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By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — April 28, 2015 … Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon at his Jerusalem office, held a consultation on Israel’s rescue efforts in Nepal. Israel Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, Foreign Ministry Director General Nissim Ben-Shetrit, GOC Home Front Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and MDA Director General Eli Bein, as well as representatives from the Justice and Public Security ministries, were also in attendance. “We are focusing on two efforts,” said Netanyahu. “Our first effort is to locate and rescue Israelis who are in distress in Nepal and enable their...

The avalanche of ice and rocks fell on the village of Langtang just after the ground started shaking that Saturday morning. Even before the family of Dawa Tamang could run for safety the debris had engulfed them. Tamang, 35, has a dazed look on his face at the courtyard of Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) where his family was evacuated by helicopter on Monday. Tamang himself was in Kathmandu with his elder son. Doctors examine his two-and-half year old son Thindup who broke both his legs while the family tried to escape from their house. His five-year-old daughter Pasang Lhamu escaped...

People stranded in remote villages and towns across Nepal were still waiting for aid and relief to arrive on Tuesday, four days after a devastating earthquake destroyed buildings and roads and killed more than 4,600 people. The government has yet to assess the full scale of the damage wrought by Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world. Prime minister Sushil Koirala told reporters the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in. ... The figure...

Two House Democrats want the Department of Homeland Security to grant a temporary immigrant status for Nepalese nationals affected by the country's earthquake. Democratic Reps. Al Green (Texas) and Mike Honda (Calif.) have introduced a bill to establish a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to citizens of Nepal so that they are protected from deportation or detainment. TPS is frequently authorized in conditions that prevent safe return of a country's citizens, such as a civil war or natural disaster. Under the legislation, Nepalese applicants would be eligible for TPS if they had been legally present in the U.S. since April 25,...

It’s very likely that Scott Holder of Santa Rosa would have been among the 17 people killed in Nepal after an earthquake unleashed an avalanche on Mount Everest. But he had a massive cold. ow to Help Victims of the Nepal Earthquake And instead of climbing up the Earth’s highest mountain, the 49-year-old financial adviser and mountaineer had headed back to below camp before big catastrophe on Saturday. “At the end of the day, God gave me a cold for a reason,” Holder, 49, told NBC Bay Area by phone from the capital city of Kathmandu near Mount Everest. And...

Experts discovered the centuries-old pattern just weeks before Saturday's devastating earthquake. Geologists say Nepal's last two deadliest earthquakes, one in 1934 that killed thousands and another 81 years later on Saturday, is part of a pattern that occurred centuries before, the BBC reported.  In the jungles of central Nepal, French researchers digging along the country's main earthquake fault say they found evidence within the ground's charcoal indicating that a set of devastating earthquakes occurred in two areas along the fault in 1255 and then 89 years later in 1344- the same area where the two recent quakes occurred over 700...

Microsoft is deeply saddened by the devastating events of the Nepal earthquake and we extend our deepest sympathies to all whom have been impacted. We are providing a minimum of $1 million in donations of cash, technology and services to the rescue and recovery effort in Nepal. This includes an immediate monetary donation to NetHope – a consortium of 40+ international non-governmental organizations that specializes in improving IT connectivity among humanitarian organizations in developing countries and areas affected by disaster – to support the nonprofit’s deployment and response operations. In addition, we want to help provide people with alternative methods...

At least 22 climbers have died and 217 others were missing near the base camp of Mt Everest where hundreds of climbers, including many foreigners, are stranded after an avalanche triggered by Nepal's massive earthquake swept down the world's highest peak. More than 60 climbers were injured and many foreign adventurers, hikers and guides at the base camp were feared missing when the avalanche swept down the Everest and buried under snow a section of the mountaineering camp yesterday. While 17 people were killed at the base camp, five more casualties were reported on Sunday from areas below the base...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — April 26, 2015 — Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today spoke to the commander of the Israeli delegation to Nepal, Col. Yoram Laredo. The Prime Minister was informed that the rescue mission to Nepal includes an IDF field hospital and that its goals were locating Israelis, rescuing people who were trapped and treating the injured. IDF Col. Laredo told Prime Minister Netanyahu that an advance team had already landed and was preparing the infrastructure for the arrival of the humanitarian mission. “You are being sent on an important mission. This is the...

