World Vignettes

Tokyo gets a feel of Liberty'TOKYO: Tokyo bay has a new landmark -- its very own made-in-France statue of Liberty. Of course, this one is j...

Tokyo gets a feel of Liberty8217;
TOKYO: Tokyo bay has a new landmark 8212; its very own made-in-France statue of Liberty. Of course, this one is just a loaner. And it only stands 11 metres tall.

But no matter. It is already drawing a crowd.

8220;It8217;s a lot smaller than I had expected,8221; said Akira Minami, who was among the throngs of curious visitors this week who have been catching preview looks at the statue.

8220;I guess if you want to see the real thing you still have to go to New York,8221; he said.

Actually, Tokyo8217;s statue is pretty authentic.

The 14-tonne statue was brought to Japan to commemorate France year from its home near the foot of the Grenelle bridge on the Seine. Donated by a group of Americans living in Paris, it was originally erected in November 1889 to mark the centennial year of the French revolution.

The statue was cut up into six sections and shipped to Tokyo last January. It will be returned next year.

More on dinosaurs
LONDON: Some big dinosaursoften tripped and broke their ribs while chasing their prey, according to New Scientist magazine.

Bruce Rothschild of the arithritis centre of northeast Ohio in Youngston studied the family of two legged dinosaurs known as Therapods which includes the deadly Tyrannosaurus Rex.

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He X-rayed fossil skeletons and found that ribs from some specimens of a smaller species known as Allosaurus showed the kind of fractures that would have been caused by a belly flop on to hard ground while running.

He will present his findings at a symposium in Philadelphia being held as part of the Dinofest Exhibition this week.

He told New Scientist the results showed that some large members of the Therapod family were not the sluggish creatures that some paleontologists had suggested. Sity argued that the Tyrannosaurus Rex could not have run faster than 36 km per hour because a fall would have probably killed the six-tonne meat-eater.

Tall8217; claims
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Government has denied rumoursit plans to sell the Petronas twin towers, the world8217;s tallest building, to tiny but oil-rich Brunei, a news report said on Friday.

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8220;No offer has been made to the Brunei Government,8221; the New Straits Times daily quoted a Minister in the Prime Minister8217;s department Abang Abu Bakar Mustapha as saying in Parliament on Thursday. He said there was no truth to recent rumours that state-oil firm Petronas wanted to sell off any of the two 88-floor towers.