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TOKYO (AP) — Japan's oldest person, 115-year-old Chiyono Hasegawa, has died.Hasegawa, who was born Nov. 20, 1896, died at a facility in southern Japan on Friday.

The facility where Hasegawa died confirmed her death, but declined to give further details. Japan's oldest person is now a man, 114-year-old Jirouemon Kimura, who was born April 19, 1897. Kimura is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living man.

Besse Cooper of Monroe, Georgia, in the United States, is listed by Guinness as the world's oldest person, at 115. She was born Aug. 26, 1896.

Tugi, Cameroon -- They are so new to this world that they do not have names yet. Together, they weigh 9.7 pounds. They are two baby girls born in a miraculous delivery in this impoverished Cameroon village. They both have arms and legs but they are joined at the chest and abdomen. The parents desperately search for a way to separate their newborns. Even in sophisticated hospitals, the operation is risky. But here, in Cameroon, so many forces act against them.

Money and access to health care are two obvious obstacles. But then, there is superstition. And plain old indifference. Evaristus Samba, 29, the girls' father, wipes tears from his eyes as he pleads for aid from the international community. "We are mere peasants and can't even afford to eat healthily daily." Doctors are battling with limited resources to keep the girls alive. Though they are artificially fed with tubes, they are healthy and active, nurses say. An ultrasound indicated that Glory Njweng, 23, was having only one baby. The test was faulty, and neither she nor the doctors were prepared for her to deliver twins, much less conjoined ones.
"It is only the Lord Almighty who keeps me alive" to deliver the children for whom she now is washing clothes. "I feel terrified when thinking about October 10, when I put to bed these babies."

Tugi, in northwestern Cameroon, is home to about 2,000 people, mostly farmers and cattle ranchers who live below $1 a day. Here, traditional practices and beliefs hold sway. News of the conjoined birth struck immediate fear. This was a bad omen for their village, some feared. Sometimes, conjoined twins often are killed immediately after birth. Village leaders say they bring bad luck; some blame poor crops on "strange births." Even some of the attending staff fled the small hospital room when Njweng's babies were born.

Such practices are fading, says Bah Elvis, a village healer from nearby Mbengwi. But long-held beliefs die hard. Conjoined twins are rare in Cameroon, and rarer still is their separation. The first known case involved the babies Pheinbom and Shevoboh, born in Babanki Tungo, who were separated in Saudi Arabia in 2007. They were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis, and had one leg each.
The Presbyterian hospital where the Tugi twins were born is one of the biggest in Cameroon, but it is ill-equipped for an operation of such complexity. It has been without a consistent source of electricity since it opened in 1964. Doctors use kerosene lamps in delivery wards, nurse Rose Adeneng says, and kerosene often spills out during deliveries and surgeries.

Hospital officials also believe they have suffered from government neglect. Hospital Administrator George Fonkem Tankem says travel by road in the region is not easy; many women prefer delivering at home than risk dying on their way to the hospital. The 235-mile journey to the capital, Yaoundé, would be perilous for the twins, he says. But Njweng and her husband are clinging to hope. The babies' birth was nothing short of miraculous, she says. God gave her life, she says. Now, she prays, her girls will get the same.

Former South African President, Nelson Mandela has stayed in hospital for a second day under medical supervision.

Current President, Jacob Zuma said Mandela, 92, had flown from Cape Town to Johannesburg and had gone to a clinic on Wednesday for a check-up.

Among his visitors at the Johannesburg hospital were his wife, Graca Machel, and ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Security was tight outside the hospital and police were called to control traffic as a scrum of journalists grew.

Media have also gathered outside Mandela’s home in Houghton, a wealthy suburb of north-east Johannesburg.

Zuma, speaking from Davos in Switzerland where he is attending the World Economic Forum, said: “Given his age he has been taken into a hospital for a check-up. I’m sure check-ups are more frequent than when he was a healthy young man.”

The ruling ANC party called for calm, urging South Africans “not to press any panic buttons”.

Children at a local school have hung messages of support outside the Milpark Hospital.

The South African liberation hero - known affectionately among South Africans by his clan name, Madiba - has appeared increasingly frail on his infrequent public appearances since retiring from public life in 2004.

His last public appearance was at the football World Cup closing ceremony last July.

