HOBART, July 9: Botanists believe they have discovered the world's oldest living plant in the Tasmanian wilderness, a holly bush 43,000 years old.Tasmanian parks and wildlife service chief botanist Stephen Harris said tests indicated the lomatia tasmanica, commonly known as king's holly, was 43,000 years old.

The plant, found in a patch of rain forest in Tasmania's southwestern world heritage area, was originally found in the 1930s but its age had never been suspected. Botanists previously thought the world's oldest living plant was a 13,000-year-old United States huckleberry. The oldest tree is an Arizona bristle-cone pine, dated at a youthful 4,700 years of age.Italian Robin HoodTREVISO: In a country where people are used to seeing politicians take, not give, Marco Pannella is being hailed as a Robin Hood.

Pannella, the founder of the Radical Party, astounded people in the northern city of Treviso by handing out 50,000 lire to anyone who asked.``Citizens: here's the booty,'' he said. He gave away about 110,000 dollars in six hours and gained an immense amount of publicity for his campaign to reform the financing of political parties.

``This money is stolen by the parties from the Italian people,'' Pannella said. Pannella had first planned to burn the ``booty,'' then thought better of it. Italian newspapers rewarded the decision by trumpeting his stunt as that of a modern-day Robin Hood.

SA Disney office

JOHANNESBURG: US entertainment giant Walt Disney has opened an office in South Africa's Port city of Cape Town to represent the corporation on the African continent, a company official said. Walt Disney Enterprises Southern Africa Managing Director Ray Botha said yesterday that the company would manage and coordinate consumer interests of the global film and entertainment company. ``Southern Africa is one of the exciting new markets in the world,'' Disney's Consumer Products President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Pierre Sissman, said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.