WASHINGTON: A group of 129 black farmers have filed a $ 500 million lawsuit against the US Agriculture Department over complaints of discrimination in denial of farm loans and other benefits.

The lawsuit in US District Court is intended to protect farmers who came forward with complaints after Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman's admission on February 21, 1997, that there had been discrimination against black farmers in the past.

The move comes after the House of Representatives last month passed legislation waiving the statute of limitations that the Justice Department ruled prevents many farmers with older cases from getting any cash relief.

That measure must still pass the Senate.

Fined for male company

KUALA LUMPUR: A court has ordered the arrest of an actress charged with violating an Islamic law that prohibits an unmarried man and woman from being alone together in a room. The warrant against actress-producer Julie Dahlan was issued by theShariah Court on Wednesday in the northern state of Penang. Dahlan, 44, is alleged to have been in a hotel room with a non-Muslim male member of her movie crew during a shoot in 1996.

AIDS drug may stop liver disease

BOSTON: A standard AIDS drug appears to slow liver damage caused by Hepatitis B. A study in New England Journal of Medicine looked at the effects of the drug 3TC on people with long-standing infections with the virus.

It found that after a year of treatment, signs of inflammatory injury fell significantly in just over half of those getting the medicine, compared with one-quarter of those on dummy medication.

The drug, also known as Lamivudine or Epivir, is one of several that block production of an essential viral protein known as reverse transcriptase. Both the AIDS virus and Hepatitis B use this enzyme.

Worldwide, more than 300 million people are infected with Hepatitis B, and three-quarters of them are of Asian origin. The virus can cause cirrhosis and livercancer.

New solar system on horizon

LOS ANGELES: A ring of dust particles circling a nearby star looks remarkably like the belt of comets outside Pluto and Neptune, and researchers think it could mean there are other solar systems similar to ours.

Although there's no direct evidence yet of any planets in the system, astronomers using a telescope in Hawaii found a bright spot in the dusty ring around Epsilon Eridani, among the 10 closest stars to earth. The spot could be dust sucked into the gravitational field of a young planet, said lead researcher Jane Greaves, project scientist for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope operated by Great Britain's Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo, Hawaii.

Another reason the dusty ring is so intriguing is that it's located at approximately the same distance from the star as the Kuiper Belt is from our sun. The Kuiper Belt contains about 70,000 large comets and millions of smaller ones.

Silicon breast damage relief

DETROIT: An estimated 170,000 women whosay silicone breast implants made them sick would get $ 3.2 billion from Dow Corning Corp. Under a settlement tentatively approved by a federal bankruptcy judge. The offer, which still must be approved by the plaintiffs and Dow Corning's creditors, is $ 200 million more than what the company previously offered to pay, but $ 600 million less than what the women sought. Some claimants could get as much as $ 250,000.

Lynda Roth, who blames her ruptured implant for her lupus and short-term memory loss, greeted the news cautiously. US Bankruptcy judge Arthur Spector said claimants will be able to qualify for compensation to cover removal of the implants, as well as payments for ruptured implants and certain medical conditions. Women who would rather sue will still be able to do so.

Seat impotency

WASHINGTON: Riding a typical bike seat can lead to impotence, researchers say. As that word gets out, sales of nontypical bike seats have been increasing.

Sitting on an ordinary narrow, pointed seat cancrush an artery that controls the ability of the penis to fill with blood, said researcher Pedram Salimpour of Boston University School of Medicine.

And although impotence is not common, his research shows that impotence happens more often to cyclists than to runners. But the problem can be avoided through the use of newer bike seats with oval gaps, which look something like a toilet seat, Salimpour said.