London China has decided to restrict access to Mount Everest to carry out a clean-up of the world's highest

BY CHRISTOPHER BODEEN China is planning a major cleanup operation for Mount Everest in 2009 and may limit the number of climbers and other visitors, Tibet's environmental protection chief was quoted as saying on Monday. The cleanup and new measures are planned for the second half of 2009, Zhang Yongze told the official Xinhua News Agency. China has already enacted some restrictions, including forbidding vehicles from driving directly to the base camp which is at 16,995 feet (5,180 metres), Mr Yongze said.

When was Everest discovered as the worlds highest mountain? In 1847, Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor general of India, found a peak in the eastern end of the Himalayas which was higher than Kangchenjunga

India may finally have an answer to China's rail link to Tibet. Inspired by the rail link to Lhasa in their backyard, the Himachal Pradesh government is now planning one right through Manali into Leh. The state's Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has written to the PMO to help develop the virtually non-existent rail infrastructure in the strategically important state and has suggested that a broad gauge rail link be created right up to Leh and Ladakh.