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TOKYO: A 61-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to her own grandchild, using an egg donated by her daughter, a clinic said Thursday. The surrogate mother was believed to be oldest woman to have given birth in Japan.

The surrogate mother used an egg donated by her daughter

Surrogate births are extremely rare in Japan, and the Suwa Maternity Clinic in Nagano, northwest of Tokyo, refused to provide information such as the date of the birth or gender of the baby. News reports said the baby was born last year.
“Both surrogate mother and baby were fine,” said Chihiro Netsu, a spokeswoman for the clinic. Netsu said the woman was believed to be the oldest surrogate mother in Japan, and news reports said she was the oldest woman to have given birth overall.
The Japanese Health Ministry does not release precise statistics on mothers’ ages, saying only that there were two births to women aged 55 or older in 2006, the latest year that figures were available for.
The surrogate mother used a fertilized egg donated by her daughter, who has no uterus, Netsu said.
Mainichi newspaper reported that the previous oldest mothers in Japan were two 60-year-old women implanted with their own fertilized eggs in the United States.
Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a powerful body with over 15,000 members, has banned such procedures, but they are not illegal and individual clinics are free to perform them though few actually do.
At Suwa Maternity Clinic, eight surrogate mothers have given birth. Of them, four women have delivered babies using fertilized eggs from their daughters.
The clinic will report the latest case at a conference of the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation later this month. It was the first time the fertilization conference had taken up the subject of surrogate births, Netsu said.

ISLAMABAD: Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Pakistan army’s main arms factory on Thursday, killing about 45 people and wounding 100 more, security officials said, according to AFP.
The attackers struck almost simultaneously outside two gates of the huge factory in the Wah Cantonment, near the capital Islamabad, local police chief Nasir Durrani said.

‘It’s a massive attack,’ Durrani told AFP. ‘Two men apparently blew themselves up outside the factory during a shift change. The bombers were on foot and they exploded themselves less than a minute apart,’ he said.

A senior security official said that at least 18 people were confirmed killed. Durrani said he had reports of up to 20 dead but they were unconfirmed.

Factory worker Riaz Hussain said most of the victims were labourers who were joining the afternoon shift.

‘I was working in the factory when I heard one blast and then another. They were huge,’ he told AFP.

‘Security people then immediately surrounded the place and we were not allowed to go outside. They allowed us out one by one after clearing the area.’

An official from an ambulance service said that more than 100 injured, along with the bodies of the dead, had been taken to hospital.

‘The blast took place as staff were leaving after finishing their day’s duty and it was very crowded,’ Zaheer Shah, of Edhi Rescue, Pakistan’s largest private charity, told AFP.

‘We have 25 ambulances working and army and factory staff are also engaged in the rescue work,’ Shah said.

The blast comes two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a hospital in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday, killing 30 people.

Pakistani Taliban militants have warned in recent days that they would launch attacks on the military in revenge for an ongoing army operation in the troubled tribal region of Bajaur on the Afghan border.

According to Dawn News, one of the bombers managed to breach the premises, while the other struck the gate of the facility. Witnesses described a scene of carnage with people lying on the ground around the explosion site.

Wah Cantonment is a high security area in Taxila, close to Islamabad, known for its munitions production facilities.

NOUAKCHOTT (Mauritania), Nov 6: At least 45 African migrants have died of cold and thirst after their boat ran aground in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach Europe, a Mauritanian security official said on Tuesday.

Mauritanian soldiers who discovered the beached vessel on Monday also found 98 survivors aboard the boat, which had set sail from Senegal some 20 days ago, trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.

Of those survivors, six were in a coma and two died during the night at a hospital in Mauritania’s second city of Nouadhibou. Four others were in a critical condition. According to the official, the dead were “victims of cold, thirst and hunger and (they) were thrown overboard by the survivors”.

The group left Senegal’s southern city of Ziguinchor on Oct 16 and a week ago, the boat’s engine broke down off Morocco. Currents and winds drove it aground at Laguerra, on Mauritania’s border with Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

A Red Cross official reached by phone from the capital confirmed the survivors were extremely tired.

