AP:
Tobacco Cos. Liable in Fla. Case

MIAMI (AP) — A landmark lawsuit by smokers yielded a verdict Wednesday that could cost the tobacco industry billions in damages, as a jury held the companies liable for making a defective product that causes emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses.

The jury, which deliberated over a complicated 10-question verdict form for seven days, will return in the next phase to determine damages.

Their decision could prove to be the industry's most dire courtroom loss yet, since the plaintiffs are seeking at least $200 billion.

Juries have awarded damages in smoking liability cases only five times — three were overturned on appeal and the two others are being appealed.

This case, the first class-action lawsuit by smokers to go to trial, was filed in 1994 on behalf of as many as 500,000 sick Florida smokers and the heirs of those who died.

Plaintiffs and family members wept and hugged each other as the verdict was read.

``The Marlboro Man just fell off his high horse into quicksand and it will be years until the tobacco industry even gets him halfway out,'' said Ahron Leichtman, executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society.

Philip Morris Inc., the nation's largest cigarette maker, said it remained under a court-imposed gag order and could not comment.

The industry claimed there is no scientific proof that smoking causes any illness and that the public is well aware that smoking is risky.

But the jury agreed with the smokers on all counts, including their claims that the industry deceived them about the dangers of smoking, hid research results, stopped scientific work that promised to produce safer cigarettes and advertised to children. The jury also found that the industry ``engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct ... with the intent to inflict severe emotional distress.''

The $206 billion national settlement reached with the tobacco industry in November bars states from suing to recoup the costs of treating sick smokers, but it does not prohibit lawsuits by individuals such as this one.

Now that the industry has been found liable, the jury will decide what damages should be awarded to the lawsuit's nine plaintiffs. Once their cases are concluded, the half-million other members of the class will be free to file their claims.

Jurors heard eight months of testimony and were exposed to thousands of documents from decades of tobacco litigation.

Former surgeons general, ex-tobacco industry scientists and doctors testified about the havoc smoking can wreak on the body, the difficulty in trying to quit and the manufacturers' refusal to cooperate with health officials.

The defendants were the nation's five biggest cigarette makers and two industry groups: Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co., Liggett Group Inc., the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute.

Two of the five smoking-liability cases in which juries have awarded damages have come this year. In March, a jury in Portland, Ore., awarded $81 million to the family of a smoker who died of lung cancer. The month before, a woman with inoperable lung cancer won $51 million in San Francisco. Both awards were reduced by judges and are being appealed.

But the industry has had other recent victories — it won another Oregon case as well as lawsuits on behalf of trade unions in Ohio, three dead smokers in Tennessee and one in Missouri.

Tobacco stock prices fell after the verdict.

Philip Morris lost $2.62 1/2 , or 6 percent, to close at $37.87 1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange. R.J. Reynolds fell $1.18 3/4 , or nearly 4 percent, to close at $30.87 1/2 . Loew's Corp., parent of Lorillard, lost 81 1/4 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $79.06 1/4 .

Even so, some tobacco analysts said the news wasn't all bad for the industry.

David Adelman, a tobacco analyst for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, said he expects that the case will be decertified as a class action on appeal, greatly reducing the potential damage award.

He also pointed out that the industry will also be allowed to use defenses in the next phase of the case that it wasn't able to raise in this one, such as the claim that smokers should bear responsibility for their decision to smoke.

http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=HOME&SITE=MYPSP

THE TIMES:
Spanish police make record £1bn drug seizure, reports Giles Tremlett

A SPECTACULAR sea assault carried out on a cargo vessel in mid-Atlantic has resulted in the capture of Europe's biggest cocaine haul, some of which was bound for Britain, Spanish police said yesterday.

British police sources confirmed they had been following the operation to seize what Spanish police estimated was ten tonnes of cocaine.

"It is inevitable that a part of this would have been destined for Britain so we are very pleased at its seizure," a spokesman for the National Criminal Intelligence Service said.

The cocaine haul had an estimated street value of £1.2 billion, according to recent valuations provided by European police forces. It would have occupied the equivalent of 10,000 sugar bags of 2lb each, enough to fill an aisle in an average British supermarket.

