Ellen Barry

The father of Kaji Sherpa, one of 13 Nepali mountaineering guides who lost his life in an avalanche on Mount Everest, comforts his grandson as he waits for the body of his son to arrive at Sherpa Monastery in Kathmandu April 19, 2014.

Almost no one goes up Mount Everest — without a Sherpa

Mount Everest climbs depend on Sherpa guides — the Nepali ethnic group renowned for years for leading teams of climbers up the world’s highest mountain peak. But a deadly avalanche last week has some Sherpas calling for better conditions — or at least greater rewards.Mount Everest climbs depend on Sherpa guides — the Nepali ethnic group renowned for years for leading teams of climbers up the world’s highest mountain peak. But a deadly avalanche last week has some Sherpas calling for better conditions — or at least greater rewards.

A no-show at Moscow airport gate, Snowden to seek asylum in Ecuador

Global Politics

Snowden to Meet With Human Rights Groups in Quest for Asylum

Snowden Pulls Request for Russian Aslyum

Putin Secures Six More Years as Russian President

Two Prominent Russians to Challenge Putin

A week after allegations of election fraud sent thousands of Russians into the streets chanting “Russia without Putin,” two prominent men have stepped forward to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in next year’s presidential election. Mikhail Prokhorov, a billionaire  oligarch best known to Americans as the owner of the New Jersey Nets, and Alexsei Kudrin, a […]

Russian Parliamentary Elections Show Dissatisfaction with Putin

Amidst reports of election tampering by international monitors  and Russians via social media sites,  Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, just barely carried 50 percent of the votes.  United Russia will now hold  238 seats in the Duma, down from 315. An exit poll also revealed that Putin’s approval rating shrank from 64 percent in 2007 to 48.5 percent.      […]