■BANGLADESH
Dhaka to eliminate begging
Dhaka said on Thursday it would seek to eliminate begging from the impoverished country within five years. Hundreds of thousands of people depend on begging for their income in a country where 40 percent of the 144 million population earn less than a US$1 a day. A.M.A Muhith, finance minister in the newly elected Awami League administration, said a government-charity partnership would set up a program to train, educate and employ beggars.
■BANGLADESH
‘Rat-killing champ’ crowned
A poor farmer from the north was crowned the country’s rat-killing champion on Thursday with a final score of 39,650 dead rodents after a year-long hunt. Binoy Kumar Karmakar, 40, used traps, poison and flooding to kill his quarry, and collected their tails to prove his success rate and claim a government prize. Karmakar collected a 14-inch Sony color TV for winning the competition. “During the year, our farmers killed around 25 million rats,” agriculture department spokesman Abdul Halim said. “Binoy Kumar Karmakar has been declared the champion for killing 39,650.”
■HONG KONG
Tang Wei returns
Ang Lee (李安) protege Tang Wei (湯唯) has landed her first role since starring in the sexually charged spy thriller Lust, Caution and her reported ban in China. Tang will costar with singer Jacky Cheung (張學友) in the upcoming Chinese-language comedy Crossing Hennessy, Hong Kong-based Irresistible Films said on Thursday. Shooting will start next month, it said in a statement. Chinese media reported last year that regulators had ordered TV stations to stop reporting on the actress and pull ads featuring her.
■THAILAND
Police raid orgy, arrest 23
Police early Thursday raided an orgy, arresting 23 people including 16 foreigners for lewd behavior. Police raided the “swinging party” at the Elizabeth Hotel in Bangkok at 12:15am on Thursday, nabbing 14 foreign men, two foreign women and seven Thai women. Police caught several of the participants having group sex in two hotel rooms and found used condoms, lubricant gel, porno books and CDs and 30 Viagra pills. The partygoers were freed after being charged 1,000 baht (US$29) for lewd behavior, but Briton Christian Richards, 54, and his Thai wife face more serious charges and a possible 10 years in prison for advertising and procurement for sex parties.
■AUSTRALIA
‘Bin Laden’ bids for job
More than 10,000 people have jumped at the chance to become the caretaker of a tropical Australian island — including a prankster identifying himself as terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. A 30-second video available on YouTube shows an actual video of the bearded al-Qaeda leader with garble dubbed over his real voice and subtitles stating why he is right for the job. “I enjoy the outdoors and sandy areas,” the subtitles read. “I’ve got experience with videos, delegating tasks and experience with large scale event coordination.” Queensland launched the “Best Job in the World” campaign on Jan. 12, calling for video applications from people interested in a A$150,000 (US$100,000) contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the island.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Racist doll prompts apology
Managers of one of Queen Elizabeth II’s country estates have apologized for selling a soft toy with racist connotations in their gift shop. Sandringham Estate’s management said on Thursday it did not intend to cause any offense by selling the rag dolls, which resemble black-faced minstrels and are popularly known as “golliwogs.” They were popular toys during the early part of the 20th century, but the doll and its name are now considered racist. The toys have been withdrawn from sale at the estate in Norfolk, 185km northeast of London. Earlier this week, the BBC dropped Carol Thatcher, daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, from a TV show after she reportedly referred to an unidentified tennis player as a golliwog.
■CANADA
Color red boosts attention
The color red boosts attention to detail in tasks such as memorization, while blue encourages creativity, a study published online on Thursday in the journal Science shows. The findings apply to advertising, warnings on medication and especially environmental design for offices or classrooms, said Rui (Juliet) Zhu, who teaches marketing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Zhu, who wrote the study with doctoral student Ravi Mehta, recommends that marketers selling creative or innovative products use blue and brainstorming sessions be held in blue rooms. Using red in advertising would prompt consumers to pay more attention to product details, she said.
■SPAIN
Burglar robs detainees
A man who had been arrested for burgling a house robbed his fellow detainees at a police station a few hours later, police said on Thursday in the southeastern city of Alicante. The man threatened the others with a pair of scissors while all of them were waiting to be questioned, ordering them to hand over all their money. He netted 2,200 euros (US$2,800), but his victims reported him to police and he now faces a second criminal charge.
■IRAN
Be polite: Ahmadinejad
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked world powers on Thursday to be “polite” in dealing with Tehran, a day after diplomats from six countries met to discuss the nuclear standoff. “Bullying powers should learn how to speak correctly and be polite so Iran’s cultured and peace-loving people listen to them,” Ahmadinejad said in the northeastern shrine city of Mashhad. He did not single out any country but Iran has been at odds with the West over its nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a cover for a weapons drive, something Tehran strongly denies.
■UNITED STATES
Cramps co-founder dies
Lux Interior, co-founder and lead singer of the pioneering horror-punk band the Cramps, has died, the group’s publicist said. He was 62. Interior — whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser — died on Wednesday of a pre-existing heart condition at a hospital in Glendale, Arizona, publicist Aleix Martinez said in a statement. Interior met his future wife Kristy Wallace — who would later take the stage name Poison Ivy — in Sacramento in 1972. The pair moved to New York and started the Cramps with Interior on lead vocals and Ivy on guitar. The group was a part of the late 1970s early punk scene centered at Manhattan clubs alongside acts like the Ramones and Patti Smith.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of