Heather Mills accepts damages from UK newspaper

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney's new wife, Heather Mills, has accepted $76,000 in damages from a British newspaper which claimed she was being investigated over charity money, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

The money was offered to settle her libel claim after a May 12 article in the Sunday Mirror alleged the Charity Commission was investigating her over money collected for an Indian earthquake amputees' appeal in 2001.

Former model Mills, who married McCartney in an Irish castle in June, turned to raising money for the limbless after losing her left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

More recently she and McCartney have campaigned against land mines.

In a statement, Mills's lawyer said she planned to donate the damages money to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield UK.

She was 'pleased the Sunday Mirror has recognized that the allegations were unfounded and that her reputation has been vindicated,' it said.

'She is also pleased that she may now concentrate on the important issue of her charity work instead of wasting an enormous amount of valuable time and energy defending her charity and herself,' it added.

The paper will also pay Mills's legal costs, the statement said.

A spokesman for Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Sunday Mirror, declined to

That's it?

Only $76,000 for an alleged libel claim?

No need for the paper to apologize? No retraction? Just $76,000?

Sounds like somebody's lawyer in yet another nuisance lawsuit told his client to take the money and run because they weren't going to win it in court.