Allen finds Japan battleship

(ANSA) - Rome, March 4 - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Wednesday said his private exploration team had found a famed WWII Japanese battleship, the Musashi, more than 70 years after it was sunk by US forces. The ship was at a depth of more than 1km (3,280ft) on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea off the Philippines.
    The Musashi and its sister vessel, the Yamato, were two of the largest battleships ever built.
    US warplanes sank the Musashi on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, believed to be the biggest naval encounter of World War Two in which American and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.
    Seattle-born Allen, 62, founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, and is believed to be the 51st richest person in the world with a net worth of $17.5bn according to Forbes Magazine.
    He is currently working on an initiative called Stratolaunch, set up to enable "cost-effective" cargo and manned missions to go into space.
    Allen launched SpaceShipOne, a suborbital air-launched space plane, in 2004.