Rescued climber dies before reaching hospital

Rescued climber diesbefore reaching hospital
TACOMA, Wash. -- Scott Richards, left, and Peter Cooley are seen in the above 2001 photo taken during a trip to Mount Rainier. Authorities said Monday that Cooley, who was injured in a fall on Mount Rainier, was plucked from high on the north slope by a rescue helicopter, but died before reaching a hospital.
Cooley, 39, had been rescued from the 12,300-foot level of the 14,410-foot mountain southeast of here.
Cooley fell 30 feet early Saturday on Liberty Ridge -- one of the most difficult routes up the mountain. His climbing partner, Richards, 42, was able to reach him, set up a tent and call for help on a cell phone.
When the clouds parted briefly Monday evening, an Oregon Army National Guard Chinook helicopter swept and winched the injured climber aboard.
"Although we were able to get him off the mountain late this afternoon he did die en route" to Madigan Army Medical Center, Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said Monday night.
After Cooley's fall, the two men, both from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, were stranded on a 45-degree slope with steep and rocky terrain above and below them. Temperatures dipped below zero in whiteout conditions.
Phoenix poised to passPhiladelphia in population
PHILADELPHIA -- There was nothing complicated about John Graeflin's decision to move from eastern Pennsylvania to Phoenix a little more than a decade ago. He went out for a vacation and liked it so much, he decided to stay.
"The weather is great. It's hot, but it's so dry, you don't really sweat that much ... And you don't have palm trees in Pennsylvania," explained the 56-year-old Allentown native, now a research analyst at the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
There are probably a million people in Phoenix with a similar story about discovering Arizona's endless summers and its equally warm economy, and that's one of the reasons why the sprawling desert metropolis is poised to replace Philadelphia as the nation's fifth biggest city.
One demographer, University of Pennsylvania urban studies professor Janice Fanning Madden, predicted that Monday may have marked Philadelphia's last day in the top five.
Others say it will likely take more time, but many agree that Philly's tumble to sixth is inevitable in a matter of months or a few years.
Won't lead India
NEW DELHI -- Sonia Gandhi has abandoned her plans to become India's first foreign-born prime minister, members of her Congress party and its allies said today.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi met with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam but did not, as widely expected, leave with his approval to form a minority government.
Gandhi said she would meet with the head of state again on Wednesday.
In the meantime, financial markets soared on speculation that someone else would lead the country following last week's electoral upset of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance coalition.
Later today, a top Congress official, Salman Khurshid, said Gandhi would probably not seek the prime ministership. "Everybody knows ... This is what's happening," he said.
Stolen violin recovered
LOS ANGELES -- A 17th-century cello made by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari that was stolen from a musician's home has been recovered, police said Monday.
The 1684 cello, valued at $3.5 million, was recovered over the weekend, but no arrests have been made, said Officer Eduardo Funes, a police spokesman.
The cello belongs to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a news conference was scheduled for this afternoon to release more details, Funes said.
The cello was played by principal cellist Peter Stumpf, who was out of town when it was stolen April 25. Grainy surveillance video from a neighbor's home showed a man riding away on a bicycle with a silver-colored cello case in one hand, police said.
The instrument was one of only about 60 made by Stradivari and was bought about 30 years ago by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
Associated Press