■ Japan
Oldest person turns 116
A Japanese woman believed to be the oldest person in the world turned 116 yesterday. Born in 1887, when Japan was still in the throes of its conversion from samurai rule to modern democracy, Kamato Hongo was recognized as the world's oldest living person by the Guinness Book of Records after an American woman -- Maude Farris-Luse -- died last March at the age of 115. Along with being the object of national pride as a symbol of this nation's unmatched longevity, Hongo is famous throughout Japan for her habit of sleeping for two days and then staying awake for two days. She has seven children -- three of whom have died -- 27 grandchildren, 57 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren. One of them has an Internet homepage devoted to Hongo that reveals her secret to long life. ``Not moping around,'' it says.
■ The Philippines
Thief found in pawnshop
A thief was arrested in the Philippines when his victim bumped into him in a pawnshop where he was trying to cash in on a necklace he had just snatched, police said yesterday. The victim, 30-year-old Maria Liza Panizales, was on her way to the Goodyear Pawnshop in Quezon when the suspect snatched her necklace on Monday. But when Panizales arrived at the pawnshop to pay for another piece of jewelry she earlier pawned, she saw the suspect, 19-year-old Joven Baksal, inside trying to get money from her necklace. Baksal was brought to a nearby police station, where Panizales filed a complaint against him.
■ Pitcairn Island
Birth marks population boom
Remote Pitcairn Island in the Pacific experienced a population boom this week with the birth of the first child on the tiny outpost in 17 years and taking its population to nearly 50, according to a US academic. Emily Rose was born to Nadine Christian, 31, and her husband Randall Sunday night in the Pitcairn Island Medical Clinic both mother and daughter were ``doing fine.'' The child is a ninth generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, the English sailor who led a mid-Pacific mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the British navy ship the HMS Bounty in 1789 and then settled on the unpopulated island.
■ Malaysia
Underwear gang strikes
A team of house burglars dubbed the "Underwear Gang" by Malaysian police has struck for the fifth time this year. The three-man gang, armed with bolt-cutters and screwdrivers but wearing only T-shirts and underpants, broke into a house in Malacca by prising open a sliding door, police spokesman Gemon Ishak told said. The owner of the house, a 29-year-old woman, was awakened by the noise and went to investigate, surprising the scantily-clad burglars who bundled her and two maids into a room before fleeing with about US$7,895 dollars in cash and jewellery.
■ Zimbabwe
Newspaper editor quits
The publishers of Zimbabwe's sole privately owned daily said on Monday its top editor, editor-in-chief Francis Mdlongwa, had quit after authorities shut the paper down, but vowed to fight a closure that Britain branded an attempt to stifle democracy. Police shut down the Daily News last week after the Supreme Court ruled its publisher, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, was operating illegally because it had not registered with a media commission created by Robert Mugabe's government.
■ Saudi Arabia
Jail blaze kills 67 prisoners
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