Tokyo  - Demanding better job and housing security, a demonstration by 300 Brazilians and their supporters in Tokyo Sunday is just the latest sign of the impact that the global economic slowdown is having on Japan's Brazilian-based workforce.

Waving their national flags across the busy streets of central Tokyo, the demonstrators called out, "Give us a chance of employment," "Stop abandoning us" and "We don't have secured housing."

Many temporary Brazilian workers have lost jobs recently, primarily in the car and electronics industries, as Japanese exports have slumped due to the sluggish economy and the Japanese yen's gains against other currencies. Others have been informed of planned layoffs in the spring.

New Delhi  - Thousands of Mumbaikars participated in the city's annual marathon event on Sunday, the first big public event since the November terrorist attacks.

The event, with the theme of peace and unity, started from Mahapalika Marg, adjacent to the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus, one of the sites targeted by the terrorists in November, IANS news agency reported.

There was tight ground security for the event and air security cover was provided by three helicopters.

More than 1,500 policemen and 1000 volunteers were posted along the 42-kilometre full marathon route.

An estimated 30,000 people participated in the event, including many Mumbai celebrities ranging from corporate heads to film stars.

Bangkok  - Government officials accounted for 3 per cent of HIV/AIDS patients to receive treatment in Thailand over the past 24 years, health officials revealed Sunday.

Public Health spokesman Suphan Srithamma said that since HIV/AIDS was first detected in the country in 1984, there were 337,989 accumulated patients at government hospitals of whom 92,111 had died, reported the Bangkok Post online news service.

Islamabad  - Paramilitary troops killed at least 15 Islamist militants in the troubled north-western tribal region close to the Afghan border, the military and officials said on Sunday.

Fifteen rebels were killed in a raid by the Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers on a militant stronghold in Darwazgai area of Mohmand tribal district, according to an FC statement.

One security official had died in the operation, the statement said.

The intense gunfights took place on Saturday as the security forces moved to take out militant positions in the area, a local intelligence official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on phone.

The official said the fighting stopped shortly after the nightfall.

Beijing  - A two-year-old girl has been infected with bird fly and is in a critical condition in China's northern Shanxi province, a health official of the provincial government confirmed Sunday, according to a report by the Chinese Xinhua news agency.

The girl is the second person infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus within a month in China.

Her health had deteriorated after she first fell ill on January 7, and she had been taken to the Shanxi hospital following initial treatment in a different hospital.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - A unilateral ceasefire declared by Israel in the Gaza Strip was "fragile" and Israel would respond "without hesitation" if its troops in the salient were attacked, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday morning.

The premier made the comments at the weekly cabinet meeting, following attacks on Israeli forces, and rockets from the Strip at southern Israel, hours after the ceasefire went into effect at 00:00 GMT Sunday (2 am local time.)

"We have operational freedom to respond if terror organizations continue attacks," media reports quoted Olmert as saying.