Eighteen years with a transplanted kidney

BEIJING China has preformed at least 1,200 kidney transplant operations with the longest surviving patient living for 18 years. Xinhua news agency said, reports Reuter,

Most organ transplant operations performed in China have been kidney transplants. Xinhua said late on Thursday. It gave no figures.

Expert told an organ transplant seminar in the southern city of Guanzhou that about 1.000 kidney transplant patients survived for about five years and 200 lived for 10 years. The longest surviving patient lived for 18 years. Xinhua said, without giving details of the patient.

Chinese dissidents living in exile abroad have accused China of timing executions of death row convicts to coincide with the need for transplants of kidneys and other organs, often for sale to foreign patients. China vehemently denies the charge.

Brain cell to boost intelligence

BEIJING: An implant of brain cells has boosted the intelligence of an 18-year-old retarded Chinese girl, enabling her to learn to walk normally, the China Daily said Friday, reports Reuter.

Doctors at the Heilongjiang Chinese Medicine Academy in northeastern China gave Wang Shuang the brain cell transplant last July, it said. Within 23 days the cells began functioning and the girl who had been unable to walk properly since birth began to display improved motor and cognitive abilities.

^tcepi, fetches $660,000

NEW YORK: An uncancelled two-cent stamp issued in 1851 by the Kingdom of Hawaii was sold Wednesday for 660,000 dollars at an auction in New York, the buyer said, reports AFP.

We were prepared to pay well in excess of one million dollars for this historic stamp." said Greg Manning of Greg Manning Auctions, which purchased the stamp.

The famous stamp of Hawaii (now a US state) was featured in the film "charade." in which Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn try to track the postage issue down.

Twelve cancelled versions of the stamp exist each ^valued at 375.000 dollars. ,