Tokyo - As if the economic crisis engulfing Japan were not enough, bad news coming out of Tokyo's imperial palace have many Japanese worrying about things to come.

Doctors found traces of internal bleeding in the stomach and intestinal tract of Emperor Akihito, who turns 75 on December 23, as he was forced to cancel appointments because of irregular pulse and high blood pressure, raising fears over the health of Japan's ceremonial head of state.

The emperor is ill because of worry, many say, the Tenno being concerned over the succession and "various" other things, as Shingo Haketa, head of the arch-conservative Imperial Household Agency, hinted at.

Beijing - A gas explosion trapped 18 people in a coal mine in central China's Hunan province, state media said Thursday.

Rescuers were searching for the missing miners at the Guaziyan mine in Lianyuan city, the government's Xinhua news agency quoted local officials as saying.

Another 14 miners escaped after the explosion ripped through the shaft while 32 miners were working Wednesday, the agency said.

The Lianyuan city government ordered an investigation and suspended mining pending safety checks at all coal mines in the area.

Guaziyan is a township-owned mine opened in 1997 with a licensed annual capacity of 30,000 tons of coal, the agency said.

The Delhi Development Authority has prepared itself to allot 5010 flats through a computerized lottery system on Tuesday. A total of 5.67 lakh applicants have applied for the flats in areas like Vasant Kunj, Rohini, Dilshad Garden, Paschim Vihar, Motia Khan, Dwarka and Pitampura. The flats being allotted includes 352 three-bedroom units, 889 two-bedroom ones, 3,231 one bedroom flats and 236 expandable flats. These flats would cost between Rs 7.2 lakh and Rs 77 lakh. About 60 per cent of flats are newly constructed while other were surrendered by defaulters or vacated by the government.

Washington, Dec 17: Girls have a far superior sense of taste than boys, according to a new research.

The study, conducted by Danish Science Communication, food scientists from The Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at University of Copenhagen involved 8,900 Danish schoolchildren.

The study also found that every third child of school age prefers soft drinks, which are not sweet. Also, children and young people love fish and do not think of themselves as being fussy eaters

London, Dec 17: Many women would rather go without sex than give up Internet access, according to a new survey.

To reach the conclusion, the Internet Reliance in Today's Economy survey of 2119 people aged 18-plus in the US, said that 65 per cent of adults admitted they can''t live without the internet.

The survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive, on behalf of Intel, found that nearly half of women (46 per cent) and 30 per cent of men would rather surf the net than have sex, reports the Independent.

A census conducted at Bhitarkanika National Park in Orissa this year has shown the presence of over one lakh birds.

"An estimated 1,01,293 birds, including migratory feathered guests were sighted during the annual bird census 2008, carried out in the water bodies of the Bhitarkanika National park and its nearby areas on December 11 and 12," informed Rajnagar forest (Mangrove) and Wildlife Division DFO P K Behera.