Diyabakir, Turkey: A 125-year-old woman who
could be the oldest person ever recorded has been found living
in Turkey's remote Kurdish region, local authorities were
quoted as saying today.
Halime Solmaz was born on July 1, 1884, and lives in the
village of Besiri in the southeast, local registry office
director Irfan Ertas told Turkish newspapers.
Whether or not her age can be verified remains to be
seen, as public records from the time of the Ottoman empire
can prove hard to come by.
According to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research
Group -- recognised as the leading authority on
"supercentenarians" by the Guinness Book of World Records --
the oldest person ever was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who
died in 1997 at the age of 122 years 164 days.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 13, 2009, 21:06