In Brief: 250 missing in fresh avalanche

250 missing in fresh avalanche

KATHMANDU - Up to 250 people are missing in Nepal after an avalanche hit a village in a popular trekking area to the north of the capital Kathmandu, district governor Uddhav Bhattarai said.

Foreign tourists may be among the missing in the avalanche, which hit the village of Ghodatabela, in Rasuwa district near the centre of last Saturday's quake, yesterday at around noon (local time).

REUTERS


Chinese dam workers trapped

KATHMANDU - The Chinese authorities are racing to rescue over 250 workers trapped in a dam in the mountainous terrain of northern Nepal before they run out of food.

The Chinese-backed Rasuwagadhi Hydropower station was "severely damaged" in last Saturday's quake, according to state-owned China Three Gorges Corp.

The workers have enough food to last only two more days, it said, adding that two were killed and several injured. China is seeking to rescue them with involvement of the regional government of Tibet and the People's Liberation Army's Chengdu Command, said the statement.

BLOOMBERG


Everest height unchanged

SYDNEY - The quake that devastated Nepal and left thousands of people dead shifted the earth beneath Kathmandu by up to several metres south, but the height of Mount Everest likely stayed the same, experts said yesterday.

According to early seismological data from sound waves that travel through earth after an earthquake, the ground beneath Kathmandu may have moved about 3m southward, said University of Cambridge tectonics expert James Jackson. But it is unlikely the height of Mount Everest - the highest peak in the world at 8,848m above sea level - changed more than a few millimetres, as it is not above the faultline.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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