PO BAG 1: 1st woman

26 March 2017

No surprise: Beijing's pick Lam chosen as Hong Kong's leader

Former Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam declares her victory in the chief executive election of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 26, 2017. A Hong Kong committee has chosen the government's former No. 2 official Lam to be the semiautonomous Chinese city's next leader.

The candidate favored by China's Communist leadership was chosen as Hong Kong's new leader on Sunday, in the first such vote since huge pro-democracy protests erupted over the semiautonomous Chinese city's election system in 2014.

A committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites selected Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's former No. 2 official, as the financial hub's chief executive even though she was far less popular than her main rival. Lam received 67 percent of the votes cast by the 1,194-member committee.

23 October 2016

Junko Tabei, 1st woman to climb Everest, dies at 77

In this May 27, 2003, file photo, Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest in 1975, receives a gift from a Kathmandu city official during ceremonies in Kathmandu, Nepal. Tabei, who died Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, at 77, devoted her adult life to scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.

The first woman to climb Mount Everest didn't stop there.

Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, who died Thursday at 77, devoted her adult life to scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.

Her philosophy was to live life to the fullest. "I want to climb even more mountains," she said in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press, 16 years after conquering Everest. "To think, 'It was great,' and then die."