Officials seek to bar arms ship in Africa

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is asking governments in southern Africa to prevent a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe's security forces from unloading its cargo. The shipment has been turned away from ports in South Africa and Mozambique. The United States wants President Robert Mugabe's government to publish results from Zimbabwe's disputed election that the opposition says it won. (AP)

MOGADISHU - Somali rebels seized two more towns and hundreds of residents fled the capital yesterday as the death toll from battles between Islamist-led insurgents and allied Ethiopian-Somali troops rose to 85. After gunfire rocked Mogadishu over the weekend in the worst fighting in months, fighters seized the southern coastal town of Guda, killing four Somali soldiers. Also taken was Dinsor, a town in south-central Somalia. (Reuters)

KATMANDU - Nepal's former communist insurgents won half the directly elected seats in an assembly that will write a new constitution, marking the former rebels' foray into the political mainstream. King Gyanendra of Nepal denied news reports that he will go into exile from the country ruled for centuries by his ancestors. (AP)

SAO PAULO - A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing yesterday off the southern coast of Brazil. The Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday wearing a helmet, thermal suit, and a parachute. He was trying to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truckers. (AP)