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Everest 'Grows' as China, Nepal Agree New Height

In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. (AP)
In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. (AP)
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Everest 'Grows' as China, Nepal Agree New Height

In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. (AP)
In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. (AP)

The highest point on Earth got a bit higher Tuesday as China and Nepal finally agreed on a precise elevation for Mount Everest after years of debate.

The agreed height of 8,848.86 meters (29,031 feet) -- unveiled at a news conference in Kathmandu -- was 86 centimeters (2.8 feet) higher than the measurement previously recognized by Nepal, and more than four meters above China's official figure.

This discrepancy was due to China measuring the rock base on the summit and not -- as with the new reading -- the covering of snow and ice on the peak.

Everest straddles the border of Nepal and China.

Employing trigonometry hundreds of miles away on the Indian plains, British colonial geographers first determined Everest's height in 1856 at 8,840 meters (29,002 feet) above sea level.

After Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa famously first reached the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, an Indian survey readjusted the altitude to 8,848 meters (29,028 feet).

That measurement was widely accepted, with the number appealing not only to ambitious mountaineers but also inspiring names for adventure clothing lines and restaurants.

In 1999 the US National Geographic Society concluded the world's highest point was 8,850 meters (29,035 feet), but Nepal never officially recognized this -- although it is widely quoted.

Tectonic plates
China meanwhile conducted several surveys of its own, and in 2005 came up with a measurement of 8,844.43 meters (29,015 feet).

The provoked a row with Nepal, which was only resolved in 2010 when Kathmandu and Beijing agreed that their measurements referred to different things -- one to the height of Everest's rock and the other to the height of its snowcap.

Nepal decided to conduct a survey -- initially alone and later joined by China -- after suggestions that tectonic plate movements including a major earthquake in 2015 may have affected the height.

About 300 Nepali experts and surveyors were involved in the exercise -- some on foot and others in helicopters -- to reach data collection stations.

Last spring, Nepali surveyors reached the summit of Everest with over 40 kilograms (90 pounds) of equipment, including a Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) receiver.

They spent roughly two freezing hours collecting data as dozens of climbers stood on top of the mountain.

"Climbing Everest alone is a challenging task, but we also had to measure it," Khim Lal Gautam, a Survey Department official who lost a toe to frostbite in the expedition, told AFP.

China involvement
Nepal was due to release the results earlier this year but then China became involved after a visit to Nepal in October 2019 by President Xi Jinping.

This year a Chinese survey expedition had a quieter working space on the summit as they were the only climbers on a mountain shut because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dang Yamin, an expert at the National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV that the final result was an average value between the measurements by Nepal and China, in accordance with scientific rules.

"Various countries have completed the measurement of the height... several times," said Padma Kumari Aryal, Nepal's land minister.

"The results have been different on different occasions, so today we end these speculations."

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German Killed in Swiss Avalanche, 4 Other Skiers Hurt

Swiss Air Force's aerobatic team "The Patrouille Suisse" perform prior to the FIS alpine skiing Men's World Cup Super G event in Wengen, Swiss Alps, on January 19, 2026. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)
Swiss Air Force's aerobatic team "The Patrouille Suisse" perform prior to the FIS alpine skiing Men's World Cup Super G event in Wengen, Swiss Alps, on January 19, 2026. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)
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German Killed in Swiss Avalanche, 4 Other Skiers Hurt

Swiss Air Force's aerobatic team "The Patrouille Suisse" perform prior to the FIS alpine skiing Men's World Cup Super G event in Wengen, Swiss Alps, on January 19, 2026. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)
Swiss Air Force's aerobatic team "The Patrouille Suisse" perform prior to the FIS alpine skiing Men's World Cup Super G event in Wengen, Swiss Alps, on January 19, 2026. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

A German man has been killed in an avalanche in the Swiss alps and four other people were hurt as they were cross-country skiing, Swiss police said Saturday.

The incident happened on Friday, on the Piz Badus peak near the village of Tujetsch in the center-south of the country, AFP reported.

Police said a group of seven cross-country skiers were swept up in the avalanche, with five of them buried underneath.

One member of the party raised the alarm in a phone call to local police, who deployed helicopters with rescue workers and dogs to the site.

The German man was found lifeless under the snow and ice, the police said, adding that the four others hurt -- whose nationalities were not given -- suffered light injuries and were flown to nearby hospitals.

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NASA's New Moon Rocket Heads to the Pad Ahead of Astronaut Launch

NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)
NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)
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NASA's New Moon Rocket Heads to the Pad Ahead of Astronaut Launch

NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)
NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)

NASA’s giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.

The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1 mph (1.6 kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. The four-mile (six-kilometer) trek was expected to take until nightfall.

Throngs of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years, The Associated Press reported. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.

Weighing in at 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.

The first and only other SLS launch — which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon — took place back in November 2022.

“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.

Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyses and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won’t orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will take come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience — will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.

They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. Depending on how the demo goes, “that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday.

The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.

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Iron Age Teeth Fossils Reveal Diet Diversity of Italians 2,500 Years Ago

The fresco on the wall of a house in Pompeii that dates back 2,000 years (AFP)
The fresco on the wall of a house in Pompeii that dates back 2,000 years (AFP)
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Iron Age Teeth Fossils Reveal Diet Diversity of Italians 2,500 Years Ago

The fresco on the wall of a house in Pompeii that dates back 2,000 years (AFP)
The fresco on the wall of a house in Pompeii that dates back 2,000 years (AFP)

Italians began exploring a varied diet sometime between the 7th and 6th centuries BC, according to a new analysis of ancient teeth from Iron Age Italians.

Unravelling details about the lifestyles of ancient cultures is a challenging task, as it requires specific, well-preserved fossils of long-deceased individuals, The Independent reported.

Fossil human teeth are an excellent resource to understand ancient diets, acting as archives of each individual’s life history.

However, collecting information from teeth across different eras remains a challenge.

In the new study, researchers combined multiple analyses of teeth remains from the Italian archaeological site of Pontocagnano to interpret the health and diet of people in the region during the 7th and 6th centuries BC.

Scientists assessed the dental tissue of 30 teeth from 10 individuals, obtaining data from canine and molar teeth to reconstruct each ancient person’s history during the first six years of their lives.

Researchers found that the Iron Age Italians had a diet rich in cereals, legumes, abundant carbohydrates, and even fermented foods and drinks.

“We could follow childhood growth and health with remarkable precision and identify traces of cereals, legumes, and fermented foods in adulthood, revealing how this community adapted to environmental and social challenges,” said Roberto Germano, an author of the study.

Emanuela Cristiani, another author of the study said, “In the case of Pontocagnano, the analysis of dental calculus revealed starch granules from cereals and legumes, yeast spores, and plant fibres, providing a very concrete picture of the diet and some daily activities of these Iron Age communities.”

The findings offer strong evidence of this ancient Italian population regularly consuming fermented foods and beverages, researchers said.

Their diets likely diversified at the time as their contact with Mediterranean cultures increased, they added.

The researchers noted that while the study may not be completely representative of the broader Italian population, it provides a “very concrete picture” of the diet and some daily activities of Iron Age communities in the Italian region.

“This and other modern approaches represent a major technological and disciplinary advancement that is revolutionizing the study of the biocultural adaptations of past populations,” said Alessia Nava, another author of the study from Sapienza University of Rome.