Kansas

State fair worker killed

An employee at the Kansas State Fair was killed Monday, police said.

The man, whom authorities did not identify Monday night, was among workers taking down part of the grandstand stage when a steel beam fell on him after a cable broke, police in Hutchinson said.

The death followed accidents at the grandstand racetrack that injured three people Sunday.

A wheel flew off a sprint car traveling about 80 mph, injuring two teenage girls. Both were treated and released at a hospital.

In a separate incident, driver Jon Johnson, of Utica, was burned when a fuel line was severed and his vehicle hit another car and caught fire. He suffered serious injuries.

Washington, D.C.

Libya sanctions lifted

President Bush on Monday removed a ban on commercial air service to Libya and released $1.3 billion in frozen Libyan assets in recognition of “significant” steps to eliminate its deadliest weapons programs.

In response, Libya is expected to disburse $1 billion in compensation payments to 269 families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing.

Libya, which has acknowledged responsibility for the bombing, had conditioned release of the money on an end to the sanctions. It had set a Wednesday deadline for Bush to act.

Austria

Nuclear proliferation feared

More than 40 countries with peaceful nuclear programs could retool them to make weapons, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Monday amid new U.S and European demands that Iran give up technology capable of producing such arms.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggested in a keynote address to the IAEA general conference in Vienna that it was time to tighten world policing of nuclear activities and to stop relying on information volunteered by countries.

Beyond the declared nuclear arms-holding countries, “some estimates indicate that 40 countries or more now have the know-how to produce nuclear weapons,” ElBaradei said. “We are relying primarily on the continued good intentions of these countries, intentions, which … could … be subject to rapid change.”