Zeitgeist, The Movie, Final Edition CHINESE SUBTITLES

122 min - Mar 26, 2008
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Bush administration lifts North Korea sanctions

President Bush makes a statement on North Korea's nuclear program, Thursday, June 26, 2008, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington.

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

 

By DEB RIECHMANN

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Thursday he will lift key trade sanctions against North Korea and remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an "axis of evil."

The announcement came after North Korea handed over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear work to Chinese officials on Thursday, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process.

Bush called the declaration a positive step along a long road to get the nation to give up its nuclear weapons. Yet, he remained wary of the regime, which has lied about its nuclear work before. And North Korea's declaration, received six months late, falls short of what the administration once sought, leaving it open to criticism from those who want the U.S. to take an even tougher stance against the regime.

"We will trust you only to the extent you fulfill your promises," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "I'm pleased with the progress. I'm under no illusions. This is the first step. This isn't the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process."

To demonstrate that it is serious about foregoing its nuclear weapons, North Korea is planning the televised destruction of a 65-foot-tall cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The cooling tower is a key element of the reactor, but blowing it up - with the world watching - has little practical meaning because the reactor has already been nearly disabled.

Specifically, Bush said the U.S. would erase trade sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act, and notify Congress that, in 45 days, it intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

"If North Korea continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community ... If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and its partners in the six-party talks will act accordingly," Bush said.

The declaration, about 60 pages of documentation, is the result of long-running negotiations the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia have been having with Pyongyang.

A senior U.S. official said the declaration contains detailed data on the amount of plutonium North Korea produced during each of several rounds of production at a now-shuttered plutonium reactor. It is expected to total about 37 kilograms of plutonium - enough to make about a half-dozen bombs.

However, the declaration, which covers nuclear production dating back to 1986, does not contain detailed information about North Korea's suspected program of developing weapons fueled by enriched uranium.

It also does not provide a complete accounting of how it allegedly helped Syria build what senior U.S. intelligence officials say was a secret nuclear reactor meant to make plutonium, which can be used to make high-yield nuclear weapons. Israeli jets bombed the structure in the remote eastern desert of Syria in September 2007.

Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said it's critical to understand the nature and extent of North Korea's nuclear cooperation with Syria and any other countries. "Without clarity on these issues we cannot proceed with confidence to the next phase of the negotiations - the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear facilities and the removal of any fissile material from the country," he said.

North Korea had promised to complete the declaration by the end of last year in exchange for removal from U.S. terrorism and economic sanctions blacklists, which restrict its foreign trade and ability to get loans from international development banks.

North Korea was put on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism for its alleged involvement in the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner that killed 115 people. The designation has effectively blocked North Korea from receiving low-interest loans from the World Bank and other international lending agencies.

The president, insisting that the U.S. was not giving North Korea a free ride, said the U.S. action would have little impact on North Korea's financial and diplomatic isolation. "It will remain one of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world," Bush said. All U.N. sanctions, for example, will remain in place.

Bush said the United States would monitor North Korea closely and "if they don't fulfill their promises, more restrictions will be placed on them."

Bush said that to end its isolation, North Korea must, for instance, dismantle all of its nuclear facilities and resolve outstanding questions on its highly enriched uranium and proliferation activities "and end these activities in a way that we can fully verify."

Bush thanked all members of the six-party talks, but singled out Japan. Tokyo has argued that the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from the list of terrorist nations should be linked to progress in solving North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

"The United States will never forget the abduction of Japanese citizens by the North Koreans," said Bush who called Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday to express U.S. concern about the issue. "We will continue to closely cooperate and coordinate with Japan and press North Korea to swiftly resolve the abduction issue."

---

AP White House Correspondent Terence Hunt contributed to this story.

Japan's Booming Sex Niche: Elder Porn

 

Postcard from Tokyo

By MICHIKO TOYAMA

 

The DVD box of a pornographic film starring Shigeo Tokuda, left

 

 

Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name. He prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan's sexuality: in surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. A WHO report released in March found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all. Those figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with "elder porn" one of its fastest-growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he has just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime.

Tokuda's exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an "old man" series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. "The adult-video industry is very competitive," says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. "If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers' hearts."

Director Gaichi Kono says the eroticism of elders is captivating to younger viewers. "I think that, as a subject, there is this something that only an older generation has and the young people do not possess. It is because they lived that much more. We should respect them and learn from them," says Kono passionately.

But Tokuda stresses the appeal of his work to an audience of his peers: "Elderly people don't identify with school dramas," he says. "It's easier for them to relate to older-men-and-daughters-in-law series, so they tend to watch adult videos with older people in them." The veteran porn star plans to keep working until he's 80 — or older, as long as the industry will cast him. Given the bullish market for his work, he's unlikely to go without work.

"People of my age generally have shame, so they are very hesitant to show their private parts," Tokuda says. "But I am proud of myself doing something they cannot." Still, he says, laughing, "That doesn't mean that I can tell them about my old-age pensioner job."