“We are helping with feeding, medicine and with hospital care,” a local Red Cross official Mohamed Ould Hamada said.

Local administrative officials said the migrants were mainly from Senegal, with a few from Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia.

An unknown number of migrants die every year trying to reach the Canaries.

The Canary Islands have been a magnet in recent years for mainly sub-Saharan immigrants aspiring to reach Europe after a security crackdown in Morocco and two Spanish enclaves there.

Recent days have seen an upsurge of departures despite the stepped-up maritime patrols off Africa’s Atlantic coast by the European Union border agency Frontex, which cooperates with some west African nations.

The surveillance system is considered water tight, but migrants try to avoid it by setting sail from the unmonitored Gambian waters and later take on to the international waters.—AFP

LAHORE, Nov 6: Lawyers continued their countrywide protest campaign and boycott of courts for a second day on Tuesday against the imposition of emergency and arrest of judges.

Dozens of lawyers were arrested in various cities and towns, including Lahore, Multan and Quetta, when they tried to take out rallies.

In Islamabad, the Constitution Avenue was declared out of bound for lawyers and the general public to stop protesters from reaching the Supreme Court.

In Multan, lawyers clashed with police when they tried to come out of the high court and district bar premises.

A number of lawyers suffered injuries. Police later arrested over a dozen lawyers.

In Lahore, police arrested around two dozen lawyers from the Lahore High Court, Aiwan-i-Adl and Cantonment Courts.

The judges, who have taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order, did arrive to attend to their duties but had nothing much to do in the absence of lawyers and litigants.

In Peshawar and several towns of the NWFP, lawyers boycotted the courts and clashed with police. Policemen in civvies and uniform had replaced the general public normally seen busy pleading and seeking justice.

Cameramen and photojournalists were stopped from entering the premises

ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Ruling Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that the state of emergency should not last more than three weeks.

“I’m sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule,” he told Dawn here on Tuesday.

“Nobody is in favour of emergency. It was promulgated reluctantly by the chief of the army staff,” the PML chief said, rejecting some politicians’ view that it was a “virtual martial law”.

Asked if general elections would be held as planned earlier, he said that “postponing the elections may favour some individuals or parties but not us”. He did not elaborate.

Chaudhry Shujaat ruled out any possibility of a pre-poll arrangement with the Pakistan People’s Party. “This could be considered after the general elections in which we will be rivals,” he added.

“But we are ready to meet PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her aides to discuss steps which may help improve the political climate and ensure transition to full democracy,” he said.

Answering a question, he said the PML was fully geared to contest elections on the basis of its government’s performance.

Chaudhry Shujaat rejected opposition’s allegation that polls would not be held in a free, fair and transparent manner under President Gen Musharraf and that the ruling party would be allowed to rig them.

“Gone are the days when elections could be easily manipulated,” he said, adding that after the lifting of the state of emergency, political parties would start a fully-fledged election campaign.

Asked about Monday’s rumours relating to President Musharraf, the PML chief said the army was fully behind the president and, therefore, there was no question of his ouster. “This could be a wishful thinking of some people but I can assure you that Musharraf is not going anywhere”.

He said that the rumours had been spread by speculators and as a result people lost Rs186 billion in the stock market.

He said political parties, members of the civil society and print and electronic media should join hands for restoration of full democracy in Pakistan as early as possible.

APP adds: Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the PML and allied parties fully supported President Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency in national interest.
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NEW YORK: The price of oil closed at a record high of 96.70 dollars a barrel in New York, after earlier hitting an all-time peak above 97 dollars, amid concerns about tight US supplies.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, hit an all-time high of 97.10 dollars a barrel in intraday trade.

Oil prices moved steadily toward the symbolic 100-dollar level on the eve of crucial supply data from the United States, the world’s largest energy consumer.

