TOKYO, Japan

Endangered Oriental white storks have naturally hatched a chick in Japan for the first time in more than four decades, a park official said yesterday.

Wild Oriental white storks became extinct in Japan in 1971, Japanese conservationists have tried breeding some pairs of the migrant birds donated by Russia and released several of them into the wild.

But until now there had been no confirmed natural hatchings in Japan since 1964.

"We saw a chick hatched from one of at least three eggs this morning," aid Masayoshi Iida, an official of the breeding park for endangered birds in Hyogo prefecture. "There is another nest where also three eggs have been seen laid a while ago, but we're afraid they would not survive."

Victory by coin toss

MANILA, Philippines

Two candidates in a northern mountain town broke a rare tie in last week's elections by tossing a coin, a refreshing show of sportsmanship in country where poll disputes are often settled with violence, officials said yesterday.

After a count of the ballots, local elections officials discovered that Bryan Byrd Bellang and Benjamin Ngeteg had tied for the final of eight seats on the council in Bontoc town in Mountain province, elections supervisor Mary Umaming said.

"I asked them if they wanted to break the tie by tossing a coin or drawing lots, and somebody in the crowd wondered if I was cracking a joke," Umaming told The Associated Press by telephone.

"I said those options were in the rules, and they agreed to flip a coin," she said.

Bellang, who chose heads, won the toss, which was held Tuesday in the local town hall.

Lonely Japanese

TOKYO, Japan

More than 40 percent of crime victims in Japan say they felt isolated and had to cope with their experience without any mental or financial support from anyone, according to a government survey published yesterday.

The Cabinet Office survey found 44.3 percent of crime victims and their families said they never received any support from anyone.

The majority of the victims said severe punishment of the assailants and compensation would be the most effective relief.

While Japan is relatively safe by international standards, crime is on the rise as it grapples with a widening gap between rich and poor and other social ills. Japan had just 1,391 homicides in 2005.

But overall crime jumped to 2.27 million cases that year, from 1.81 million in 1996, and violent offenses nearly doubled to 73,772 cases.

Boy runner barred

Bhubaneswar, india

A 5-year-old Indian boy whose long-distance running last year sparked protests from rights activists, has been barred from going on a proposed 500 kilometer walk, an official said yesterday.

Budhia Singh's 11-day walk from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta had been scheduled to begin June 6.

Last year, Singh attempted to run a 70-kilometer marathon, but doctors stopped him after 65 kilometers when he showed signs of extreme exhaustion.

Afterward, doctors found Singh to be undernourished, anemic and under cardiac stress, and the Orissa state government banned him from running until he is older.