streets. Shopkeepers, however, said they couldn’t remember seeing them. The two men suspected of killing the 25-year-old Rigby had been part of previous investigations by security services, a British official said Thursday, as investigators searched several locations and tried to determine whether the men were part of a wider terrorist plot. There also was no clear indication on when or where the suspects might have been radicalized.
Clashes in Lebanon feed fear of Syria spillover; 5 dead By Zeina Karam Associated Press
BEIRUT — Lebanese supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad fired heavy machine guns and lobbed mortar shells at each other Thursday in some of the worst fighting in the port city of Tripoli in years. The battles raised the five-day death toll to 16 and fed fears of the Syrian civil war spreading to Lebanon and other neighboring countries. The violence also add-
ed to the urgency to U.S.Russian efforts to bring both sides of the Syrian conflict to a peace conference in Geneva. Members of the Syrian opposition began three-day meetings in Istanbul to hash out a unified position on whether to attend, while maintaining that Assad’s departure from power should be the goals of the negotiations. Lebanon has been on edge since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011. The country, which is still struggling to recover from its own 15-year civil war, is
sharply divided along sectarian lines and into proand anti-Assad camps. The overt involvement by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shiite militant group alongside Assad’s regime has sparked outrage among many Sunnis in Lebanon who identify with the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. Deadly sectarian street fighting has erupted on several occasions, mostly in Tripoli, Lebanon’s largest city and a hotbed for Sunni Islamists. This week’s fighting has been
linked to a Syrian regime offensive against the rebel-held city of Qusair in western Syria that has included Hezbollah fighters supporting Syrian troops against the rebels. Tripoli is overwhelmingly Sunni but has a tiny community of Alawites, members of Assad’s minority sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Residents reported more than six hours of fighting that began late Wednesday and continued through Thursday morning. Mortar shells were used for the first
time. Ambulances rushed back and forth, transporting casualties to hospitals as officials used mosque loudspeakers to urge citizens to take shelter in basements. Schools and many businesses were shuttered Thursday as sporadic fighting continued. Five people were killed, pushing the overall death toll to 16 since fighting began on Sunday, with 200 people wounded, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
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Fredrik Sandberg/AP Photo/Scanipx Sweden
A CAR BURNS after youths rioted on Tuesday in Kista, a Stockholm suburb. Observers say that there has been a surge of angst in society as inequality rises on a backdrop of burgeoning immigrant numbers.
Sweden riots raise inequality questions By Malin Rising Associated Press Writer
HUSBY, SWEDEN — Sweden has long been a bastion of generous social welfare and an egalitarian political culture. So many people were shocked when scores of youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze during rioting in several largely immigrant areas near Stockholm this week. Few dispute that the violence was probably touched off by the fatal police shooting of an elderly man who had locked himself in an apartment wielding a knife. But some residents in the area accused police who responded to the violence of racism. For some, the real reason for the unrest is the high unemployment and isolation of youths in the southern and western Stockholm suburbs where the violence occurred — ones who see little future for themselves or access to Sweden’s prosperity. “The segregation in Stockholm increases all the time, and it’s happening fast,� said Nina Edstrom, a social anthropologist who promotes
integration at a center for multiculturalism in Fittja, where some of the violence occurred. “There are very large social differences. There are many unemployed, frustrated young people. I’m not surprised something like this happens,� she said. Still, Edstrom added, it would be a mistake to see the youths involved in the riots as political activists. Overall, about 15 percent of Sweden’s 9.5 million people were born abroad, compared to 10 percent 10 years ago. The influx has mostly come from war-torn countries such as Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Syria. In 2012 alone, Sweden accepted 44,000 asylum seekers, up by nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. During the rioting, 15-year-old Sebastian Horniak said he saw police firing warning shots in the air and calling a woman a “monkey.� Quena Soruco, a representative for Megafonen, an organization that represents citizens in Stockholm’s suburbs, said she heard police say “rats, hobos, Negroes.�
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