In brief: U.S. bringing new WTO trade case against China

WASHINGTON – Aiming to level the playing field for U.S. companies, the Obama administration today will bring a new trade case against China that seeks to pressure the rising economic power to end its export restrictions on key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat-screen televisions and other high-tech goods.

Senior Obama administration officials said the U.S. will ask the World Trade Organization to facilitate talks with China over its curtailment of exports of rare earth minerals. The U.S. is bringing the case to the WTO along with the European Union and Japan, the officials said.

The fresh action is part of President Barack Obama’s broader effort to crack down on what his administration sees as unfair trading practices by China that have put American companies at a competitive disadvantage. Obama was to announce the WTO action from White House today, according to the officials, who requested anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president.

China has a stranglehold on the global supply of 17 rare earth minerals that are essential for making high-tech goods, including hybrid cars, weapons, flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, mercury-vapor lights, smartphones and camera lenses. They also are used in the manufacture of tiny motors, such as those used to raise and lower car windows and in consumer electronics.

LAX bomb plotter’s sentence ruled too light

LOS ANGELES – A 22-year sentence given to an al-Qaida-trained Algerian terrorist for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium was unreasonably lenient, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in overturning the term.

Disputes over the appropriate punishment for Ahmed Ressam have roiled the federal courts for more than a decade, as the young Algerian captured with a trunk load of explosives when he entered the United States initially cooperated with U.S. counterterrorism agents in exposing the inner workings of the global terror network and testifying against other captured militants.

The 11-judge panel dominated by appointees of Democratic presidents said a more appropriate sentence would be in the range set by the federal guidelines, suggesting that Ressam remain in prison for what is likely to be the rest of his life. In the 7-4 ruling, the dissenting judges said the district court’s judgment should be respected.