The record-breaking run came as traders bet on falling US energy supplies ahead of the northern hemisphere winter, when demand for heating fuel is expected to shoot higher, analysts said.

According to analysts falling dollar, losses to financial institutions in the world market, uncertainty in stock markets and limited oil supplies affecting the prices.

The oil prices hike could hit hard the economies of developing countries, analysts added.

A Palestinian fighter and an Israeli soldier have been killed after Israeli army troops raided the southern Gaza Strip, officials have said.

Israeli troops shot dead Hazem Asfur, 21, of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, during the raid east of the town of Khan Younis on Wednesday, Palestinian medical sources said.

The Israeli soldier was critically injured in later exchanges of gunfire and was declared dead after being taken to a hospital, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Four Palestinians were also wounded in the incursion, nearly one kilometre inside Palestinian territory.

Houses raided

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza reported that a number of Israeli military vehicles, backed by helicopters, raided Khan Younis’ eastern Farahin district.

The vehicles raided the area amid intensive and indiscriminate gunfire at Palestinian citizens’ houses, he reported.

Eyewitnesses told the correspondent that a group of Israeli special forces infiltrated the district before the raid and had occupied a number of civilians’ houses, turning them into military bases.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said “terrorist threats and rocket-launching infrastructure” were the target of the raids.

Israeli troops shot several Palestinian fighters who had struck an Israeli armoured vehicle with an anti-tank rocket, she said.

Israel has tried with little success to stop frequent rocket fire from Gaza, which the Israeli government last month branded a “hostile territory”.

India has raised doubts about a landmark nuclear energy pact with the US after domestic political tensions reached boiling point in recent weeks over relations with Washington.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, told George Bush, the US president, that his government was having trouble finalising the deal as he faces fierce opposition from leftist parties whose support he needs to remain in power.

The agreement, which has become the subject of an increasingly acrimonious feud in India, allows for peaceful nuclear co-operation and was meant to be a cornerstone of thawing ties between both countries after decades of icy relations.

Late last week, Singh remarked that it was “not the end of life” if the deal collapsed.

The doubts raised then were further magnified late on Monday when he told Bush while touring Africa that “certain difficulties have arisen with respect to the operationalisation” of the deal.

The BJP, the country’s largest opposition party, was angered by the accord, saying it would erode India’s sovereignty.

The leftists in Singh’s government insist that he must not proceed with steps to finalise the deal until the Indian parliament debates the pact later this year.

Uday Bhaskar, an Indian defence analyst, told Al Jazeera the deal remained alive, even if had been put on hold for a time.

Bhaskar said India’s credibility was at stake if it backed away from the agreement, having already negotiated with the US on the issue.

“India needs to be able to import natural uranium to its civilian [nuclear] program going. The options for India in terms of its energy mix would shrink and its credibility would be diluted.”

The final stage involves negotiating separate agreements with the UN nuclear watchdog and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group of nations that export nuclear material.

US optimism

The White House, however, publicly maintains that the deal is still on the table.

On Tuesday Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said they were aware of India’s local politics but remained optimistic about closing the deal.

“India’s a thriving democracy. They have work to do, and they may need some additional time on their end to get their part of this deal done,” he said.

“The president is willing and is very understanding that the Indians may need more for this, but no, it’s not dead.”

Bush and Singh first conceived the deal in July 2005 as a way to bring India, a nuclear weapons state, into the international atomic mainstream in return for US atomic fuel and technologies for India’s booming but energy-starved economy.

The pact has also drawn heavy criticism from US legislators who said it could spark a regional arms race.

The US president has pressed congress to expand the government’s domestic spying powers permanently to prevent attacks by “enemies”.

But critics say George Bush is riding rough-shod over civil liberties. Already, a Muslim group in California is suing the FBI to find out under what criteria their members are being spied on.

The Democratic-led congress in August temporarily expanded the Bush administration’s authority to monitor phone calls, emails and other electronic communications between individuals in the US and overseas terror suspects without obtaining a traditional court’s approval.
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