South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told reporters on Thursday that Mandela was “frail” when he saw him last week, the Sapa news agency reported.

“He was all right, I mean, he’s 92, you know.

“What more do we want from him? We want him to remain forever, but you know... anything can happen.”

Privately, Mandela’s friends have warned that his health has begun to deteriorate more rapidly in recent months, says the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Media speculation about his health is increasingly frenzied.

Police are checking visitors’ cars at the hospital entrance to make sure there are no journalists hiding inside.

Journalists’ cars were lining the streets and snarling up the traffic, prompting irate outbursts from other drivers, reports said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation insisted Mandela was “in no danger and is in good spirits”.

It said he was undergoing routine tests, though South African media report he is being seen by a lung specialist.

“He is a 92-year-old and will have ailments associated with his age and the fact that he stayed the night should not suggest the worst,” the African National Congress spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday.

“We urge people not to make unfounded statements, let’s remain calm and not press panic buttons because there is no reason to do so.”

He said any change in Mandela’s circumstances would be communicated.

Earlier this month, a report circulated on social network Twitter that the elder statesman had died.

It was condemned as malicious and insensitive by the ANC.

Kaduna — The late President Umaru Yar'Adua had a kidney transplant in 2002 while still a state governor, but avoided having another one while he was president over fears it would cause unrest, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

According to the online medium, the cables suggest that power brokers in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) knew about Yar'Adua's condition, but still propped him up to become the winning presidential candidate in 2007.

Aides to the president, the cables stated further, stuffed Yar'Adua's clothes to hide his weight loss and used makeup to hide his pallor, but his illness ultimately led to a long absence from the oil-rich nation that fueled public discontent.

Yar'Adua died in May 2010, propelling the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan into the presidency.

Jonathan recently became PDP's presidential candidate for the coming April election, upsetting a balance of power between the South and North.

"What is clear is that the president's health is a matter of growing concern, particularly on the minds of the northern Nigerian elite," a diplomatic cable from February 2009 reads. "We have noted a considerable uptick in what appears to be behind-the-scenes machinations and back-room dealing."

WikiLeaks publicly released the cables late Saturday night. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja has said officials would have no comment on anything released by the website.

A diplomatic cable from June 2008 claims Yar'Adua first began experiencing renal failure in 1999, just as he became governor of Katsina State. The cable said German company Julius Berger, one of the dominant road construction firms in Nigeria, set up a dialysis clinic in Yar'Adua's home. The firm later would fly German experts in and out of Nigeria to privately treat Yar'Adua, the cables claim.

The cables claim Yar'Adua received the transplant in 2002 from donor Sayyadi Abba Ruma, who would serve as minister of agriculture and water resources when Yar'Adua came into power. Ruma could not be immediately reached for comment yesterday.

LEADERSHIP investigation, however, indicated otherwise as the late leader had his kidney transplanted in Hungary with a foreign donor coming to the rescue.

Information available to LEADERSHIP show that Yar'Adua was first diagnosed with the ailment in Saudi Arabia in 2001.

The discolorations long noticed on Yar'Adua's face, fueling rumours about his ill health, came from the steroids doctors gave him to help his body accept the transplant, according to the cables.

At a December 2008 event, Yar'Adua "appeared to weigh no more than 140 pounds, his skin was very taunt, his handshake was weak, voice was fainter than on previous meetings, his eyes were deep set with dark circles underneath, and his teeth were also very badly tarred," the February 2009 cable reads.

Doctors apparently told Yar'Adua he needed a second transplant and the minister's brother was sent to Germany to be checked as a possible donor, according to the cable. However, a planned trip got put on hold over political calculations.
"Yar'Adua did not take this planned trip given public reaction to rumours about travel and concerns about his ability to govern," the February cable reads. "We have no information on whether this trip may be rescheduled."

The president's health continued to worsen. Yar'Adua left Nigeria on Nov. 23, 2009, to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. His physician later told journalists Yar'Adua suffered from acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart.

However, Yar'Adua's stay in Saudi Arabia drifted from days to weeks to months, stalling government activity in a nation vital to U.S. oil supplies.

Yar'Adua returned to Nigeria in late February 2010, but never appeared publicly. He died May 5.