March 11



USA//CALIFORNIA:

Calif. must pay millions in Holocaust case


Taxpayers are on the hook for what could be millions of dollars in legal
fees owed to insurance companies that successfully challenged a state law
requiring them to make public their overseas, Holocaust-era records.

The 19 companies and a trade group won their fight against the state law
before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003; a federal appeals court ruled
Thursday they were entitled to attorneys fees and costs.

Leslie Tick, a California Department of Insurance lawyer, estimated
California might have to pay from $5 million to $10 million. She said the
department was considering whether to appeal.

Thursday's decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a
lower court ruling that the companies were not entitled to fees and costs
because they prevailed before the high court on an issue that doesn't
require the losing party to cover expenses.

The state law at the center of the case required companies that sold
policies in Europe from 1920 to 1945, and which are now affiliated with
insurance companies in California, to search their records for details of
the old policies.

The information would go into a public registry to assist survivors in
getting their policies paid. Companies that refused could lose their state
licenses.

The Bush administration argued, and a divided Supreme Court agreed, the
law amounted to unconstitutional meddling in foreign affairs by a state.

Afterward, the industry demanded fees and costs for a case that went to
the Supreme Court and to the appeals court here three different times.

(source: Associated Press)





ISRAEL:

Mayor to Represent U.S. in Museum Opening at Israel Holocaust Memorial


President Bush is sending Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to represent the
United States in Jerusalem next week for the opening of the new museum at
the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, city officials said yesterday.

The assignment is a major election-year plum from the White House to Mr.
Bloomberg, giving him a chance to attend a high-profile event important to
a key constituency, Jewish voters.

It also gives him a rare chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with
national leaders. Several nations - Sweden, Poland, Lithuania among them -
are planning to send their presidents. Several others - including France,
Switzerland, Denmark, Romania - are planning to send their prime
ministers.

For just that reason, the mayor's assignment had a chilly reception in
some Israeli newspapers yesterday.

An article on the Jerusalem Post Web site last night portrayed Mr. Bush's
decision to send Mr. Bloomberg rather than "at least a cabinet-level
representative" as a show of disrespect. It quoted the chairman of Yad
Vashem, Avner Shalev, as saying on Army Radio, "Something went wrong
here," adding, "They woke up too late, and a gap was created between the
U.S. and Europe."

An article in Ha'aretz, another Israeli newspaper, also portrayed it as a
disappointment to Israeli officials who it said were hoping Vice President
Dick Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would attend the
opening.

Yad Vashem, formerly known as the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance Authority, is the chief Israeli Holocaust educational center.
An official close to Yad Vashem said last night that it was under the
impression earlier this week that the United States would send Mr.
Cheney's wife, Lynne, and the chairman of the House International
Relations Committee, Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois.

A White House official, Dana M. Perino, would not comment last night. But
The Jerusalem Post quoted a United States Embassy official as defending
the decision by saying: "New Yorkers love Israel, and Israelis love New
York. New York is one of the great cities of the world, and Mayor
Bloomberg is proud to represent the U.S. at this most solemn occasion."

This will be Mr. Bloomberg's fourth trip to Israel since he was elected
and his fifth in all.

(source: New York Times)