A US district court has dismissed claims filed against nearly three dozen multinational corporations seeking billions of dollars in damages over allegations that their investments in South Africa had helped prop up the brutal apartheid regime. The decision, released on Monday by the US court in the southern district of New York, is being hailed as a significant victory by companies that had feared the case might open the door to huge lawsuits against any company that had done business with oppressive governments...Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund, the lead lawyer in [a case against] Unocal [brought under the same law], said Monday's decision might help his case by reassuring business groups that the ATCA [Alien Tort Claims Act] has not opened the door to a flood of lawsuits. [Defendants include IBM, General Motors; also refers to Talisman, Unocal]