ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
Clinton vetoes limit on damages
WASHINGTON - President Clinton, delivering on a promise to plaintiffs' attorneys and some consumer groups, vetoed a bill Thursday that would limit damages in product liability lawsuits.
Rejecting a measure Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in March, Clinton said the bill ``tilts against American families and would deprive them of the ability to recover fully when they are injured by a defective product.''
Republicans immediately seized on the veto as evidence Clinton is beholden to one of his most generous groups of backers - the lawyers who bring suits claiming damages from faulty products.
The idea of limiting damage awards in product suits has been before Congress in various forms for nearly 15 years. The current bill would cap punitive damages in most liability cases at $250,000 or twice the actual damages, whichever is greater.
Despite the president's veto threat, the House passed the measure 259-158; the Senate approved it 59-40. Neither margin is great enough to override Clinton's veto.
- Los Angeles Times
Cocaine-ring sweep brings 150 arrests
WASHINGTON - Federal agents wrapped up more than 150 arrests Thursday designed to break up a coast-to-coast Mexican-Colombian cocaine smuggling ring that revealed new sophistication and distribution by Mexican gangs.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials said the operation, code-named ``Zorro II,'' was the first to arrest Mexican drug couriers and dealers and Colombian traffickers from ring managers down to street-level crack cocaine dealers,
Beginning last September, agents traced cocaine produced by Colombia's Cali cartel as it was driven by Mexican couriers across the U.S. border in California, Arizona and Texas to the stash houses of wholesalers in Los Angeles. From there, the cocaine was distributed to Colombian street dealers in New York City and in Richmond, Va., and to Mexican dealers in Texas, elsewhere in the West and in Chicago, DEA agents said.
Undercover agents, informants and more than 90 court-authorized wiretaps were used to track the cocaine and identify ring members.
- Associated Press
Genital mutilation asylum rules sought
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - The government on Thursday asked an immigration appeals board to set a standard that would grant asylum to women facing genital mutilation only in extreme cases that ``shock the conscience.''
A lawyer for a West African teen-ager who was refused asylum in a mutilation case argued against such guidelines, saying the Immigration and Naturalization Service wants to give judges excuses to deny women asylum.
David Martin, general counsel for the INS, asked the board to use the case to set standards to help ``those who really need protection.''
The 12-member appeals board, which oversees and sets standards for the nation's 179 immigration judges, will issue an opinion later.
The case involves Fauziya Kasinga, 19, and is expected to set a national precedent for African and Middle Eastern women seeking U.S. asylum to escape the centuries-old practice meant to make women more docile for men.
Kasinga fled Togo in 1994 after a forced marriage to a 45-year-old man with three wives. Her aunt told the reluctant bride that as a Muslim and a member of the Tchamba-Kunsunru tribe, she would have to undergo genital mutilation. With the help of her sister and mother, Kasinga escaped the painful and dangerous rite, which can cause health problems including infection and difficult pregnancies and can even be fatal.
Kasinga arrived in the United States in December 1994 and was detained in jails until just last week.
- Associated Press
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