h Senate leader took boxing-match tickets
h Senate leader tookboxing-match tickets
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, above, accepted free ringside tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission to three professional boxing matches while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing. Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as 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. He defended the gifts, saying they would never influence his position on the bill and was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry. "Anyone from Nevada would say, 'I'm glad he is there taking care of the state's No. 1 businesses'," he told The Associated Press.
Received terror training
TORONTO -- Canada's spy agency said Monday that some Canadian citizens or residents received terror training in al-Qaida-run camps in Afghanistan, providing official reinforcement to what security analysts have warned for years. The deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Jack Hooper, told a Senate committee studying Canada's role in Afghanistan that there are people living in Canada who fought with al-Qaida during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Not judging probe
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday "it would be premature for me to judge" the outcome of a Pentagon investigation into the killing of as many as a dozen Iraqi civilians by Marines.
But at the same time, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said he believes its critically important to make the point that if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity there, they "have not performed their duty the way that 99.9 percent of their fellow Marines have."
Man stabbed at Miami club
MIAMI -- A man was fatally stabbed and another shot and injured in a busy downtown nightclub on Memorial Day, marring an annual hip-hop celebration at South Florida nightspots. A third man was trampled as hundreds of revelers, panicked by the gunfire, fled the Metropolis nightclub just before 4 a.m., police said. The three Miami men were taken to a hospital, Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said. Roger Hall, 22, died of stab wounds about an hour later.
Clash in northern Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at Palestinian militants during a cross-border clash in northern Gaza early Tuesday, killing three and wounding four, Palestinian officials said. The incident started with a gunbattle across the border, and the helicopter responded by firing a missile, the officials said. Islamic Jihad said the militants involved were its members. The Israeli military said soldiers spotted Palestinian militants about to launch rockets at Israel, so they opened fire and called in aircraft, sparking an hourlong battle.
Halving food handouts
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.
Explosion kills at least 4
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- A blast ripped through an explosives factory Monday near Belgrade, killing at least four people and injuring three, the interior minister said. The explosion shook the area around Baric, about 18 miles southwest of the capital. Police and soldiers sealed off the Prva Iskra chemical plant, which produces explosives, including TNT, as well as toxic hydrofluoric acid, used as a component for household detergents, a government official said.
Associated Press
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