Briefly

JAPAN

4 injured in Tokyo building explosion

An explosion tore through a building in downtown Tokyo on Monday, scattering debris across a busy intersection and sending smoke into the air, but the fire was soon contained and four people were injured, Japanese media reported. Video footage aired by public broadcaster NHK showed flames through the windows of the shattered second floor of the building, in Tokyo's downtown area. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

ISRAEL

Scientists make cancer cells 'commit suicide'

Israeli researchers have developed a method that makes cancer cells produce their own toxins and thus "commit suicide", Tel Aviv University said on Sunday. In a study published in the journal Theranostics, the researchers encoded a toxin produced by bacteria into mRNA molecules and delivered these particles to cancer cells. The cancer cells produced the same toxin, as they were the bacteria itself, killing them with a success rate of up to 60 percent.

THAILAND

Ailing elephant returns home for medical care

An ailing elephant that Thailand had presented to Sri Lanka more than two decades ago returned to his native land for medical treatment on Sunday. The male elephant was flown directly from the South Asian island nation's capital to Chiang Mai Province in Thailand. A six-person team accompanied the elephant on the flight, which took about six hours.

Agencies - Xinhua