Japan's adult-video industry is believed to be worth as much as $1 billion a year, according to industry insiders, with the largest video-store chain Tsutaya releasing about 1,000 new titles monthly, while the mega adult mail-order site DMM releases about 2,000 titles each month. Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward "mature women" has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are "mature women" films.

Ryuichi Kadowaki, director of Ruby Inc., which specializes in mature-women titles, says that when the company started offering the genre a few years ago, the term referred to actresses in their late 20s, and that last year it was expanded to those in their 70s. The company believes the advantage of mature titles is their enduring appeal. "Adult videos with young actresses sell well only in the first three months after the release," Kadowaki explains. "On the other hand, mature-women films enjoy a steady, long-term popularity, which after 10 years or so might lead to a best seller." And then there are the cost savings. A popular young actress can earn up to $100,000 per film, while a mature actress is paid only $2,000.

The market for elder porn has doubled over the past decade, according to Kadowaki. "In view of [Japan's] aging society," he adds, "I think that in the future, we will see a steady increase in demand."

Teacher fired for running from quake school

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese high school teacher has been fired and denounced by local media and Internet users for fleeing a classroom before his students during last month's devastating earthquake.

Fan Meizhong, a Chinese-language teacher at a private high school in quake-ravaged Dujiangyan in southwest Sichuan province, has been branded "running Fan" on Internet chat-rooms and come under fire for defending his actions online in a lengthy post.

The 8.0 magnitude earthquake on May 12 killed more than 70,000 people, including thousands of children at their desks in what many parents believe were shoddily made school buildings.

"At such a life-or-death moment, I would only consider sacrificing my life for my daughter. I would not do it for anyone else, even my mother," Fan wrote on popular online portal Tianya.cn ( http:/www.tianya.cn ).

"In a flash I felt it -- a big earthquake! Then I charged to the building's stairs," Fan said, adding that he was the first person to emerge from the school on to the soccer pitch.

None of the children in his literature class died in the quake.

China's education ministry confirmed that Fan had been dismissed, but said it was the school's decision and denied media reports that it had issued a special order demanding it. Fan said he had not ruled out suing the authorities over the decision.

Fan's account has enraged China, as it struggles to rebuild damaged cities and provide housing for millions of victims displaced by the quake.

"I know many teachers died protecting children during the earthquake... In this long essay, I can't see any 'person' here, I just see a big 'me'," a post in response to Fan's account said.

Despite a massive outpouring of charity in the wake of the quake, Chinese bloggers have been quick to round on those deemed unsympathetic.

Movie actress Sharon Stone drew scathing criticism late last month after suggesting that "karma" might have played a part in causing the earthquake after China's crackdown on unrest in ethnic Tibetan areas in March.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

China admits taking, burying US POW from Korea

This 1950's black-and-white handout photo provided by the Desautels family, shows Army Sgt. Richard G. Desautels. China for the first time acknowledged burying a U.S. prisoner of war on its soil, telling U.S. officials half a century after the fact that an American soldier it captured in the Korean War died one week after he 'became mentally ill.' The Pentagon kept the 2003 revelation quiet, raising questions about the Defense Department's efforts to obtain Chinese wartime records. For decades the Chinese denied having taken any POWs from camps in North Korea, where Chinese forces fought on the North's behalf against U.S. and South Korean troops, and they rebuffed repeated inquiries by U.S. officials about the fate of missing soldiers.

 

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - After decades of denials, the Chinese have acknowledged burying an American prisoner of war in China, telling the U.S. that a teenage soldier captured in the Korean War died a week after he "became mentally ill," according to documents provided to The Associated Press.

China had long insisted that all POW questions were answered at the conclusion of the war in 1953 and that no Americans were moved to Chinese territory from North Korea. The little-known case of Army Sgt. Richard G. Desautels, of Shoreham, Vt., opens another chapter in this story and raises the possibility that new details concerning the fate of other POWs may eventually surface.

Chinese authorities gave Pentagon officials intriguing new details about Desautels in a March 2003 meeting in Beijing, saying they had found "a complete record of 9-10 pages" in classified archives.

Until now, this information had been kept quiet; a Pentagon spokesman said it was intended only for Desautels' family members. The details were provided to Desautels' brother, Rolland, who passed them to a POW-MIA advocacy group, the National Alliance of Families, which gave them to AP this week.

In a telephone interview Thursday, the brother said he did not follow up on the information he got in 2003 because he did not believe it. He was not aware it marked the first time China had acknowledged taking a U.S. POW from North Korea into Chinese territory or burying an American there.

Two months after the March 2003 meeting, the Pentagon office responsible for POW-MIA issues sent Rolland Desautels a brief written summary of what a Chinese army official had related about the case.

