DUBLIN: Children who survive leukaemia have a very high risk of becoming obese as adults, possibly because they exercise less than their healthy counterparts, British doctors have said. John Reilly of University of Glasgow and colleagues found children who had survived acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) often gained too much weight.

``Children who have ALL typically gain more weight than they should during the two years they spend on chemotherapy, and continue to gain excess weight after treatment is completed,'' he told the Eighth European Congress on obesity in Dublin on Friday.

Actor Katsu dead

TOKYO: Shintaro Katsu, the Japanese actor who played the ``blind swordsman'' in a popular series throughout Asia, died of cancer today, his family said. He was 65. Katsu came into the spotlight by playing the blind sword-fighting hero in a 1960 movie. The actor later started in the Blind Swordsman series featuring an unconventional Samurai hero who indulged in gambling and womanising.

Fergie on radio

LONDON: Britain's Duchess of York may have found herself a new career as a radio chat show hostess, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has said. The Duchess, best known as Fergie, has been talking to the international arm of BBC Radio about the possibility of having her own programme. ``The programme has not been commissioned, it's at a very early stage,'' a BBC spokesman told Reuters on Friday. He said that if any programmes were made, they would be transmitted overseas.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.