A detailed account has emerged of the criminal acts to which Megaupload coders Bram van der Kolk and Mathias Ortmann pleaded guilty today.The prosecution’s “summary of facts” to which they pleaded guilty includes an admission from…

Nepal is considering relocating Everest Base Camp due to environmental concerns.

According to Nepal's Department of Tourism Director-General, Taranath Adhikari, Base Camp's location faces some risk from the melt of the nearby Khumbu glacier.

"We have received recommendations from numerous stakeholders to relocate the base camp. While no decisions have been made yet, we are taking these suggestions very seriously," Adhikari told CNN Travel.

READ MORE: Melbourne produce companies struggle as food costs soar

These stakeholders include local residents, mountaineers and environmental experts.

However, any major changes to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will not be made hastily.

Since research activities can only be conducted during spring, it could take two to three years to make a decision. Some studies took place during this year's spring climbing season, which generally peaks in May.

Once involved parties complete their research, they will likely need to present a proposal to the Nepali government. Nepal's Cabinet would have the final say on a decision.

Adhikari cited "anthropogenic activities" – otherwise known as human behaviours – and climate change as issues affecting Base Camp. Khumbu glacier is melting at a speed faster than the natural rate.

READ MORE: South Australian couple lose $7k in text message scam

This is not the first time concerned parties have sounded the alarm about environmental damage at Mount Everest.

A study in the Nature Portfolio Journal of Climate and Atmospheric Science published earlier this year revealed that ice formed over a period of 2000 years on the South Col Glacier melted in around 25 years.

Paul Mayewski, the expedition leader and the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, told CNN that the findings showed "a complete change from what has been experienced in that area, throughout probably all of the period of occupation by humans in the mountains".

Climate change is affecting many of the world's most precious places.

READ MORE: When travellers should arrive at airports amid July chaos warning

"Nepal alone cannot reduce carbon emissions and global warming impact," Adhikari said.

"However, we can mitigate some matters by doing such kind of temporary measures

"On the one hand, we want to preserve the mountain and the glacier. On the other hand, we don't want to affect the mountain economy."

Balancing desires to climb Everest with the needs of local communities has been an ongoing challenge in Nepal.

Tourism is the country's fourth-largest industry, employing 11.5 per cent of Nepalis in some form, whether that means working in a hotel or guesthouse or guiding foreign tourists up the world's tallest mountains.

Permits to climb Everest cost $15,900 per person. A portion of that money is earmarked for communities near the mountain.

The risks of mountaineering are also serious. In 2015, Nepal banned novice climbers from Everest citing safety concerns and overcrowding.

Letting too many climbers ascend within the short window of time permitted by weather can result in "traffic jams," which often have deadly results.

Mount Everest's Base Camp is 5400 metres above sea level.

A proposed location for a new Base Camp might be 200m-300m below the current altitude.

Ten-month-old Poseidyn Hemopo-Pickering received “catastrophic head injuries” at his South Auckland home on the day before he died, prosecutors said today as the murder trial began for his father. Anthony Simon Pickering, a 32-year-old…

Travellers moving through some of Europe's biggest airports are suffering excruciating waits as they try to head off on summer holidays for the first time since coronavirus restrictions eased.

A photo of mountains of baggage in London's Heathrow airport, one of the world's busiest terminals, has gone viral on social media and captured the epic scale of the problem.

In mainland Europe, people flying out of Schiphol airport in Amsterdam have faced hours-long waits to check-in.

READ MORE: Airport chaos forecast for school holidays

People posting to social media have complained of missing flights despite turning up many hours ahead of scheduled take-off times.

Much like horror scenes which emerged in Melbourne and Sydney airports earlier this year, key airports in European cities have been hit by staff shortages and complicated security clearance processes.

https://twitter.com/C_Timb/status/1537872819282972676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/v_lano/status/1538510643082543104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/giovannigaetani/status/1537866943126024192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The chief executive of Heathrow Airport has previously warned it could be 18 months before it can properly cope with peak travel periods again.

Margy Osmand, boss of Australia's Tourism and Transport Forum, did not think the chaotic scenes would dissuade people from travelling.

"People need to be prepared for the queues," she told Today.

Pictures of "baggage mountains at Heathrow" showed things could be much worse in Australia, she said.

Sydney Airport issued a warning this week that people flying during the school holidays, which begin this week, should expect big delays.

A total of 29 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's self-declared air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, according to the island's Defence Ministry.

The Defence Ministry said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force planes were a mix of fighter jets, early warning and control aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, electronic intelligence aircraft, and aerial refuelling aircraft.

It was the third-highest daily number of Chinese jets entering Taiwan's ADIZ since the start of the year and comes less than a month after China sent 30 warplanes on a similar mission.

READ MORE: 'Top Gun: Maverick' brings back the Taiwan flag

In response, the Taiwanese military scrambled combat aircraft to warn the Chinese jets away, issued radio warnings and deployed air defence missile systems to monitor the activities, the Defence Ministry added.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.

