Problem importing ESRI Shape files

Hi!

I have some comercial shape files that I can't import with v.in.arc. ( I use Grass 5.0b)
g.region responses with an error message "north must be north of south.." or something like that.
Could it be there ist something wrong with the projection? How can I change the projection?
The files work perfectly with ArcView 3.0.
Anybody got a solution for this problem?

Thanx, Werner Masik