A 16-year-old girl has been pulled out of the rubble in the Haitian capital, Port-au Prince, 15 days after the earthquake struck, rescuers say.
Darlene Etienne was said to be happy but dehydrated. Rescuers said she had survived by drinking water from a bath. Her rescue comes five days after Haitian government officially ended the search and rescue operation. Meanwhile President Rene Preval has said parliamentary elections due to be held on 28 February will be postponed. As many as 200,000 people died in the 12 January earthquake. More than 130 people have been pulled alive from the rubble.
Bath water A rescue worker described the discovery of the teenager, two weeks after the quake destroyed the city, as a "miracle".
"I don't know how she happened to resist that long," said rescue worker JP Malaganne. The 16-year-old was found in the rubble of a house near the College St Gerard, which one of her relatives said she had just started attending. Neighbours had been searching in the rubble of their homes in the central Carrefour-Feuilles district when they heard a weak voice and called rescue teams to help. They managed to locate the girl in the wreckage and less than an hour later had dug a hole to pull her out, covered in dust. Rescuer Claude Fuilla told the Associated Press news agency: "She couldn't really talk to us or say how long she'd been there but I think she'd been there since the earthquake.
"I don't think she could have survived even a few more hours." Darlene was given water and oxygen before being taken to a French field hospital and medical ship.
"She just said 'Thank you', she's very weak, which suggests that she's been there for 15 days," said Samuel Bernes, head of the rescue team that discovered her. He described her location within the rubble as "in a pocket, surrounded by concrete". The BBC's Karen Allen, in the Haitian capital, said that rescue workers had told her the teenager was trapped in the bathroom when the quake struck and was able to survive by drinking water from a bath.
On Tuesday, rescuers discovered a 31-year-old man who had been trapped for 12 days after being caught in one of the numerous aftershocks that rocked the city after the earthquake. In announcing the election delay, Mr Preval said he would not seek to remain in office beyond the end of his term in February 2011.
He added: "I don't think the time is right to hold elections now given the conditions in which people are living."
The Japan Sumo Association has been thrown into turmoil by seven breakaway members who have demanded sweeping changes to boost the waning popularity of the sport, which has been hit by a series of scandals in recent years.
Leading the reformist charge in the ritualistic, male-only sport is former grand champion Takanohana, 37, who wants to start by having the association’s 10 board members openly elected rather than decided behind closed doors.
Takanohana’s goal is to revive the sport, which has faced increasing competition, first from baseball and more recently football, and to introduce it in schools to breed a new generation of home-grown wrestlers.
“I want to expand the spirit of reform,” Takanohana last week told reporters. “A lot of people aged around 40 like me are thinking of trying to help develop the association beyond its factions.”
The association — made up of stablemasters, top athletes and judges — in 1968 introduced elections to its board, which manages the sport and organises tournaments, ticket sales and broadcasting rights.
But in practice, the body has only held three votes since then because most years the make-up of the board was decided in backroom talks by influential faction leaders, usually leaving 10 candidates for 10 board positions.
In recent years, the reclusive body has had to react to a series of scandals, including the deadly “hazing” of a teenage wrestler, one fighter’s arrest for illegal drug use and allegations of match-fixing.
Many Japanese were shocked by the 2007 case of a stable master, now in jail, who ordered the brutal “toughening up” treatment of a 17-year-old wrestler who died after being beaten with a beer bottle and baseball bat.
A study by the Japan Sumo Association found that 90 per cent of sumo stables allowed violent beatings of trainees, and punishments such as forcing salt or sand into their mouths.
There has also been disquiet over the rising dominance of foreign fighters, mainly fromMongolia and Eastern Europe but as far as Brazil and Tonga , who have been willing to put up with the gruelling lifestyle of the sumo fighter.
Sumo has not had a Japanese-born champion in more than three years, and in recent tournaments more than one third of competitors have been foreigners.
The spring tournament that ended Sunday saw Mongolian sumo grand champion Asashoryu clinch his 25th trophy.
To revitalise the sport, Takanohana has announced his candidacy for election, hoping for the kind of change that transformed Japan ’s politics last August, when a centre-left party ended more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule and pledged an end to business as usual.
Takanohana has said he has prepared a “manifesto” for change, although he has given away few details other than a plan to make sumo a required course at elementary and junior high schools.
His first aim is to bring greater transparency to the board’s management through truly open elections to help the sport reform — a call that promptly saw him and his six allies evicted from his faction, called Nishonoseki.
Musashigawa, the head of the association, shrugged off the call for change, saying: “Reform, reform.... What reforms does he want? We are already doing that.”
Undeterred, Takanohana, who won 22 Emperor’s Cups during his career and who now owns a sumo stable, said his resolve is “unshakable,” declaring: “I want to move forward firmly.”
His candidacy is expected to force the association to hold an election for 10 new board members on February 1 in which 109 members can cast their votes.
Whatever the outcome, Takanohana has already made sumo history.
“I have never heard of such a daring act within sumo circles,” retired sumo great Muneyoshi Fujisawa, who spent 20 years in the ring and five years coaching, told AFP.
“His actions may not be easily accepted by the sumo world which has long cherished conformity and discipline.”