Briefly . . . NATION/WORLD

She bares all in 'Playboy,'

and military will investigate

An Air Force staff sergeant who posed nude for Playboy has been relieved of her training duties while the military investigates, officials said yesterday.

In February's issue, Michelle Manhart is photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline "Tough Love." The following pages show her partially clothed, wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.

"This staff sergeant's alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen, nor does it comply with the Air Force's core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do," said Oscar Balladares, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Manhart, 30, who is married with two children, joined the Air Force in 1994, and spent time in Kuwait in 2002. She said she "didn't do anything wrong, so I didn't think it would be a major issue.

Judge, jury: State Farm owes $2.7M to two Katrina victims

A jury yesterday awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a couple who sued State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. for denying their claim after Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could benefit hundreds of other homeowners challenging insurers for refusing to cover billions of dollars in storm damage.

A federal judge hours earlier had ruled in a directed verdict that State Farm is liable for $223,292 in damage to the home of policyholders Norman and Genevieve Broussard.

Scientists outline hunt

for DNA of STD parasite

The tiny parasite undulates under the microscope like some creature from a sci-fi movie, but this one is all too real, latching onto the sexually unwary with tentacle-like probes. Now scientists have mapped the genes of the nasty little bug that causes one of the world's most common, and arguably least recognized, sexually transmitted infections, trichomoniasis.

Researchers hope to bring new attention to a parasite estimated to infect 170 million people a year worldwide, including 8 million in North America - and emerging as a player in the spread of the AIDS virus.

"There are a huge number of people infected out there, but they don't know it so you don't know it," warned Dr. Jane Carlton, a parasite specialist who led the four-year effort by the Institute for Genomic Research to crack the bug's genome. The work is published in today's edition of the journal Science. *

Associated Press