Scientists, and now the military, are battling the spread of Himalayan balsam

Striking and marches take place across Jammu and Kashmir region after four killed and 40 wounded

Paramilitary soldiers have recovered 20 bodies from a steep hillside in northern India where a rescue helicopter crashed while attempting to evacuate people stranded in monsoon floods, the country's air force chief said.

One could, if one were being utterly charitable to Narayan Pargaien, assume the Indian television reporter was trying to use his initiative.

Fears that death toll of 150 could soar, with up to 14,000 unaccounted for

Where readers write back

It's easy to overlook how important his stay in Zurich was to Wagner's development. Having fled there in exile following his participation in the failed Dresden Uprising of 1849, the composer would crystallise his ideas of musical drama in the city, through a series of essays, and more concretely in his prodigious output while resident there.

Police in the north of India have arrested three men following the rape of an American female tourist - the latest in a series of sexual assaults on foreign women.

With what relish Jim Perrin must have written the dateline concluding this idiosyncratic biography: "Ariège, Bastille Day 2012". In Shipton & Tilman, the Pyrenees-based Perrin has ignited some impish Fete Nationale firecrackers of his own to slip under the door of mountaineering's conceit. His aim has been to reclaim these two explorers from an establishment within which "they never truly belonged".

Overcrowding and culture clashes are the modern Himalayan climbing experience

This was a fantasy which told England of their ability when free of real pressure

Given his patience and mastery of inner peace, the Dalai Lama has some of the attributes required to be an excellent test cricketer. 

Fears that the fifth and final one-day international between England and India would not go ahead on Sunday were put to bed as the teams awoke in Dharamsala in perfect cricketing weather.

Fashion finds inspiration from the great explorers, discovers Harriet Walker