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TOKYO: A letter that a young girl in Japan sent into the sky
in a balloon some 15 years ago has been found on a fish hauled from
1,000 meters (3,300 feet) below the Pacific. A fisherman found the
still-legible piece of paper sitting on a sticky flatfish in his
catch on Thursday, along with a torn-off string and the fragment of
a red balloon. He opened the folded paper and discovered a
handwritten letter from a six-year-old girl at an elementary school
in Kawasaki, 150 kilometers (93 miles) away from where the fish was
caught off Choshi port. The sender, Natsumi Shirahige, and her
friends released letters as part of events to mark the school’s
120th anniversary, which was in 1993.
-- AFP
BEIJING: A high-speed train ran down a group of
railway workers in east China’s Shandong Province, leaving 18 dead
and nine others injured, the Ministry of Railways said Friday. The
workers were relocating the tracks when the train ran into the work
site at 8:48 p.m. on Wednesday in Anqiu City of Shandong province.
-- Xinhua
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian ethnic Indian activist
who has been hospitalized during a hunger strike is at risk of
suffering a heart attack, his fianceé said Friday. P. Uthayakumar,
who is protesting against being jailed without trial along with four
other activists, was taken to hospital from a detention center in
northern Perak state Thursday, suffering from dehydration and
stomach pains. His fianceé Indra Devi Subramanian said he was
handcuffed to the hospital bed despite being in an extremely weak
condition after going without food since Monday.
-- AFP
BANGKOK: After the H5N1 avian flu was found
recently in central Thailand, Livestock Development Department said
Friday that the deadly H5N1 virus has not yet spread to other
provinces. Sakchai Sriboonsue, director-general of the department,
said no new case of the H5N1 virus has been found so far in nearby
provinces. However, the department confirmed the reemerging of the
H5N1 virus in Nakhon Sawan province on Thursday.
-- Xinhua
KATHMANDU: Due to improper child delivery
practices, 33 out of 1,000 Nepali babies are annually dying within a
month of delivery, The Himalayan Times reported on Friday. The
recent Demographic Health Survey conducted by the Department of
Health Services, revealed the statistics and also pointed out that
81 percent of total deliveries are carried out at homes, and the
skilled birth attendants attend merely 18 percent of them.
-- Xinhua
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
resigned on Thursday following 20 rocky months in office after the
center-left leader lost a vote of confidence in the Senate.
President Giorgio Napolitano asked Prodi to continue in office as
the head of state holds consultations with political leaders,
beginning Friday afternoon with the speakers of the Senate and the
lower house Chamber of Deputies, the president’s office said.
Prodi, 68, crippled by the defection early this week of the centrist
Catholic UDEUR party, had decided to go ahead with the Senate
showdown despite appeals from top leaders, including Napolitano, to
resign instead.
-- AFP
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police were Friday
investigating the gruesome discovery of 16 bullet-riddled bodies
dumped in shallow graves in a government-controlled part of the
island. The villagers found the bodies Thursday evening in the
district of Anuradhapura, 206 kilometers (130 miles) north of the
capital Colombo.
-- AFP
GENEVA: The United States said Thursday that it
would be difficult for the UN Security Council to agree on a
presidential statement on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The original text of the draft, which has the support of Arab
countries, expresses concern over the situation in Gaza and calls on
Israel to end its blockade and ensure access for humanitarian aid to
the Palestinian people. The 15-member body met behind closed doors
Thursday to continue talks on the draft that UN diplomats said have
been accepted by 14 council members.
-- Xinhua
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
expects the US economy to grow at a pace “below potential” this
year but not to slide into a recession. High profits, strong
corporate and household balance sheets, and solid macroeconomic
policies ensured that the economy was in a good position when the
sub-prime mortgage crisis struck at the end of last summer, he said.
-- Xinhua
WASHINGTON: An international team of scientists
has isolated pancreatic stem cells in adult mice, a breakthrough
that could lead to treatment for juvenile or Type 1 diabetes,
researchers said in a study published Thursday. Scientists have for
some time been searching for stem cells in the pancreas, which have
the potential of restoring the organ’s insulin-making capacity so
crucial in maintaining adequate blood sugar levels in the body. The
researchers hope to program the mice pancreatic stem cells to
generate new insulin-producing beta cells.
-- AFP
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