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SOFIA — A well-preserved ancient wooden dugout canoe has been discovered at the bottom of the Black Sea, scientists said Saturday.

The vessel was discovered by fishermen trailing nets along the sea bottom some 15 miles off the coast, said Dimitar Nedkov, head of the Archaeological Museum in the port city of Sozopol.

"The dugout is 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) long and 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) wide, and it is made most probably of oak," Nedkov told The Associated Press.

Bulgarian explorers have found four ancient vessels in remarkably good condition in the Black Sea, whose oxygen-depleted deep water preserves wrecks without the worm damage and deterioration that normally affects wooden vessels.

ITAJAI — Rescue workers have pulled nine more bodies from beneath mud and rubble in Brazil's flood-ravaged southern state of Santa Catarina, bringing the death toll to 109, the state civil defense department said.

Most of the 109 victims were killed in mudslides and 19 still are missing. At least 78,000 people in 14 cities have been driven from their homes, with many taking shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings.

Harrowing stories continued to emerge from Itajai, a riverside city of 180,000 where receding floodwaters left homes and furniture caked with mud.

In a makeshift shelter at a school, Maria Salete, a 55-year-old housewife, sobbed as she recalled the mudslide that killed her three grandchildren. "It all happened so quickly. I don't remember how I got out. All of a sudden there was this huge mountain of mud and my grandchildren had disappeared."

Volunteers and troops worked around the clock distributing tons of medicine, food, water and clothes to people in a region where power outages contributed to a lack of drinking water and fresh food.

RIO DE JANEIRO — The viewing and procurement of child pornography, including online images of the sexual abuse of children, should be made illegal in all nations, according to a declaration issued at an international congress in Rio de Janeiro.

The declaration, worked out at the third World Congress against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, states the viewing and obtaining of such material should be criminalized — in addition to its production, distribution and possession. It also says explicit comic strips and cartoons should be regulated.

About 3,000 people, representing 140 national governments, international bodies and nongovernmental organizations, attended the congress that ended Friday. The congress also called for the regulation of businesses such as Internet providers and mobile phone firms involved in the online distribution of child pornography.

KIEV — With the Ukrainian government reeling from a financial crisis and internal power struggles, the country's pro-Russian opposition has been leveling potentially damaging allegations of improper arms sales to Georgia during that country's brief war with Russia.

And Russia's leaders, furious with Ukraine's president over his pro-Western leanings and vocal support of Georgia, have personally weighed in, making accusations of their own.

At issue are accusations that the government of President Viktor A. Yushchenko, who supported Georgia during the crisis, covertly supplied it with weapons before and soon after the fighting broke out in August, and sold tanks and an anti-aircraft system to the Georgians at reduced prices.

A parliamentary commission set up by Ukraine's opposition parties has been investigating the claims, which also include allegations that the president decommissioned equipment sorely needed by Ukraine's military and gave it to Georgia.

Yushchenko has flatly denied any wrongdoing, describing the investigation as nothing more than a political show. He has indicated that Ukraine has every right to sell weapons to any country, including Georgia, not under international sanctions.

JOMBA — The United Nations' special envoy to Congo chided Congo's main rebel leader during a second round of peace talks Saturday for breaking a cease-fire, according to video footage taken inside the closed-door meeting.

The footage, taken by the U.N. and made available to journalists, shows an angry mediator, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, berating rebel leader Laurent Nkunda for starting an offensive along the border with Uganda last week, thus breaking a cease-fire in the middle of peace talks.

Since the first round of peace talks on Nov. 16, Nkunda's forces have clashed with the army several times, and rebels captured two border posts and a town last week.

CARACAS — Venezuela's state news agency says three days of joint naval exercises with Russia will kick off in Venezuelan waters on Monday.

The state-run Bolivarian News Agency says the operation involving 11 Venezuelan and four Russian ships has been christened Venrus 2008.

Saturday's report said exercises will include anti-aircraft defense and tactics to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.

The Russian squadron arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday, led by the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great — the first deployment of its kind since the Cold War.