World's oldest twin dies

Japan's centenarian dynamo, Gin Kanie, who charmed the nation as one of the world's oldest twins, died yesterday. She was 108.

She had been in poor health since her twin sister, Kin Narita, died of heart failure in January last year at 107. Officials did not give the cause of death.

Gin means silver in Japanese and Kin means gold.

Born into a farming family in a small village near the central Japanese city of Nagoya on August 1, 1892, the two were accorded the status of national treasures in 1999. Their birthdays became the focus of lavish media attention.

On their last birthday together in 1999, the pair attended a tree-planting ceremony in the northern city of Sapporo, wielding pink shovels.