The world today

Mount Everest is lighter...

The icy peak of Mount Everest is lighter by about 1,000 pounds of trash.
More than a dozen mountaineers pitched in for the latest effort to
tidy up the world's highest mountain. Accumulated oxygen canisters and
other debris have earned Mount Everest the reputation as the world's
highest garbage dump.
It's the fifth such effort by Japanese mountaineer Ken Noguchi. He
said he's collected nearly 20,000 pounds of garbage since he began his
campaign in 2000.
This year, Noguchi said he's starting to see a cleaner mountain.
Under new Nepalese law, climbers and their guides are required to
carry out all gear and trash or forfeit a $4,000 deposit.

An Alabama boy
An Alabama boy has used his revolver on an enormous wild boar, killing
the animal and sending the youngster on his way to (15 minutes of) fame.
Jamison Stone, 11, used a .50 caliber revolver to kill the pig at a
commercial hunting preserve in east Alabama about three weeks ago.
Stone, his father and two guides tracked the pig, but bagging the
swine took about three hours of chasing through hilly woods before a
final shot at point blank range brought it down for good.
Stone's father, Mike Stone, said the animal weighed more than 1,000
lbs. and was more than nine feet long. The tusks measured five inches.
It took heavy equipment to transport the animal out of the woods. The
head went to a taxidermist. The rest is headed for the sausage
factory. The Stones could net 500 to 700 lbs. of sausage meat.
If the claims are accurate, the trophy boar eclipses Hogzilla, the
famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions before it
was killed in south Georgia in 2004.

A phony veterinarian...
A phony veterinarian has been sentenced to probation and mandatory
psychiatric treatment after pleading guilty in New York to performing
unauthorized medical procedures on at least 14 animals.
Steven Vassall was exposed in an undercover sting involving a kitten
named Fred. An investigator posing as Fred's owner called Vassall to
an apartment rigged with a hidden camera.
The fake vet told the investigator he could neuter Fred for $135.
Vassall was arrested as he left the apartment with the kitten and the
cash.
For his part in the sting, Fred -- a rescued stray -- was given a tiny
badge for his collar and a Law Enforcement Appreciation Award.
Officials had planned to use him in a school program about animal
care, but the 15-month old tabby died in August after wandering into
traffic.

A child destroyed?

A child destroyed a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork at Kansas City's
Union Station, and it was caught on tape.
Tibetan monks had been creating the sand art, which looks like a
colorful tapestry on the floor, for two days.
A surveillance camera recorded a young boy, possibly a toddler, who
walked into the sand and started dancing, while his mother mailed a
package at the post office. After a few minutes, the video showed a
woman pull the child away.
"Never happened before, never happened before like that," monk Jampa
Tenzin said.
The monks said they were not angry at the child or his mother.
Instead, they've been hard at work to finish the piece.
Tibetan monks are creating sand art on the floor of Union Station.
The monks are on a yearlong tour of the United States and Canada to
raise money for their monastery. The original monastery in Tibet was
destroyed. They were about halfway finished when they left for the day
Tuesday, roping off the artwork before they left.
The lead monk said it was "no problem," adding, "we will have to work
harder" to get it finished before Saturday. It will then be swept up
and offered to onlookers for their gardens. The rest will be placed in
the Missouri River.