Spanish newspapers reported that Colombian and Spanish drugs gangs had been involved in the operation. They said these were also in contact with British gangs, though British police said they had not taken part in the operation.

More than 50 members of the drugs ring have reportedly been captured over the past two days. "This is the greatest capture of cocaine in Europe in recent times," Javier Mayor Oreja, the Spanish Interior Minister, said after details of the police operation had been leaked.

The Panamanian-registered Tammsaare was attacked early on Sunday by 20 officers from the Spanish police's Special Operations Group. A Spanish Navy vessel and customs vessels had also taken part in the action.

A series of dawn raids yesterday by police in Madrid and the northwestern region of Galicia led to the discovery of more cocaine and of heroin.

Among those arrested last night were the vessel's 16 Russian and Ukrainian crew members. The most significant arrest was reported to be that of Alfonso Lee, a Colombian described as the "ambassador" for the Colombian drugs cartels in Spain.

A police spokesman in Madrid confirmed that the ship's second officer had died of a heart attack. "It seems the heart attack was caused by the fright of the police assault," a police spokesman in Madrid reported.

The operation on the high seas was directed from Madrid by Baltasar Garze, the investigating magistrate best known in Britain for his efforts to extradite General Augusto Pinochet of Chile.

Juan Coutino, Spain's director of police, said the same drugs ring was believed to have introduced at least another six tonnes of cocaine into Europe via Spain and Portugal in the past four months. The vessel which was carrying the cocaine was yesterday being sailed to the Canary Island port of Las Palmas but was not expected to arrive until tomorrow.

The drugs would have been offloaded near the coast of Galicia, which has a tradition of smuggling and has recently built close ties with the Colombian cocaine cartels.

Spanish police said that the biggest previous haul of cocaine to have been captured in Europe was found by Italian police, who discovered 5.5 tonnes in a lorry outside Turin two years ago.

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html

USA TODAY:
Third of nuclear plants not Y2K ready

WASHINGTON (AP) - A third of the nation's atomic power plants still have additional work to complete on non-safety computer systems to be fully ready to deal with the Y2K computer bug, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The commission said it has received reports from all 103 nuclear plants indicating ''that there are no Y2K-related problems which directly affect the performance of safety systems.''

Sixty-eight plants indicated that all their computer systems that support safe plant operation are ''Y2K ready,'' the agency said .

The other 35 plants reported that they have additional work to complete on a few non-safety computer systems or devices to be fully ready, and provided schedules for completing the work, it said.

Of the 35, about a third have work remaining on systems needed for power generation, the NRC said. Other plants need to complete work related to plant monitoring and administrative systems.

''None of the remaining work affects the ability of a plant to shut down safely, if needed,'' according to a statement released by the agency.

But Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a consistent critic of the NRC, said Wednesday that the report only ''confirmed my fears about the lack of preparation of nuclear plants for the Y2K bug.''

''If schedules slip, or if testing reveals problems that were not recognized, a number of plants may be dark on New Years,'' Markey said.

He said virtually any system that affects operators' ability to monitor and control nuclear plants could affect safety, even if it's not directly safety related.

The Y2K problem, or millennium bug, may occur in computers and microchips programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year; they may malfunction if they misread the year 2000 as 1900.

Critics of the utility industry have said they fear the bug might cause the nation's power grids to crash when clocks strike midnight on Jan. 1, leading to blackouts.

Markey last week questioned whether power plants are ready to deal with possible Y2K-related blackouts after an NRC letter revealed that both emergency power generators at New Hampshire's Seabrook nuclear plant were simultaneously inoperable for about a week.

One of the generators was out for routine maintenance and testing. The other was functioning properly but technically considered inoperable because its automatic switches malfunctioned. Operators could have hooked up the generator manually, if needed.

Markey said Wednesday that the NRC should be prepared to shut down plants later this year that are not fully ready for possible Y2K problems.

He also questioned the claim that 68 plants are ''Y2K ready'' but not necessarily ''Y2K compliant.''

Markey interpreted that language as meaning that utilities may be able to keep the plants running, with methods such as setting clocks back, but not that all computer programs will necessarily work properly.

Another NRC report on Y2K readiness, based on on-site visits to all nuclear plants over the past three months, is due by the end of July.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndswed09.htm