At A Glance

HANOI: Doctors in Vietnam are seeking international assistance to treat and conduct research on a 13-year old girl who has been discovered with a rare disease that makes her look as old as her grandmother, doctors said on Friday. Nguyen Thi Ngoc, looks like an 80-year-old woman but has the mind of a normal teenager, said doctors at the An Binh Free Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The first case of Hutchinson, or early senility, was detected in the United Kingdom in 1886, but there have been only about 100 known cases, according to Dr Le Dinh Loc, Paediatrics department head at the hospital. 8220;This is the first case in Vietnam, although there was another reported case of a Vietnamese child living in France,8221; said Loc. Ngoc has a younger brother who is normal and though her father was a soldier in the 8220;American war8221; he has tested negative for exposure to Agent Orange, a toxin used by US forces and linked to many birth deformities.

LONDON: Teams rivalling Richard Branson to be first to circlethe world non-stop by balloon were barred from China8217;s airspace after the British tycoon crossed the country by an unauthorised route, a competitor said on Thursday. As the three-man Branson mission reached the halfway point on its flight, one of his rivals, Breitling Orbiter III, said the Chinese embassy had warned that for an indefinite period, no more balloons could enter Chinese airspace. 8220;In view of the behaviour of the Virgin Global Challenge, the competent Chinese authorities find it necessary to re-examine your overflight and ask you to postpone the departure of the balloon,8221; the embassy said in a fax to Breitling Orbiter III on Wednesday. The team complained: 8220;Branson8217;s strongarm tactics are hamstringing the departure of other competitors.8221;