World briefs 10/22/03

Gas region rejects new president's export plans

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Bolivia's new president, who came to power following violent protests to the former leader's plan to export natural gas, faced a new challenge Tuesday from supporters of the project.

Civic leaders and businessmen in Tarija, a southern Bolivian state that is home to most of the nation's underground natural gas reserves, rejected President Carlos Mesa's plans to hold a referendum on the idea.

They are demanding that the government move ahead with plans to export gas to the United States and Mexico.

The gas export issue has sparked monthlong protests that left 65 dead and forced the resignation Friday of the former president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

Rescue teams search for immigrant boat bodies

ROME -- Italian rescuers scanned the waters south of Sicily on Tuesday in the faint hope of finding bodies from a boatload of illegal immigrants who ran out of supplies while trying to get to Europe, leaving at least 13 people dead.

Fifteen people were found alive when the coast guard rescued the rickety wooden boat Sunday night. The survivors, most from Somalia, said several dozen passengers had embarked on the trip but that many perished and were thrown overboard.

Survivors said they left more than two weeks ago from Libya, paying smugglers $5,000 each for the voyage. The boat apparently broke down and ran out of supplies.

Witness, military reports of Gaza strike conflict

NUSSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- The flag-wrapped bodies of seven Palestinian civilians whose deaths were blamed on an Israeli missile strike were carried through this shantytown Tuesday, with tens of thousands of mourners clamoring for revenge.

There were conflicting versions of what happened in the airstrike in the Nusseirat refugee camp on Monday night.

The Israeli military said helicopters fired two missiles at a car carrying Hamas militants and that two men inside were killed. It released a video showing two missiles hitting the car a minute apart with no one -- neither civilians nor militants -- near the vehicle.

The video showed a crowd gathering around the car about two minutes after the second strike, and ended some 40 seconds later. The military said another 10 minutes were on video but refused to release it.

Police will charge man after Niagara Falls stunt

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario -- A man who went over Niagara Falls with only the clothes on his back and survived will be charged with illegally performing a stunt, Niagara Parks Police said Tuesday.

Kirk Jones, 40, of Canton, Mich., is the first person known to have gone over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls without safety devices and lived. He could be fined $10,000.

Stunned tourists described seeing Jones float by on his back Monday in the swift Niagara River, go headfirst over the churning 180-foot waterfall and then pull himself out of the water onto the rocks below.

"He just looked calm. He just was gliding by so fast. I was in shock really that I saw a person go by," Brenda McMullen told WIVB-TV in Buffalo.

Jones was not seriously injured and remained hospitalized in Niagara Falls in stable condition.

-- From wire reports