159 Feared Dead in Nepal Landslide

Rescuers recovered nine more bodies today from a massive weekend landslide in northern Nepal, raising the official death toll in the disaster to 19, but say there is no chance of finding alive any of the more than 150 people believed still buried under the rubble. The landslide crushed dozens of houses in the village of Mankha, about 75 miles east of Kathmandu. The landslide blocked a mountain river, causing it to back up and form a lake that was threatening to burst and sweep away several villages, although officials say the water level is slowly falling.

"We have no chance of finding any of the missing people alive under this pile of debris," the chief of the country's Department of Natural Disaster Management told reporters. "We have the names of 159 people who are believed to be missing and buried, but there could be even more people." In neighboring India, authorities evacuated tens of thousands of villagers, fearing that floodwaters from Nepal could reach there. (More Nepal stories.)