But China's ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views the self-ruled island as part of its territory – despite having never controlled it.

Beijing has not ruled out military force to take Taiwan and has kept pressure on the democratic island over the past few years with frequent warplane flights into the island's ADIZ.

READ MORE: China has the power to take Taiwan, but it would pay a bloody price

An ADIZ is unilaterally imposed and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined under international law as extending 12 nautical miles from a territory's shoreline.

The US Federal Aviation Administration defines it as "a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security".

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait

The issue of Taiwan has been at the forefront of US-China relations in recent months.

Tensions between Washington, which is committed to supporting the island's self-defence, and Beijing over Taiwan dominated headlines earlier this month when their respective defence ministers met at the Shangri-La Dialogue defence conference in Singapore.

In a keynote speech in Singapore, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe accused the United States of being a "bully" in the region and vowed the PLA would "fight to the very end" to stop Taiwanese independence.

READ MORE: Biden pledges US would respond 'militarily' if China attacked Taiwan

After the Shangri-La conference, China's Foreign Ministry reasserted previous statements that the Taiwan Strait "is not international waters".

"The waters of the Taiwan Strait extend from the coasts on both sides of the Strait to the centreline of the Strait, and are China's internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone in that order," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a briefing on June 13, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and China's domestic law.

Reiterating Beijing's stance on Wednesday, an editorial in China's state-run tabloid Global Times claimed that the entire Taiwan Strait – the 180km-wide body of water between Taiwan and mainland China – is not international waters, but rather completely under Beijing's jurisdiction.

The actions of US and foreign warships that regularly pass through the strait constitute provocations that violate Chinese sovereignty and are not innocent passage, a recognised international right, the Global Times said.

The US Navy sees things differently, regularly sending warships through the strait, including on May 10, when the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal made a transit.

Similarly to airspace, international law stipulates that a country's territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from its coastline.

A man is recovering from stab wounds after he was attacked in Melbourne's south-east last week.

Police say the man was approached by three men and a woman on Buckingham Street in Springvale at 9.30pm last Thursday.

It's alleged the offenders knocked the man to the ground and stabbed him multiple times before he was kicked in the head.

READ MORE: 'Steepest mountain we've climbed': Melbourne produce companies struggle as food costs soar

The offenders fled the scene before police arrived.

The 23-year-old Springvale man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Southern Metropolitan Regional Crime Team Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Cox said police wouldn't tolerate any form of violent or criminal behaviour.

"The physical and mental damage caused by knife crime is devastating, with victims, their families and loved ones left feeling endangered, threatened and vulnerable," he said.

Cox said police were currently following up a number of lines of enquiry.

"We are sending a very clear message to anyone carrying a knife: if you are involved in violent behaviour that threatens the safety of our community, expect a knock on your door from police."

Police say investigations are continuing are continuing and believe the parties involved could be known to each other.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air For centuries, Māori have marked the reappearance of the small cluster of Matariki stars in the mid-winter sky, by gathering to enjoy the bounty of harvest from the earth,…

Mortgage holders have been warned of more pain after ANZ joined Westpac in hiking fixed interest rates.

Westpac yesterday increased fixed rates by 0.5 per cent for customers looking to lock in their rate.

ANZ today announced an increase of 0.9 per cent.

READ MORE: Melbourne produce companies struggle as food costs soar

"ANZ and Westpac have fired off yet another round of hikes as the cost of fixed-rate funding continues to rise, alongside market expectations the cash rate could hit 4 per cent," RateCity research director Sally Tindall said.

"We've now got fixed rates for owner-occupiers starting with a 'five' and in some cases a 'six'."

RateCity analysis showed the majority of ANZ's owner-occupier fixed rates had risen by 3.5 per cent or more in the past 12 months.

READ MORE: South Australian couple lose $7k in text message scam

One of the biggest rises has been to the bank's three-year fixed rate – it has shot up by 3.85 per cent in less than a year.

Tindall said that with the Reserve Bank also set to increase the cash rate further, there would be further struggles for loan holders.

"The RBA is ripping the low-rate band-aid off, and quickly. For many Australians it's going to sting," she said.

"Variable-rate borrowers should prepare themselves for another double hike in July and for the cash rate to rise above two per cent by Christmas – potentially well above this mark."

READ MORE: When travellers should arrive at airports amid July chaos warning

Tindall said families that feared they'd struggle under a "more normal rate environment" should start making changes now.

"Review all your regular bills and expenses to see where you can make cutbacks, or potentially switch to a more competitive deal," she said.

"If you can't see a path through, put up your hand and ask for help. There are experts that can provide free financial advice to help you chart a course through these difficult financial times."

The Ombudsman’s office is no longer a shambles but it struggles with some civil servants who have a 1950s attitude to transparency, MPs were told today.Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier and Speaker Trevor Mallard addressed a Parliamentary…

OPINION: There’s a video doing the rounds on social media at the moment of two students at Otago Boys’ High School in Dunedin giving another student what could only be described as a “hiding”.It seems it’s mostly kids in Dunedin…