Judge delays ruling on terrorist suspects’ treatment
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — The treatment of detained terrorist suspects from the Afghanistan war is getting more scrutiny from the international community.

A federal judge in Los Angeles, meanwhile, delayed ruling on a petition that alleges the prisoners are being held in violation of the Geneva Conventions and U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz said he had “grave doubts” about his jurisdiction and gave federal prosecutors until Jan. 31 to file papers calling for dismissal of the petition on jurisdictional grounds. The judge said he will hold another hearing Feb. 14. Federal attorneys said they would file for dismissal of the case.

The court challenge of the detention of al Qaeda suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base demanded that the U.S. government bring the suspects before a court and define the charges against them. A coalition that includes former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and other prominent civil rights advocates brought the suit.

The European Union and Germany on Tuesday joined a chorus of protests from the Netherlands, British legislators, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross demanding that the detainees be given prisoner-of-war status subject to the Geneva Conventions.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the United States is treating the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay “humanely,” and in accordance with Geneva Conventions.

The detainees are receiving “warm showers, toiletries, water, clean clothes, blankets, regular, culturally appropriate meals, prayer mats, and the right to practice their religions,” in addition to medical care, writing materials and visits from the International Red Cross, Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld said critics were not taking into account the danger detainees pose to military guards. He said that one detainee at Guantanamo has threatened to kill Americans, and another has bitten a U.S. military guard.

The West risks losing support in the fight against terrorism if it mistreats the prisoners or subjects them to the death penalty, said EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

Rumsfeld said the United States has not decided if the detainees should be treated as prisoners of war, and for now calls them battlefield detainees. He said the Geneva Conventions call for so-called “unlawful combatants” to be treated humanely, and the United States military is treating them humanely.

Under the Geneva Conventions, POWs would have to be tried by the same courts and procedures as American soldiers, not by military tribunals.

Recognizing the detainees as prisoners of war would mean trying them under the same procedures as U.S. soldiers — by court-martial or civilian courts, not military tribunals.

The number of detainees at the base in remote Cuba rose to 158 with Monday’s arrival of 14 battle-scarred fighters on stretchers, including two amputees and three with infections requiring surgery.

Thousands apply for aid after volcanic eruption
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Trucks loaded with blankets and plastic sheeting flowed into Goma on Tuesday, and tens of thousands of Congolese left homeless or destitute by a volcanic eruption last week lined up to register to receive food and water in their devastated city.

More than 90 percent of the 300,000 people who fled lava from Mount Nyiragongo, 12 miles north of Goma, have already returned home. Thousands more waited in neighboring Gisenyi, Rwanda, for boats to take them across Lake Kivu to other Congolese cities.

Jacques Durieux, a vulcanologist at the French Group for the Study of Active Volcanoes, said there were no indications another eruption of the volcano was imminent, and no more lava was flowing. He said it was now safe for the United Nations to deliver aid directly to Goma and for the refugees to return home.

Durieux said continuing earth tremors caused by the settling of the area following the Jan. 17 eruption were the only remaining threat. He said most of the buildings in Congo were simple structures, and therefore resistant to earthquakes.

Laura Melo, spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program, said the agency would begin distributing food Tuesday outside Goma and planned to deliver food to Goma itself no later than Wednesday.

Fresh water was trucked into Goma on Tuesday, and water distribution points were being set up throughout the town where pipes were cut, said Michael Despines, head of the International Rescue Committee in Goma.

Electricity has been restored to much of Goma, and one of the water treatment plants was now operating, though officials were still checking the mineral content to make sure it is completely safe.

Residents struggled Monday to recover from the devastating volcanic eruption that destroyed their city, scavenging for building materials and for ways to make money. But that effort turned lethal when more than 30 people died while trying to siphon fuel from a burned-out gas station.

There have been unconfirmed reports that as many as 40 people died in Thursday’s eruption, but Congolese and U.N. officials admit that no one has any firm information about casualties.

AOL Time Warner sues Microsoft regarding Netscape Internet browser
WASHINGTON (AP) — AOL Time Warner sued Microsoft in federal court Tuesday over AOL’s Netscape Internet browser, which ruled computer desktops until Microsoft began giving its competing browser away.

Many of Microsoft’s business practices, including ones in which the company encouraged computer manufacturers and Internet providers to distribute its Web browser instead of Netscape, were found to be anticompetitive by a federal appeals court last year. AOL, which now owns Netscape, wants Microsoft to cease its contested business practices and pay damages.

AOL filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Under federal law, AOL would be entitled to triple any actual damages found by the court.

One possible option, if a judge rules in favor of AOL, would be to force Microsoft to sell a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system so computer manufacturers could choose which Internet browser to offer. That has also been requested by nine state attorneys general suing Microsoft in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who heard the federal government’s case against Microsoft in the Netscape matter, found that Microsoft tried to keep consumers from being able to choose Netscape.

The federal government and nine other states settled their landmark antitrust suit with Microsoft last year, and that settlement is under consideration by a federal judge. AOL has been a longtime critic of Microsoft and has talked frequently with prosecutors throughout the case.

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