Families Win Ruling in Cuba Shoot-Down

A federal judge in Miami ordered that more than $6.2 million owed to Cuba by U.S. telephone companies be paid instead to the families of three Cuban Americans killed when their small planes were shot down by Cuban jets in 1996. The decision means direct phone service between the U.S. and Cuba will remain severed for now, though some calls were making it through. The families won a $187-million judgment against Cuba and its air force in 1997 but were unable to collect because President Clinton waived a new anti-terrorism law that would have allowed them to get the blocked assets.