World briefs 5/30/06

1 dead after skydivers collide in Kentucky

BARDSTOWN, Ky. -- The skydivers were 200 feet above the ground when they collided. Authorities said their parachutes deflated, sending both men plummeting to the ground. One man died. John Kevin Benningfield, 33, was pronounced dead at Flaget Memorial Hospital, Nelson County Coroner Joseph Greenwell said Sunday. The other skydiver, Chris Snellen, was flown by helicopter to University Hospital in Louisville, where he was in fair condition on Monday with a broken leg, hospital officials said. Because the skydivers were so close to the ground, there was no time for the parachutes to reinflate and bring the men down safely, Heismann said. Snellen's fall was braced by a tree, he said. In another accident on Saturday, authorities said first-time skydiver Ellen Ann McWilliams, 44, of West Chester, Pa., slipped from her harness during a jump near Sterling, Ohio, and fell to her death.

Senate leader took free boxing tickets

WASHINGTON -- Ethical or no? A U.S. senator takes free ringside seats from an agency while it was trying to influence him on federal boxing regulations. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he feels he did nothing wrong when he accepted the ticets to three professional boxing matches from the Nevada Athletic Commission. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005. At the same time, he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including the creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada's agency feared might usurp its authority. Senate ethics rules generally allow lawmakers to accept gifts from federal, state or local governments, but specifically warn against taking such gifts -- particularly on multiple occasions -- when they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.

Native Hawaiians seek rights to self-government

HONOLULU -- Hawaii politicians are scrambling to gather enough votes in Congress to pass a bill that would grant Native Hawaiians a degree of self-government and possibly a share of the land ruled by their ancestors. After seven years of debate, the proposal to recognize Native Hawaiians as indigenous inhabitants of the 50th state -- a legal status similar to that of American Indians -- has finally been promised a vote in the Senate. The vote could come as early as next week. The bill provides a process to set up a Native Hawaiian government and then start negotiations to transfer power and property from state and federal authorities to Hawaiians. The form of government and the amount of public land to be granted wouldn't be decided until then.

Peacekeepers try to quell East Timor violence

DILI, East Timor -- Violence continued to rage in East Timor on Monday, with foreign peacekeepers handcuffing machete-wielding arsonists in an effort to quell mobs burning homes. Heavily armed Australian troops patrolled the city on foot, in armored vehicles and by helicopter. Sporadic clashes that erupted last week between the army and dismissed soldiers in the seaside city of Dili has escalated into gang attacks, looting and burning by ordinary people frustrated by poverty and unemployment. At least 27 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded. President Xanana Gusmao -- a hero of East Timor's independence -- urged protesters rallying outside his palace to be patient. "Stop fighting ... calm down," Gusmao told the crowd. "Don't take up swords. Don't burn houses. Stop dividing the nation."

U.N. food agency boosts daily rations for Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- About 3 million hungry people in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region will get increased food rations but still receive less than the daily minimum requirement, the cash-strapped U.N. food agency announced Monday. The World Food Program was forced to halve daily handouts this month because of a lack of funds. Donations of money and cereal from the United States, Canada, the European Union and Sudan's government will allow the WFP to increase daily rations in Darfur to 1,770 calories a person, an amount still short of the 2,100-calorie daily minimum requirement, the Rome-based agency said.

Blast at Serbian chemical plant leaves at least 4 dead

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- The explosion shook the area and when it calmed, at least four people were dead at an explosives factory and three people were injured, the interior minister said. Police and soldiers sealed off the Prva Iskra chemical plant. Explosives, including TNT and toxic hydrofluoric acid, are made there, Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said. An interrogation as to the cause of the blast was underway, but police said the explosives part of the factory, not the chemical section, was where the explosion occurred.

-- From wire reports