Timeline set for Dow implant settlements

DETROIT (AP) - Thousands of women who said Dow Corning silicone breast implants made them sick could soon receive checks from a $2.35 billion settlement fund after a judge set a date Friday for the company to emerge from bankruptcy.

The federal judge's order came about two weeks after a Nevada lawyer dropped a challenge that had held up payments for years.

The payments could begin on June 15.

"This has been such a long time in coming," said Sybil Niden Goldrich, a claimant who also sits on a committee that represents other people with health complaints. "Now there's nothing standing in the way for women to be getting money that they need very badly for their medical care to proceed."

Dow Corning was forced into bankruptcy in 1995 after thousands of women sued the company, saying its implants damaged their health. In a settlement approved by a federal judge, Dow Corning agreed to pay women $2,000 to $330,000 each.

About 170,000 women who received breast implants have filed claims, Dow Corning said. There are about 75,000 other claimants who had other kinds of silicone implants, including joint and facial implants.

But until two weeks ago, a group of 48 Nevada women had objected to the terms, holding out for an average of $200,000 per person.

Dow Corning spokeswoman Mary Lou Benecke said the company is pleased that it is scheduled to emerge from bankruptcy on June 1.

Space station crew hears strange sound

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The two men aboard the international space station heard a strange metallic sound again Friday, four months after being startled by it the first time.

Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri was talking to flight controllers in Moscow when he heard a loud drumlike noise coming from the instrument panel of the station's Russian-built living quarters.

Kaleri and astronaut Michael Foale first heard the mystery noise - described as a flapping sheet of metal - back in late November. Neither the crewmen nor flight controllers were ever able to identify the sound, although engineers suspected space junk may have damaged something on the exterior.

Kaleri said Friday morning's noise came from about the same place as before and sounded the same.

"I had the headset on, so I didn't hear it very clearly. But it sounded sort of like a drum. It sounds sort of like a sheet of something being bent," the cosmonaut reported.

Russian flight controllers told Kaleri that they would try to figure out where the noise was coming from, and speculated that perhaps one of the systems inside the station was the source of the problem, rather than something on the outside.

NASA officials, however, said all systems appeared to be operating properly.

"It's very strange," Russian Mission Control said. "I doubt that it would be a coincidence that you're hearing the same thing coming from the same place."

During a spacewalk in February, Kaleri and Foale were supposed to check the exterior of the space station where the noise originated last November. But Kaleri's spacesuit overheated and became damp, and the spacewalk had to be cut short, so the men did not have time to inspect the area.

Kaleri and Foale's six-month space station mission is almost over. Their replacements are due to arrive in another 2 1/2 weeks.

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