Feb. 27 - The World Court today claimed authority to settle a
 legal dispute that has blocked the trial of two Libyans suspected
 of blowing up a Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland in 1988.
     But the court did not settle the question of where the trial
 will be held. The case pits Libya against the United States
 and Britain.
     All 259 passengers - as well as 11 people on the ground - were
 killed in the December 1988 blast over Lockerbie, Scotland.
     The families of the victims had hoped today's ruling by the
 highest judicial body of the United Nations would accelerate the
 trial of the suspects. But the decision did not settle the judicial
 deadlock entirely, and a trial could still be years away.
     Libya asked the court, located in the Hague, to take steps to
 resolve the impasse, in hopes of ending six years of sanctions. The
 council ordered the sanctions in 1992 after Libya refused to extra-
 dite the suspects.
     Libya says the United States and Britain are acting unlawfully
 by insisting that the two suspects be extradited to one of those
 two countries. Libya maintains that the two men are innocent and
 refuses to turn them over, saying that they will not receive a fair
 trial.
              Britain and U.S. Want Case Thrown Out
     Britain and the United States have asked the court to dismiss
 Libya's case, arguing that it would be encroaching on the authority
 of the Security Council if it were to hear the case.  Both Britain
 and the United States sit on that U.N. panel.
     The ruling is not about the merit of the charges against the two
 men suspected of planting the lethal bomb. Rather, it addressed whe-
 ther the court has jurisdiction to consider a complaint lodged by
 Libya against the United States and Britain.
     Libya had proposed holding the trial in a neutral country or be-
 fore the International Court of Justice under Scottish law.
     However, both the United States and Britain have rejected these
 options, saying that the 15-judge court does not have jurisdiction.
     The multinational investigation of the explosion culminated
 November 1991 in joint indictments from Scotland and the United
 States for the two suspected Libyan intelligence agents, Abdel
 Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.
     The court's rulings are binding and without appeal. But they
 ultimately have to be enforced by the Security Council.
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       Lawyer says U.S. plane's altitude gauge may have broken
     ROME - Feb 27, 1998 - The altitude gauge may have malfunctioned
 on a U.S. Marine jet that swooped low and severed a ski gondola
 cable in the Italian Alps, the lawyer for the plane's crew said
 Friday.
     Nineteen skiers and the cable car operator were killed when the
 gondola plunged to the ground Feb. 3.
     Hinting for the first time at the crew's explanation for the
 accident, Italian attorney Bruno Malattia said he has asked for
 tests on the altimeter.
     "We think it wasn't working properly," he said, adding that an
 alarm is supposed to sound when the plane drops below a certain
 altitude.
     Italian media reported last week that an Italian air force in-
 vestigation blamed pilot error. Malattia and the U.S. military say
 the investigation is still under way.
     Gen. Vincenzo Camporini, head of flight security for the Italian
 air force, was quoted as saying that its investigators left no room
 for doubt that the pilot "flew in substantial deviation from the
 flight plan and the rules, and this was the fundamental cause of the
 accident."
     The Marine EA-6B Prowler sliced through the cable with its right
 wing while on a training run from the U.S. air base of Aviano in
 northeastern Italy.
     Malattia, speaking by telephone from Aviano, said the four crew
 members wrote a report for Marine investigators in which they ex-
 plained why they were flying so low.
     He refused to say what the reasons were.
     Italy does not allow aircraft on training flights to dip below
 2,000 feet. U.S. regulations permit pilots to fly as low as
 1,000 feet.
     Capt. Richard Ashby and his three-man crew were flying below the
 cable's highest point of 400 feet when the plane hit.
     The lawyer said both Italian and U.S. investigators want to con-
 duct further tests. One on the plane's altimeter will begin Monday
 and may take a few days.
     Italy has said it will seek U.S. permission to prosecute the
 crew on possible manslaughter charges. Permission likely will not be
 granted. Marines train in Italy under the auspices of NATO, and
 treaties governing the alliance make U.S. military personnel subject
 only to American law.
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--- DB 1.39/004487
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