In brief: Landslide victims’ rescue unlikely

KATMANDU, Nepal – Rescuers recovered two more bodies, taking the death toll to 10 from a massive weekend landslide in northern Nepal, but said there was no chance of finding alive any of the more than 150 people believed still buried under the rubble.

Police and army rescuers helped by villagers resumed their search today through piles of rock, mud and upturned trees.

Gopal Parajuli, the chief government administrator in the area, said they were using bulldozers and excavators to dig through the debris in some areas.

Rescuers were also trying to carve out temporary roads to reach people stranded on the other side of Arniko highway, a route that connects Katmandu with northern districts and the border with China.

The landslide that struck early Saturday blocked a mountain river, causing it to back up and form a lake that was threatening to burst and sweep away several villages, although Parajuli said the water level was slowly falling.

22 killed in fight for Libyan airport

TRIPOLI, Libya – A day of militia fighting over control of the international airport in Libya’s capital killed 22 people, the country’s interim government said Sunday, part of the worsening chaos gripping the country.

Libya is seeing its worst violence since the 2011 civil war that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, as militias made up of the rebels who overthrew him largely run wild in the country, armed with heavy weaponry that outguns its poorly organized security forces.

Saturday’s deaths bring the death toll after weeks of fighting for control of Tripoli’s international airport, as well as Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi, to 236 people.

Islamist militias from the coastal city of Misrata have led the assault on the airport, seeking to seize it from militiamen from the mountain town of Zintan. Militia shelling has set fire to at least eight huge oil depots, sending plumes of black smoke over Tripoli, Libya’s state-run news agency reported Sunday.

The violence across Libya has prompted the closure of several foreign missions and the withdrawal of diplomats.

Afghans resume presidential election count

KABUL, Afghanistan – An audit of results from Afghanistan’s presidential runoff election resumed Sunday after a holiday break, an electoral official said.

The audit of more than 8 million votes is likely to take weeks, stalling an already much-delayed announcement of a new president to replace Hamid Karzai, the only leader the country has known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban.