- Germany's Oktoberfest opens under tight security after attacks
- Environmental protesters block French cruise liner port
- No place like home: Biden hosts 'Quad' leaders
- Zelensky says no UK, US go-ahead to use long-range missiles
- New Zealand edge Australia 31-28 in Bledisloe Cup thriller
- Japan orders evacuations as heavy rains trigger floods in quake-hit area
- New Zealand pilot freed in Indonesia after 19 months in rebel captivity
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli air strike kills top commanders
- Leading climate activist released from Vietnam jail
- Ethiopians struggle with bitter pill of currency reform
- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
Nepali mountaineer climbs Everest for record 27th time
Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa reached the top of Mount Everest for the 27th time on Wednesday, reclaiming the record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain.
"He successfully reached the summit this morning guiding a Vietnamese climber," Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organiser, told AFP.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) Everest, and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are typically calm.
Earlier Wednesday, British mountain guide Kenton Cool reached the world's highest point for the 17th time, extending his own record for the most summits by a non-Nepali.
Authorities have issued 478 permits to foreign climbers this year, the $11,000 fee part of total costs for a summit ranging from $45,000 to $200,000.
Since most will need a guide, more than 900 people -- a record -- will try to summit this season, which runs until early June.
The 53-year-old Kami Rita Sherpa had held the overall title since 2018, when he ascended Everest for the 22nd time, passing the previous mark he shared with two other Sherpa climbers, both of whom have since retired.
But on Sunday another climber, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, tied the record by reaching the top for the 26th time.
A guide for more than two decades, Kami Rita Sherpa first summited in 1994 when working for a commercial expedition.
Since then, he has climbed Everest almost every year, several times leading the first rope-fixing team to open the route to the top.
"These records were made not with an intention to make them but during my work as a guide," Sherpa told AFP last month as he headed to base camp.
- 'Everest man' -
Dubbed "the Everest man", Sherpa was born in 1970 in Thame, a village in the Himalayas renowned as a breeding ground for successful mountaineers.
Growing up, Sherpa watched his father and then his brother don climbing gear to join expeditions as mountain guides, and was soon following in their footsteps.
In 2019, he reached the summit twice in the span of six days.
Sherpa's client Wednesday was reportedly Chinh Chu, a Vietnamese billionaire who made his fortune in finance, while Cool guided Richard Walker, executive chairman of British supermarket chain Iceland Foods, to the top.
Nepali guides, usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest, are considered the backbone of the climbing industry and bear huge risks to carry equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.
Cool, 49, first climbed Everest in 2004 and his 16th ascent last year gave him the sole record for the most summits by a non-Nepali climber, but he told AFP then that he was "surprised" by the attention.
"In reality, it's not that amazing," he said, pointing out that many Sherpa guides had stood on the peak more often than him.
"People go 'it's a world record', it's not a world record," he said. "It's just that I happen to hold the non-Sherpa record, for whatever that is worth, which in my mind, (is) not very much."
Three Nepali climbers died on the mountain last month when a block of glacial ice fell and swept them into a deep crevasse as they were crossing the treacherous Khumbu icefall as part of a supply mission.
Fatalities climbed to four when a 69-year-old US mountaineer died this month during his acclimatisation rotation at around 6,400 metres.
R.Veloso--PC