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Nepal Sharply Hikes Permit Fee for Everest Climbers 

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. (Reuters) 
Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. (Reuters) 
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Nepal Sharply Hikes Permit Fee for Everest Climbers 

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. (Reuters) 
Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. (Reuters) 

Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by more than 35%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials said on Wednesday.

Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers is a key source of revenue and employment for the cash-strapped nation, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.

A permit to climb the 8,849 meter (29,032 feet) Mount Everest will cost $15,000, said Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, announcing a 36% rise in the $11,000 fee that has been in place for nearly a decade.

"The royalty (permit fees) had not been reviewed for a long time. We have updated them now," Regmi told Reuters.

The new rate will come into effect from September and apply for the popular climbing April-May season along the standard South East Ridge, or South Col route, pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Fees for the less popular September-November season and the rarely climbed December-February season will also increase by 36%, to $7,500 and $3,750 respectively.

Some expedition organizers said the increase, under discussion since last year, was unlikely to discourage climbers. About 300 permits are issued each year for Everest.

"We expected this hike in permit fees," said Lukas Furtenbach of Austria-based expedition organizer, Furtenbach Adventures.

He said it was an "understandable step" from the government of Nepal. "I am sure the additional funds will be somehow used to protect the environment and improve safety on Everest," Furtenbach said.

Regmi did not say what the extra revenue would be used for.

Hundreds of climbers try to scale Mount Everest and several other Himalayan peaks every year.

Nepal is often criticized by mountaineering experts for allowing too many climbers on Everest and doing little to keep it clean or to ensure climbers' safety.

Regmi said cleaning campaigns were organized to collect garbage and rope fixing as well as other safety measures were undertaken regularly.

Climbers returning from Everest say the mountain is becoming increasingly dry and rocky with less snow or other precipitation, which experts say could be due to global warming or other environmental changes.

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Varieties

Prince Harry's Lawsuit against The Sun is Part of a Long Saga of Alleged Tabloid Misbehavior

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, departs the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, Britain June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, departs the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, Britain June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
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Prince Harry's Lawsuit against The Sun is Part of a Long Saga of Alleged Tabloid Misbehavior

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, departs the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, Britain June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, departs the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, Britain June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

Prince Harry’s trial against the publisher of The Sun, which opens Tuesday, follows two decades of legal drama over the cutthroat practices of the British press in the days when newspapers sold millions of copies and shaped the popular conversation.
The scandal destroyed a Rupert Murdoch -owned newspaper and cost Murdoch hundreds of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits from the targets of tabloid attention. And it fueled Harry’s quest to tame the British press, which he blames for dividing his family, blighting his life and hounding both his late mother Princess Diana and his wife, Meghan Markle, The Associated Press said.
Here are key moments in the saga:
November 2005 Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid the News of the World reports that Prince William has a knee injury. A Buckingham Palace complaint prompts a police inquiry that reveals information for the story came from a voicemail that was hacked.
January 2007 Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World, is sentenced to six months in prison and the paper’s royal editor Clive Goodman to four months for hacking the phones of royal aides to listen to messages left by William and others. Goodman later acknowledges hacking William’s phone 35 times and that of his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton — now Princess of Wales — more than 150 times.
Murdoch’s company initially maintains that the illicit behavior was the work of two rogue employees working without editors’ knowledge.
January 2011 British police reopen an investigation into tabloid phone hacking after the News of the World says it has found “significant new information.”
April 2011 The News of the World admits liability for phone hacking. The following month, it agrees to pay actress Sienna Miller 100,000 pounds to settle a hacking lawsuit. Since then, Murdoch’s News Corp. has paid to settle claims by scores of celebrities, politicians, athletes and others against both the News of the World and its sister tabloid, The Sun – though it has never accepted liability for hacking by The Sun.
July 2011 The Guardian newspaper reports that News of the World journalists hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl, while police were searching for her in 2002. The revelation causes public outrage, and prompts Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World.
November 2012 A judge-led inquiry into media ethics ordered by then-Prime Minister David Cameron concludes that “outrageous” behavior by some in the press had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained.” Judge Brian Leveson recommends the creation of a strong press watchdog, backed by government regulation. His findings have only been partially implemented.
October 2013 Former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks go on trial alongside several other defendants at London’s Central Criminal Court on charges of phone hacking and illegal payments to officials. After an eight-month trial, Coulson is convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Brooks is acquitted. She is now chief executive of Murdoch’s British newspaper business.
December 2015 England’s chief prosecutor says there will be no more criminal cases against Murdoch’s UK company or its employees, or against 10 people under investigation from the rival Mirror Group Newspapers, including former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Both companies continue to pay to settle hacking lawsuits.
2019-onwards Prince Harry launches lawsuits against three newspaper groups – Murdoch's News Group, the Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers. He claims stories about his schooldays, teenage shenanigans and relationships with girlfriends were obtained by hacking, bugging, deception or other forms of illegal intrusion.
February 2021 Harry’s wife Meghan wins an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over publication of a letter she wrote in 2018 to her estranged father.
June 2023 Harry testifies in his case against the Mirror Group, becoming the first British royal in more than a century to appear in the witness box.
December 2023 Harry wins his case against the Mirror Group when a judge rules that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade. He is awarded legal costs and 140,000 pounds in damages.
February 2024 The Mirror Group agrees to pay Harry legal costs and undisclosed damages to settle outstanding claims. Harry says he is vindicated and vows: “Our mission continues.”
Jan. 21, 2025 The trial is due to open in lawsuits by Harry and former Labor Party lawmaker Tom Watson against The Sun. They are the only two remaining from among dozens of claimants after others accepted settlements rather than risk potentially ruinous legal bills. The prince is due to testify in person during the 10-week trial.
Harry’s case against Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, is ongoing.