- Resumes scheduled passenger flights to Cuba after more than 50 years
A US federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $655.5 million verdict against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization for damages suffered by Americans killed and wounded in six attacks in Israel.
The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the lower court which issued the February 2015 verdict did not have jurisdiction over the case and ordered it dismissed.
“The terror machine gun attacks and suicide bombings that triggered this suit and victimized these plaintiffs were unquestionably horrific,” Judge John Koeltl, writing for the three-member court panel, said in a 61-page ruling.
“But the federal courts cannot exercise jurisdiction in a civil case beyond the limits prescribed by the due process clause of the Constitution, no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs’ claims,” it said.
“We vacate the judgment of the district court and remand the case to the district court with instructions to dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction.”
The attacks, which took place between January 2002 and January 2004, left 33 people dead and wounded more than 390 others.
Later in 2004, 11 American families filed a civil suit in federal court under a US anti-terrorism law that allows victims of international attacks to pursue foreign entities in the US courts for damages.
In February 2015, after seven weeks of testimony, a jury unanimously found the two Palestinian entities liable on 25 separate counts related to the attacks, initially awarding victims and their families more than $218 million.
They apportioned individual damages ranging from $1 million to $25 million to Americans who were injured or lost loved ones.
The sum was automatically tripled in accordance with US anti-terrorism law to $655.5 million.
The bombings and shootings were carried out by Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — an armed offshoot of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party — during the second Palestinian uprising against Israel.
Both are blacklisted as terrorist organizations in the United States.
In the meantime, the first scheduled commercial passenger flight from the United States to Cuba in more than half a century landed on Wednesday, opening another chapter in the Obama administration’s efforts to improve ties and increase trade and travel with the former Cold War foe.
A JetBlue Airways Corp passenger jet arrived from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara. The route may be a commercial challenge, at least initially, but it is the first of a plethora of new flights by various U.S. airlines to destinations on the Communist-ruled island.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes, other officials and journalists were aboard the 150-seat plane. Regular travelers, including some of Cuban descent, occupied nearly half the seats on the flight to Santa Clara, a city with a population of about 200,000 that is known for its monument to revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
While opening travel to cities like Santa Clara is seen as a foot in the door to expanding travel to the Cuban provinces, the market’s big prize is routes to Havana, which Foxx awarded on Wednesday. American Airlines Group Inc was awarded the biggest portion.
“The Havana competition was one of the most over-subscribed competitions that I’ve been a part of,” Foxx said in an interview before the plane took off. “I think that speaks to the interest on the part of the American people, and it also speaks to the level of commercial interest in the U.S. that exists.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted in a Twitter message that the flight took place just over a year after the flag was raised at the reopened U.S. embassy in Havana. He called it “another step forward.”
Cuba and the United States began normalizing relations in December 2014 after 18 months of secret talks and have since restored full diplomatic ties. The countries had been hostile for more than five decades, since Fidel Castro ousted U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution that steered the island on a communist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.
Until Wednesday, passenger air links between Cuba and the United States were by chartered flights.
Obama’s opening to Cuba has included a landmark visit by him to the Caribbean island in March and a series of measures to increase commercial ties, but the U.S. president has been unable to persuade Congress to lift the longstanding embargo.
Critics of the detente argue the Obama administration has won few human rights concessions from President Raul Castro in exchange for allowing hotel chains, cruise lines and at least one U.S. bank to ramp up operations on the island.
The United States still prohibits its citizens from visiting Cuba as tourists, although there have long been exceptions to the ban, ranging from visiting family to business, cultural, religious and educational travel. The Obama administration has further eased the restrictions.
Lázaro Chavez, a 49-year-old pharmacist who lives in Miami and returns frequently to his homeland, said before boarding that he was taking the flight for two reasons. “One, I am going to see my family. Two, I want to be on this historic flight.”
MSN
