"Slave descendants file one (b) billion-dollar suit against corporations"

New York-AP -- Descendants of slaves have filed a one (b) billion dollar lawsuit against eight corporations they say profited by committing genocide against their ancestors.

The federal suit was filed in New York today. It accuses the U-S and British corporations of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to plantations in the U-S.

Their lawyers say it's the first such lawsuit that uses D-N-A to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade. The suit says one plaintiff is linked to a tribe whose people were "kidnapped, tortured and shipped in chains."

A spokeswoman for one company named -- R.J. Reynolds -- says they haven't received a copy of the suit yet.

In January, a federal judge in Chicago threw out a similar suit brought by descendants of slaves.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

So, do they have a case?

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup