Incentives for more than three!

TOKYO: The small southwestern Japanese town of Kyokoshl which Is suffering a diminishing younger population has announced Incentives for Couples who have more than three children, Kyodo news agency said Wednesday, reports AH’

Couples living in the farming village on Kyushu island will be paid 500,000 yen (4.675 dollars) if they produce a fourth child the agency said.

Kyokoshl has a population of 5.500 and Its annual birthrate has declined from about 200 new babies a year since the 1950s to about 50 in recent years, the report said.

Twenty-two per cent of, village residents were over 65 years old. compared to the national average of 15 per cent. It added

To be eligible for the incentive payout, couples must have lived in the villages for at least a year. If a couple had left the village but moved back, it could be eligible for the money in a year's time.

Dogs may be better friends than man realises

CHICAGO: Dogs may be better friends than man realises, scientists reported on Tuesday, reports Reuter.

People confined to wheelchairs by chronic disease and injury showed significant gains in self system. feelings of control and psychological well being after they were given dogs to help them get around, the report said.

So-called service dogs can open doors, turn on switches, pull a person up to a sitting positions, help someone in and out of a bath or pool, pick up objects, pull wheelchairs, carry parcels and drag a person to safety In an emergency.

Dogs are also cheaper than hired help, added the study from the state university of New York at buffalo and the University of Callifornla at Santa Barbara published in this week s Journal of the American Medical Association.

"In times of heated political debate regarding health care costs, the comment of one of our participants, which lives with the consequences of spinal cord injury, provides an insight- "With my dog I feel safe and capable and I am no longer afraid of the future. _

100m yr old dinosaur egg for auction

VIENNA: A 100-miUlon-year-old dinosaur egg took centre stage in an eastern charity sale af the world s second-oldest auction house on Tuesday, reports Reuter.

Collectors from Japan and Switzerland were among the bidders at Vienna's historic Dorotheum. But the petrified egg was eventually sold to Vienna newspaper publisher Hans Dichand. raising 50.000 schillings (4.800 , dollar) for children s cancer research.

"There was a lot of demand from abroad. We are very happy with the price, said Dorotheum spokeswoman Inge Flegl. The dinosaur egg was one of the oldest objects to be auctioned by the Dorotheum.

The 17-by-14 cm (6.6 by 5.5 inch) egg. which should have hatched a tarbosarurus was found early this century in Cnina's Henan province alongside the skeleton of an adult dinosaur.