Museum items can't be seized to pay Iran judgment

A federal judge in Chicago says survivors of a 1997 terrorist attack blamed partly on Iran can't seize museum pieces in US collections to help pay a $412 million judgment. Judge Robert Gettleman's ruling Friday stems from a long-running legal battle that museum officials elsewhere watching closely.

They feared their own collections could be at risk if Gettleman had allowed collections of Persian antiquities at Chicago's Field Museum and University of Chicago to be seized. Survivors of the suicide bombing in Jerusalem sued Iran's government, accusing it of being complicit. A Washington, DC, court awarded that judgment. (AP)