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from Perth, where the search has been headquartered.
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Dozens of Sherpas leave Everest following deadly avalanche; some expeditions cancel climbs
• KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Dozens of Sherpa guides packed up their tents and left Mount Everest's base camp Wednesday, after the avalanche deaths of 16 of their colleagues exposed an undercurrent of resentment by Sherpas over their pay, treatment and benefits.
• With the entire climbing season increasingly thrown into doubt, the government quickly announced that top tourism officials would fly to base camp Thursday to negotiate with the Sherpas and encourage them to return to work.
• But while Nepal's government has been heavily criticized for not doing enough for the Sherpas in the wake of last week's disaster, the deadliest ever on the mountain, one top official blamed the walkout on "hooligans."
• "It was crowd behavior -- some hooligans were creating problems, but things are getting back to normal," said Sushil Ghimire, secretary of Nepal's Tourism Ministry. He and other top officials were to fly by helicopter Thursday to base camp.
• While it was unclear just how many of the 400 or so Sherpas on the mountain had joined the walkout, a number of expedition companies have already canceled their climbs, and the lucrative climbing season is in disarray. Most attempts to reach Everest's summit are made in mid-May, when a brief window normally offers better weather.
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AP PHOTOS: Under cover of darkness, Syrians make grueling nighttime trek to safety in Lebanon
• MOUNT HERMON, Lebanon (AP) -- As the late-day sun slipped behind the mountains in front of them, a ragtag group of around a dozen Syrians desperate to flee their country's bloody civil war set off on their treacherous nighttime trek across the rugged frontier into neighboring Lebanon.
• Ahead of them: at least a nine-hour climb in darkness up -- and down -- the 2,814-meter (9,232-foot) Mount Hermon. Once in Lebanon, they will join the more than 2.5 million other Syrians across the region who have escaped the civil war in their homeland to begin the life of a refugee.
• On a recent night, those making the journey included a young couple with a new (Continued on page 34)
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