21.   Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued an apology to leprosy patients late last month after announcing that the government would not appeal the court ruling ordering compensation.

22.   Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has issued an apology to leprosy patients and has said compensation would be paid to all victims of the law.

23.   Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later issued an apology to leprosy patients.

24.   The children of leprosy patients often cannot live with their parents for fear they will contract the disease, and society shuns them.

25.   The lawsuit, filed earlier Friday at the Kumamoto District Court in southern Japan, is the first by a group of former leprosy patients demanding government compensation.

26.   The Japanese government reached a settlement Tuesday with three former leprosy patients who were banished to secluded sanitariums for decades under a draconian law.

27.   They accuse the Japanese government of negligence and inhumane treatment of leprosy patients.

28.   Under that law, leprosy patients were exiled to small islands or distant mountains.

29.   Deve Gowda said New Delhi has repealed laws which previously restricted inheritance, marriage and voting rights of leprosy patients.

30.   Lawmakers approved a resolution in June formally apologising to leprosy patients after an historic ruling by the Kumamoto District Court in May.