2nd Woman Killed in Shark Attack in Egypt's Red Sea

Tourists enjoy a day by the beach during a low tide in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Reuters file photo
Tourists enjoy a day by the beach during a low tide in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Reuters file photo
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2nd Woman Killed in Shark Attack in Egypt's Red Sea

Tourists enjoy a day by the beach during a low tide in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Reuters file photo
Tourists enjoy a day by the beach during a low tide in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Reuters file photo

Two women were killed in shark attacks in Egypt's Red Sea, south of the city of Hurghada, the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said on Sunday.

Two sources told Reuters that the body of a Romanian tourist in her late forties was discovered hours after an attack that left a 68-year-old Austrian woman dead. Both attacks happened within 600 meters of each other, off the coast of Sahl Hasheesh, according to the sources.

The ministry said in its statement that a committee had been formed to examine the circumstances of the attacks and any scientific reasons behind them.

It also mentioned that the Governor of the Red Sea Governorate, Major General Amr Hanafi, has issued an order to suspend all activity in the area surrounding the attacks.

The first victim was transferred to a local private hospital, a source at the Red Sea Health Affairs Directorate told Reuters. He added that there were attempts to resuscitate her, but she died from her injuries.

A security source also added that the Austrian woman had been living in Egypt over the past five years with her Egyptian husband.



Tokyo Hospital Opens City's First 'Baby Hatch'

People use boats on Chidorigafuchi, one of the moats around the Imperial Palace, to look at cherry blossoms as the blossom viewing season begins in full in central Tokyo on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
People use boats on Chidorigafuchi, one of the moats around the Imperial Palace, to look at cherry blossoms as the blossom viewing season begins in full in central Tokyo on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
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Tokyo Hospital Opens City's First 'Baby Hatch'

People use boats on Chidorigafuchi, one of the moats around the Imperial Palace, to look at cherry blossoms as the blossom viewing season begins in full in central Tokyo on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
People use boats on Chidorigafuchi, one of the moats around the Imperial Palace, to look at cherry blossoms as the blossom viewing season begins in full in central Tokyo on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)

A Tokyo hospital on Monday became the Japanese capital's first medical institution to offer a system allowing the safe, anonymous drop-off of infants by parents unable to raise them.

Used for centuries globally, so-called baby boxes or baby hatches are meant to prevent child abandonment or abuse.

But they have been criticized for violating a child's right to know their parents, and are also sometimes described by anti-abortion activists as a solution for desperate mothers.

Newborns within four weeks of age can now be placed in a basket in a quiet room with a discreet entrance at a hospital in Tokyo run by the Christian foundation Sanikukai, AFP reported.

The scheme, open 24 hours a day, is meant to be an "emergency, last-resort measure" to save babies' lives, Hitoshi Kato, head of Sanikukai Hospital, told a news conference.

There are still "mothers and babies with nowhere to go", the hospital said in a statement, citing the "abandonment of infants in baggage lockers, parks or beaches".

Sanikukai is only Japan's second medical institution to open a baby hatch, after the Catholic-run Jikei hospital in southwestern Japan's Kumamoto region opened one in 2007.

At Sanikukai in Tokyo, when a baby is put in the basket, a motion sensor immediately alerts hospital staffers to the drop-off, sending them rushing downstairs to tend to the baby, project leader Hiroshi Oe told AFP.

After confirming the baby's safety, the hospital will work with authorities to help decide the "best possible" next step, including foster care or a children's home.

If the person leaving the baby is seen lingering around the hospital, efforts will be made to engage them, Oe said.