National

Orange County sues brokerage firm after investment loss

The Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. Ÿ Orange County yesterday filed a new lawsuit blaming Merrill Lynch & Co. for the county's $1.7 billion investment loss.

A bankruptcy judge last week tossed out the original suit on a technicality.

The lawsuit seeks at least $2 billion and tries to prove the county is the proper party to sue Merrill. The brokerage got the initial case dismissed on the technical grounds that the county didn't own most of the funds in its treasury, but was only a trustee, and thus not the appropriate party to sue.

Calls to Merrill attorney Ronald Olson seeking comment were not immediately returned.

In its new action, the county expands its original filing Ÿ a 49-page lawsuit with one exhibit Ÿ to a 105-page revised suit with 24 exhibits, many of them confidential Merrill documents filed under seal. Among other things, the lawsuit argues that the county did own the funds, but can proceed with its suit even if it was just a trustee.

''We believe we've addressed all Merrill's concerns,'' said John L. Amsden, one of the county's outside lawyers.

Editor awarded for journalistic courage

The Associated Press

NEW YORK Ÿ An editor who defied death threats and physical attacks to publish exposÇs of official corruption is among four winners of the 1995 Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for advancing press freedom and inter-American understanding.

In its citation, the prize committee said Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin, president and general editor of Siglo Veintiuno of Guatemala, ''courageously led in establishing a new standard of independent journalism in a country where the top editor of a competing daily was murdered two years ago and 10 journalists killed in the last six years.''

Jury convicts man for killing wolf

The Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. Ÿ A jury convicted a man yesterday of shooting to death a wolf transplanted to Yellowstone National Park last winter by the federal government.

The federal court jury of eight men and four women deliberated an hour and 20 minutes before finding Chad McKittrick guilty on all three misdemeanor counts Ÿ killing the wolf, possessing it and transporting it.

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