Nepal and China have agreed to recognise the snow and rock heights of Mount Everest, ending a long-standing debate about the height of the world's tallest mountain.
The official Everest snow height of 8,848 metres was measured by the Survey of India in 1954. Chinese mountaineers and researchers climbed Mount Everest in May 2005 to determine its height afresh and concluded that the rock height of the peak was about 3.7 metres less than the estimates made in 1954, with a margin of error of about 0.21 metres.
Officials from China and Nepal who met this week said both heights were accurate.
In 1999, an expedition by the National Geographic Society and Boston's Museum of Science used satellite-based technology to measure the height of the snow covered peak, and determined the mountain stood 8,850 metres high. They said they were unsure about the height of the rock peak. (Reuters)
Arrest warrant for overdue loan
A judge has been fired after issuing an arrest warrant for a teenager over an overdue library DVD.
James Kimmel issued the warrant after 19-year-old Aaron Henson failed to show up in court over the DVD House Of Flying Daggers.
A week later police stopped him in Littleton, Colorado, for speeding and held him for nearly eight hours after discovering the warrant. He had already returned the DVD. (PA)
A question of priorities
A police force defended a decision to put out an appeal for a missing police dog before issuing one for the vulnerable man she was searching for.
Friends of Shane Austin, 38, from Somerset, who is still missing, have expressed disappointment that officers first went public with the name of the wayward German Shepherd, Kessie.
Avon and Somerset Police said the press release about the dog "in no way detracted" from the hunt for Mr Austin, adding that it was in close contact with his family. Kessie, which went astray during the search for Mr Austin in Over Stowey, has been found safe and well. (PA)
Gory story
A US teenager who was gored by a bull is going to have the last laugh - his family shot the bull and plan to eat it.
Vinnie Huntington, 17, from Maine, said he was rounding up the 1,800lb bull and a steer when the bull turned on him, gored him and flipped him.
He suffered dislocated shoulders, puncture wounds to his back, and bumps and bruises. His mother and a neighbour intervened to save him. (PA)
Off the menu
A Berlin meat supplier's dispute with a restaurant ended with him grabbing the steaks off the plates of 20 bemused customers.
He had just made his daily delivery but was told the restaurant did not have £400 in cash to pay him.
He then took back all the meat he had delivered - including that already being cooked or marinated. That still was not enough, so he continued collecting meat in the dining room. (PA)
'Mosques' in firing range row
The Ministry of Defence apologised after a Muslim group complained that structures used on an Army firing range resembled mosques.
Bradford Council for Mosques said the structures at Bellerby firing range at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire should be taken down immediately.
The Army said it was vital soldiers trained in an environment which replicated where they were deployed. A Ministry of Defence spokesman apologised for any offence caused, adding that the structures were "generic Eastern buildings". (PA)
Hard habit to break
An inmate who broke out of jail, then returned after stealing 14 packets of cigarettes, has been sentenced to 20 years.
Harry Jackson, 26, escaped his cell at the Camden County Jail in Georgia and went to the exercise yard to retrieve cigarettes he had expected would be tossed over a fence.
When they did not arrive, Mr Jackson climbed the fence, broke a window at a convenience store and grabbed cigarettes, only to be arrested on his return. (PA)