INTERNATIONAL

Appeals Court Rules Against Amoco: Amoco must pay about $200 million in damages for the devastating 1978 oil spill off the coast of France from its supertanker Amoco Cadiz, a federal appeals court has ruled. The court called the spill “a disaster waiting to happen.” Attorney Barry Kingham, who represented French villages and towns, called the decision “a complete and total victory.” Amoco Corp. and the French had both appealed a lower court’s $155-million judgment against the firm. Amoco argued that the French never proved who was to blame for the accident, which blackened the coast of Brittany. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals marks the latest chapter in a 14-year legal battle to determine responsibility for the accident.