MOSCOW: The head of Russia's orthodox church reiterated doubts about the authenticity of remains identified as those of Russia's last Czar, which are slated for a state burial in July, a news report has said.

``The issue of the Czar's remains has a very special meaning for Russia and its people,'' Interfax quoted patriarch Alexy II as saying in an interview.

``We must solve it in a way that would bring about reconciliation at the tomb of the innocent victims, not breed new strife,'' he said on Wednesday.

Czar Nicholas II was executed by a Bolshevik firing squad on July 17, 1918, along with his family and servants in the Ural mountains city of Yekaterinburg.

Survival strategy

NEW YORK: A Cuban exile who participated in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion said he and his comrades resorted to cannibalism to survive 16 days at sea before they were rescued by Americans.

Julio Pestonit, a survivor of the failed, CIA-backed invasion of Cubain 1961, told Fox news channel that the men who escaped with him by boat when the rebels were defeated had vowed to take that secret to their graves.

All of the survivors agreed to use the bodies of their dead comrades if necessary, Pestonit said in an interview. It will be broadcast on Fox during a special on the Bay of Pigs invasion on Friday.

``I did eat some of the interior (of the dead body) that was extended to me,'' he said. ``It was crazy. It was like being in hell.''

Clot breaker

BOSTON: A clot-dissolving drug may allow people with blockages in their legs to avoid surgery, but the treatment carries a risk of serious bleeding.Clot-dissolving drugs are already a mainstay of treating heart attacks, and they are gaining use for strokes. In both cases, blood clots choke off the supply of blood.

When these clots occur in the legs, patients may have to have the limb amputated unless doctors can free the blockages through surgery. In a new study of 544 patients, doctors tested the idea ofgiving the clot-busting drug urokinase first.

They found that the risk of dying or having an amputation was roughly the same, regardless of whether patients went directly to surgery or got urokinase. However, one-third of the urokinase patients were spared the need for eventual surgery.

Tiger's tumour

BEIJING: Chinese surgeons have removed a whopping four kilogram tumour from an endangered Manchurian tiger cub, the Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

``There have been no reports of operations similar to the one completed by Chinese experts,'' said Liu Xinchen, a specialist on breeding Manchurian tigers.

The tiger -- less than a year old -- had the urinary cyst removed on March 31 at the largest breeding centre for the endangered species in northeastern Harbin.

Liu said the tiger cub was in a fair condition and recovering well.The Manchurian tiger is one of the 10 most endangered species in the world. Only 300 are believed to exist in the wild, with 20 of those in China.