Hikers Leave Area Of Deadly Avalanche

Hundreds of Western hikers rescued from a deadly avalanche headed home Monday after the government scaled back its rescue operation on the peaks surrounding Mount Everest.

Authorities raised the death toll in the Nov. 10 slide to 56, and said an aerial search of the area found no sign of more survivors.

The new additions to the death toll were Nepalese, either guides or residents who run scores of tea shops and shelters along the trek route, the government said Monday.

In all, 24 tourists and 32 Nepalese died in the massive avalanche that turned the Himalayan foothills into a sheet of snow. Searchers rescued 549 people by helicopter, the majority of them hikers.