National Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON
JUDGE CLEARS TERROR CLAIMS AGAINST IRAN
Ruling in two separate cases, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the Iranian government to pay $18.5 million to victims of terrorism. Judge Royce Lamberth yesterday ordered Iran to pay $2.5 million to Victoria Prevatt-Wood, the sister of an American Marine, Victor Prevatt, who was killed in the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack. The judge found the government of Iran and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps liable because of they provided “material support and resources” to Hezbollah.
In a decision dated Friday, Judge Lamberth entered judgment against Iran in connection with a 1995 bombing of an Israeli bus headed to the Gaza Strip. The suicide attack was carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but the judge found Iran responsible because it provided “comprehensive financial support and training” to the terrorist group. Seth Ben Haim, an American who was 19 when he was gravely injured in the bus attack, was awarded $11 million. His father and brother received judgments totaling $5 million. Iran did not defend itself against either of the suits. The prospects for collection of the new judgments is uncertain. In 2000,Congress passed a law allowing the American government to pay some terrorism-related awards against Iran and Cuba, but the provision does not apply to the new verdicts.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NASA RESTARTS CANCELED MISSION TO TWO ASTEROIDS
NASA yesterday resurrected an ambitious mission to explore two of the solar system’s largest asteroids, just weeks after budget woes killed the project. The space agency this month scrapped the Dawn mission to orbit the asteroids Ceres and Vesta, nearly half a year after it was put on hold because of cost overruns and technical problems. The project’s cost is now estimated at $446 million.
– Associated Press
SOUTH
ELVIS’S GRACELAND JOINS LIST OF NATIONAL LANDMARKS
MEMPHIS – The home of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll joined the homes of presidents past and present in becoming a National Historic Landmark yesterday. Graceland, where Elvis Presley died in 1977, joins the White House, Mount Vernon, and Monticello in receiving the country’s highest designation for historic properties.
– Associated Press
