Spain

Morocco has up to 1,000 al-Qaida followers, judge says

Europe’s biggest terrorist threat is Morocco — seething with as many as 1,000 al-Qaida adherents capable of suicide attacks and skilled at slipping through the continent’s southern gateway, Spain’s leading anti-terrorism judge testified Thursday.

The impoverished kingdom just a short ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar has about 100 al-Qaida-linked cells that raise money by dealing hashish, fencing luxury cars and smuggling people into Spain, Judge Baltasar Garzon told lawmakers investigating the Madrid train bombings. Most of the 17 suspects jailed in the March 11 bombings, which killed 190 people, are Moroccan.

Garzon said his figures came from police and intelligence data.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Medicare eliminates policy that obesity is not an illness

Medicare is discarding its policy that obesity is not a disease, potentially throwing open the door for millions of overweight Americans to make medical claims for treatments such as stomach surgery and diet programs.

“Obesity is a critical public health problem in our country that causes millions of Americans to suffer unnecessary health problems and to die prematurely,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told a Senate panel Thursday. Treating obesity-related illnesses results in billions of dollars in health care costs, he said.

With the removal of language in Medicare policy that said obesity was not an illness, beneficiaries will be able to request a government review of medical evidence to determine whether certain treatments for obesity can be covered.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Labor board: GTAs at private schools cannot form unions

Graduate teaching assistants at private universities do not have the right to form unions, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled, reversing its 2000 decision that resulted in thousands of new union members.

The board, in a 3-2 decision along party lines, ruled that a unit of about 450 graduate teaching and research assistants at Brown University in Providence, R.I., could not be represented by the United Auto Workers because the members were school students, not employees.

Some state-supported schools allow graduate teaching assistants to unionize and some don’t depending on various state laws. GTAs at Kansas University are represented by the Kansas Association of Public Employees.

Puerto Rico

Lawyers sue U.S. for Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo

A team of lawyers sued the U.S. government Thursday on behalf of 15 detainees from Yemen held on suspicion of terrorism at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a spokesman said.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, bringing to about 50 the number of detainees for whom suits are pending, said Clive Stafford-Smith, a human rights lawyer who leads the New Orleans-based group Justice in Exile.

The actions all demand court hearings and argue the men should be freed.