Archbishop welcomes women

LONDON: The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said late Monday that women would become bishops in the Church of England tn time, reports AFP.

Carey, a strong supporter of women priests, said: T have no doubt that it will happen one day," adding that he had "no hesitation” on theological grounds that women should become bishops.

Carey made his comments while giving evidence to the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament which Is meeting to consider legislation on the ordination of women, passed by the General Synod last November.

This is the first time that the church leadership has openly admitted change Is certain to come about

Sextuplets die within minutes of birth

ISLAMABAD: An Afghan refugee woman gave birth to six babies on Monday in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, reports Xinhua.

The six babies? four daughters and two sons, died within minutes of their birth at Al-Badr Hospital, local newspaper 'The Frontier Post" reported Tuesday.

The woman produced the babies In a normal delivery case in her first delivery.

One doctor said the weight of each baby was less than one kilogram and the delivery was also premature.

They mourn and steal coffins

BOCAUE (Philippines): Thieves preying on a Philippine town mourning the death of 279 people tn a river tragedy have stolen some of the coffins meant for the victims. The town's mayor said Tuesday, reports Reuter.

"Where can you find people like this who would exploit the grief of others? Can you imagine these things happening?", asked Bocaue mayor Serafin De La Cruz after a number of donated coffins disappeared.

One youth was caught on Monday trying to steal a coffin from dozens piled outside the church, awaiting more victims of last Friday's sinking of a floating shrine.

"1 told him. 'Why don't you take a few more ," said the mayor of the town Just north of the capital Manila.

"Several of the coffins were stolen by unscrupulous people who sold them for 5.000 pesos (dollar 185) each."

De La Cruz was speaking as Bocaue prepared to bury many of the dead from Friday night's disaster which happened at the start of the town's annual fiesta.

A floating three-tiered religious shrine packed with hundreds of Roman Catholic devotees collapsed, pitching mostly women and children Into the muddy waters of the Bocaue river.

Surname an extra headache

TOKYO: Three candidates running in a tight-fought general election contest in Fukuoka, southern Japan, have an extra headache. They share the same surname, reports Reuter.

All three Koga-Sans (Mr Kogas) are outgoing Libera) Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers, mirroring the chaos within the long-time ruling party, each voted differently on last month's confidence motion which brought down the government.

One Koga backed beleaguered Prime Minister Ktichl Miyazawa, another abstained and the third voted against hts party boss.

Candidates from different ruling party factions compete with each other in Japan s 129 multi-seat electoral districts, which return a total of 51 I members to the lower house.

In an attempt to stand out from the herd on polling day. July 18. one Koga had posters printed showing his given name eight times larger than his family name.

"There are all kinds of Kogas around here." historian Yukio Koga told the Dally Ashahi Shimbun.

"One group came from east Japan, one came from China as bureaucrats and another group are descendants of the Han Emperors of China.

But I don't know about these three."