LONDON: Declining birth rates will snuff out economic growth in Europe in 25 years because of a shortage of workers, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said on Monday. The London-based economic consultancy said birth rates in both Western and Eastern Europe had dropped below the replacement rate, setting the stage for a dramatic rise in the average age of the population. Workforces would start to decline around 2005, and the smaller working population would have to bear the strain of supporting increasing numbers of retired people. ``Economic growth will slow with the declining workforce while state pensions systems and health services will run out of funds,'' it said. The CEBR said the European Union would be confronted by an ``economic crisis of major proportions'', the strains of which could destabilise governments and break up the euro single currency. The five largest EU countries would have to import some 35 million workers by2050 to stabilise the workforce at current levels, it said.

Singapore kids contracting `developed world' ailments

SINGAPORE: Youngsters born in the sterile hospitals of Singapore are falling ill with digestive problems associated with the developed world, it was reported on Monday. The trend may be caused by the sterile conditions in which babies are born in the city-state, said Professor John Walker-Smith, a British-based paediatric gastroenterologist. On the final day of a four-day gathering of Asian specialists, the physician told them that babies in developing countries are born in a home environment and are exposed to the bacteria that their mothers harbour. In remarks reported in the Straits Times, he said this builds up the babies' auto-immune system and protects them from allergic reactions. Referring to babies born in sterile hospital surroundings, Walker-Smith said their immune systems ``are not being stimulated by their mothers' bacteria, and this may be why they are less immune toallergies''.

Bones of pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart `found'

SUVA: Sixty two years after American pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart vanished over the Central Pacific on an attempted flight around the world, archaeologists believe they may have found her bones. ``It's the challenge of it,'' said forensic anthropologist Karen Burns in Fiji chasing up reports that the missing pilot's bones may have been brought to Suva in 1941. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared on July 2, 1937, on their way to Howland Island. Recent leads in the search to unravel the mystery have centred on 13 pieces of bones believed to be Earhart's, parts of her shoes and a sextant box that were sent to Suva on Fiji. The international group for historic aircraft recovery believes Earhart and Noonan overflew Howland Island and landed 400 miles southeast on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro in the Kiribati group. They are believed to have died there. Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in1932, and the Pacific in 1935.