Protesting students call for the punctual implementation of a new constitution at a rally in Kathmandu yesterday.

At least three climbers have died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest.

It's just as likely to be seen in your local playground as atop a peak these days, says Emma Townshend.

Intrepid TV adventurer and Chief Scout Bear Grylls has left the Discovery Channel after a row over "new programming", his publicist said today.

Trekking up to 4,000 metres high above the Khumbu valley in Nepal, I came across a curious sight. As I rounded a corner on the precarious path that I had taken from Namche Bazaar, I got a fantastic view of Everest in the distance. But it wasn't this that caught my eye. It was a low-slung, rather tasteful stone building nestled in a forest of eucalyptus and stubby juniper trees. It stood out because it was very different from the traditional Sherpa homes clinging to the steep slopes that surrounded me.

French wine has dominated the market for centuries, but now even the premiers crus are having to heed the new economic realities and look to the vinicultural upstart China for expansion.

I am desperately trying to get fit in time for my final monster-hunting trip in Nepal. I'm off to try and find the Yeti, or the "Appalling Snowman" as my son calls him. Unfortunately, I broke four metatarsals in my left foot while on a television show in Argentina and, a year later, the foot is still giving me huge problems. This is very unfortunate as I have a six-day trek ahead of me. The word "trek' is a very passive sounding description for clambering up huge mountains at very high altitude while very cold in order to look for a hairy missing link.

Andrew Buncombe visits Bhutan to find out if its people really are as content as they claim to be.

You know it's not real, right?

Activists in Bhutan are hoping their young king – a man known for his fondness for the occasional cigarette – will enter a controversy that has gripped the country and use royal powers to free a number of people sent to jail after being convicted under tough anti-smoking legislation.

194 nations talk into the small hours – but pressure on the planet continues to grow.

Millions of people who rely on water from the glaciers of a mountain range in Peru are experiencing what scientists have called "peak water" - the point at which the runoff from the glaciers becomes progressively weaker even though the ice continues to melt.

The glaciers of the Himalayas, suppliers of fresh water to more than a billion people, are undoubtedly retreating because of global warming, the head of the UN's climate change body reaffirmed yesterday – two years after he was embroiled in an international political row about similar forecasts.

The main importance of the report is its insistence we need to start gathering more information