TOKYO: Japan’s former emperor Akihito has been diagnosed with heart failure but is in stable condition after being prescribed medication, the Imperial Household Agency said Tuesday.
The diagnosis was made during an unrelated health checkup last month on the 88-year-old, who in 2019 became the first member of the world’s oldest royal family to abdicate the throne in more than 200 years.
The examination confirmed heart expansion and pleural fluid, an agency spokesman said.
A subsequent checkup involving an MRI scan at a Tokyo hospital found the retired emperor has right heart failure.
“He is receiving treatment now and he is convalescing,” the spokesman said.
In 2020, the former emperor temporarily lost consciousness and collapsed at his residence, but medical checkups found “no abnormalities.”
He has also suffered temporary cerebral anemia, a condition involving insufficient blood supply to the brain, as well as prostate cancer and other heart problems.
The popular former monarch shocked the country in 2016 when he signaled his desire to take a back seat after nearly three decades on the Chrysanthemum Throne, citing his age and health problems.
In 2019, his son Naruhito became the new emperor, ushering in the new imperial era of Reiwa or “beautiful harmony.”
Former Japan emperor Akihito recovering after heart failure diagnosis
https://arab.news/5g4wc
Former Japan emperor Akihito recovering after heart failure diagnosis
- Diagnosis was made during an unrelated health checkup last month on the 88-year-old
- In 2019, his son Naruhito became the new emperor, ushering in the new imperial era of Reiwa
Bomb attacks on Thailand petrol stations injure 4: army
- Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks
BANGKOK: Assailants detonated bombs at nearly a dozen petrol stations in Thailand’s south early Sunday, injuring four people, the army said, the latest attacks in the insurgency-hit region.
A low-level conflict since 2004 has killed thousands of people as rebels in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia battle for greater autonomy.
Several bombs exploded within a 40-minute period after midnight on Sunday, igniting 11 petrol stations across Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, an army statement said.
Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks.
“It happened almost at the same time. A group of an unknown number of men came and detonated bombs which damaged fuel pumps,” Narathiwat Governor Boonchauy Homyamyen told local media, adding that one police officer was injured in the province.
A firefighter and two petrol station employees were injured in Pattani province, the army said.
All four were admitted to hospitals, none with serious injuries, a Thai army spokesman told AFP.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that security agencies believed the attacks were a “signal” timed with elections for local administrators taking place on Sunday, and “not aimed at insurgency.”
The army’s commander in the south, Narathip Phoynok, told reporters he ordered security measures raised to the “maximum level in all areas” including at road checkpoints and borders.
The nation’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago.
The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces — the usual targets of insurgent attacks.
