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The world’s tallest woman has died in China at the age of 39.
Official state media said Yao Defen died on November 11 at her home in Anhui province.
Guinness World Records in January 2010 had certified her as the world’s tallest living woman at 7 feet and 7 inches (233.3 cms).
No cause of death was given but she suffered from gigantism, with a tumour on her pituitary gland disrupting her levels of growth hormone.
Yao was a keen basketball player when young, and she was 6 feet and 7 inches (200 cms) by the age of 15. (AP)
Falling French sperm count
The sperm count of French men plunged by a third between 1989 and 2005, a finding which fuels concern that environmental pollutants or lifestyle are crimping fertility, scientists said yesterday.
Researchers examined data for semen samples provided by 26,609 men at 126 in-vitro fertilisation centres in France over 17 years. The men were partners of women who had blocked or missing Fallopian tubes, meaning that the couples’ infertility was not caused by any problem with the man’s sperm. (AFP)
Oldest person dies at 116
A woman listed as the world’s oldest person has died in a Georgia nursing home at 116.
Besse Cooper died peacefully on Tuesday in Monroe, east of Atlanta, her son Sidney said. Mr Cooper said his mother had been ill over the weekend with a stomach virus, then felt better on Monday. But later she had trouble breathing, was put on oxygen in her room and died there at about 2pm local time.
Mrs Cooper was declared the oldest person in January, but in May Guinness World Records said that Brazilian Maria Gomes Valentin was 48 days older. (AP)
No climate change funding
The European Union and United States refused at UN talks in Doha yesterday to commit to concrete climate funding for poor nations as yet another report warned of dire global warming consequences within decades.
The EU said tight finances prevented it taking on near-term commitments as a bloc, while Washington insisted it was already “doing what we agreed to do.”
But developing countries, say they need at least another €46bn from now to 2015 to deal with climate change-induced droughts, floods, rising seas. (AFP)