In the evening, Lucas and I walked down our street and into a village, the oldest community of ethnic Newars in the Katmandu Valley, a place where goats often live on the ground floor of homes and women wash their pots and their hair on the stoops. Making our way along the town’s narrow, medieval paths, we passed building after building that had collapsed. Residents, police officers and Nepal Scouts were digging through the debris with their hands, trying to rescue those who had been buried. Others were setting up temporary shelters in any open space. Blankets and cushions were...

NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force has initiated a proposal to purchase three more Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft from the US for about Rs 8,700 crore, impressed as it is by the cargo carrier's varied utility that includes carrying out of large-scale humanitarian assistance operations such as the ongoing relief effort in earthquake-hit Nepal. The IAF has told the government that it wants to add three very heavy transport aircraft to its fleet of 10 C-17s that were ordered in 2011 and inducted in 2013, officials said. The IAF has pressed the case for three more C-17s after being informed...

A British newly-wed couple have told how they ran for their lives and clung desperately to ice axes rammed in to the ground to survive a terrifying wall of snow on Mount Everest in the wake of the Nepal earthquake. Alex Schneider and Sam Chappatte, both 28, were on a dream hike up the world’s biggest mountain when the ground began shaking violently and their guide screamed “get out of your f****** tents, grab your ice axes”. The London couple said they saw an “avalanche coming straight at us” and were blown over by a blast of wind.

The family of mountaineering great, the late Sir Edmund Hillary, say he'd be horrified and saddened by the devastating earthquake in Nepal. New Zealand and Nepal have developed a close relationship over the years, mainly through the work of Sir Ed. His son, Peter, was in Nepal when the powerful magnitude 7.8 quake struck on Saturday evening New Zealand time. The quake, centered outside the capital, Kathmandu, killed more than 1,900 people and destroyed infrastructure, homes and historical buildings. Images of Nepal in ruins would have devastated Sir Ed. To us he was the mountaineer who conquered Mt Everest, but...

A 32-year-old doctor who specialises in Himalayan archaeology was said to be “absolutely terrified” and incredibly shaken after narrowly avoiding death in the devastating earthquake. Hayley Saul, from Northampton, had left Langtang village in Kathmandu just two hours before it was completely wiped out in the quake. As the disaster hit, she was trekking with her friend and a guide, en route to Lama Hotel, the next village on the trail. Her sister, Emma Price, 24, said: “She had just left Langtang village and that village has gone now. The path they were trekking on had gone and they had...

When the earthquake hit, many of Nepal's most renowned pagodas in and around Kathmandu crumbled into rubble-covered stumps. Others were smothered under splintered hand-carved wooden beams or multi-level rooftops. But the Kathmandu Valley's other pagodas, stupas and shrines -- also built mostly of red brick hundreds of years ago -- suffered surprisingly little damage and remained standing next to structures which disappeared.

EAST ORANGE, N.J. -- A physician's assistant from New Jersey was among those killed in the earthquake in Nepal. Marisa Eve Girawong had been working in Nepal for a company called Madison Mountaineering that posted the news of her death on its website. East Orange hospital, where Girawong used to work, issued a statement offering sympathy and prayers to both her family and the people of Nepal. Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering said that Girawong died in the aftermath of the avalanche that struck the climbers' base camp.

Olga Dadykina, who has been trekking the Himalayas for the last two months, became stranded in the Nepalese village of Namche Bazaar, at 3,440 meters above sea level. She shared her experience with Sputnik News in an exclusive interview. ..... The village of Namche Bazaar had another strong tremor on Sunday. All buildings remain closed; people are left without shelter. Smaller tremors and quakes continue.

Relief efforts in Nepal are intensifying after more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst earthquake there in more than 80 years. Rescue missions and aid material have started arriving in the country. Seventeen people have been killed on Mount Everest by avalanches - the mountain's worst-ever disaster. Meanwhile a powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest. The 6.7-magnitude tremor, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, sent people running in panic for open ground in the city. As military helicopters hovered over Kathmandu and ferried...

- BREAKING NEWS - KATHMANDU REGION HIT WITH MAGNITUDE 6.7 AFTERSHOCK [No further details, yet.]

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — April 25, 2015 … Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the lethal earthquake in Nepal and nearby areas, held an assessment of the situation, via telephone, with Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Israel Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. It was agreed to dispatch – as soon as possible – a rescue delegation including medical support. The humanitarian delegation will land near the affected zone and make its preparations until it becomes possible to land in Nepal. Israelis in the affected zone will receive the means necessary to return to Israel. The Prime...