"According to the Chinese, Sgt. Desautels became mentally ill on April 22, 1953, and died on April 29, 1953," the summary said. It added that he had been buried in a Chinese cemetery but the grave was moved during a construction project "and there is no record of where Desautels' remains were reinterred."

The reported circumstance of Desautels' death — sudden mental illness — may sound improbable. But the key revelation — that he was taken from North Korea to a city in northeastern China and then buried — matches long-held U.S. suspicions about China's handling, or mishandling, of American POWs during and after the war.

It raises the possibility that wartime Chinese records could shed light on the fate of other U.S. captives who were known to be held in Chinese-run POW camps but did not return when the fighting ended in 1953.

And it appears to undercut the Pentagon's public stance that China returned all POWs it held inside China. The Pentagon has focused more on the related issue of China's management of POW camps inside North Korea during the war, which Chinese troops entered in the fall of 1950 on North Korea's side.

Desautels' reported burial site — the city of Shenyang, formerly known as Mukden — is interesting because it is far from the North Korean border and was often cited in declassified U.S. intelligence reports as the site of one or more prisons holding hundreds of American POWs from Korea. Some U.S. reports referred to Mukden as a possible transshipment point for POWs headed to Russia.

Desautels was an 18-year old corporal, a member of A Company, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, when his unit encountered a swarming Chinese assault near Kunu-ri, North Korea, on Dec. 1, 1950. According to a Pentagon account, Desautels and his fellow captives were marched north to a POW compound known as Camp 5, near Pyoktong, on the North Korean side of the border with China.

Subsequent events are a bit fuzzy, but Desautels was moved among prison camps and apparently was used by the Chinese army as a truck driver. A number of U.S. POWs told American interrogators after their release from captivity that they had seen Desautels alive and well in Camp 5.

One who said he spent four months with Desautels said that in March 1952 Desautels said that if he should disappear, others should make inquiries with the proper military authorities. Numerous returned POWs said Desautels had spent several months inside China before being returned to Camp 5 in 1952.

Rolland Desautels, 81, recalls his older brother as "a strong character who came off the farm," enlisted in the Army at age 17 and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., before being shipped to Korea in August 1950, two months after the war began with North Korea's invasion of the South.

The Pentagon has taken an interest in the Desautels case for many years. A June 1998 Pentagon cable to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said the case was one of several on which China should be pushed to provide answers, that "we believe the Chinese should be able to account for these individuals."

Now it turns out that China did provide an accounting, although it is incomplete and was kept under wraps for five years.

Larry Greer, a spokesman for the POW-MIA office at the Pentagon, said Thursday that although U.S. officials asked to see the 9-10 page file on Desautels, China has yet to provide it or additional information.

Mark Sauter, an author and researcher on the subject of POWs from the Korean War, said in an interview that Beijing authorities are to be commended for finally providing useful information.

"The case of Sgt. Desautels has been a focal point of a six-decade cover-up by the Chinese government," Sauter said. "This is the first crack in the dike. From what we can tell, the Pentagon has not aggressively followed up, either on the Desautels case or those of hundreds of other Americans for whom the Chinese should be able to account."

American officials believed from the earliest days of the armistice that concluded the Korean War without a formal peace treaty in July 1953 that the Chinese and North Koreans withheld a number of U.S. POWs, possibly in retaliation for U.S. refusal to repatriate those Chinese and North Korean POWs who chose not to be returned to their home country out of fear of retribution.

Gen. Mark W. Clark, the American commander of U.S.-led forces during the final stages of the Korean War, wrote in a 1954 account that "we had solid evidence" that hundreds of captive Americans were held back by the Chinese and North Koreans, possibly as leverage to gain a China seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Over time, however, U.S. officials muted their concerns, while periodically pressing the Chinese in private. Publicly, the Pentagon's stance today is that China returned all the U.S. POWs it held.

"Some U.S. POWs spent time across the (Yalu) river in Manchuria, but to the best of our knowledge, all have returned," the Pentagon's POW/MIA office says in a summary of wartime POW camps.

China lists Olympic rules for foreigners

 

BEIJING, China (AP) -- Foreigners attending the Beijing Olympics better behave -- or else.

 

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee issued a stern, nine-page document Monday that covers 57 topics. Written in Chinese only and posted on the official Web site, the guide covers everything from a ban on sleeping outdoors to the need for government permission to stage a protest.

Visitors also should know this:

Those with "mental diseases" or contagious conditions will be barred.

Some parts of the country are closed to visitors -- one of them Tibet.

Olympic tickets are no guarantee of a visa to enter China.

Fearing protests during the August 8-24 Olympics, China's government has tightened controls on visas and residence permits for foreigners. It has also promised a massive security presence at the games, which may include undercover agents dressed as volunteers.

The guide said Olympic ticket holders "still need to visit China embassies and consulates and apply for visas according to the related rules."

The government hopes to keep out activists and students who might stage pro-Tibet rallies that would be broadcast around the world. It also fears protests over China's oil and arms trade with Sudan, and any disquiet from predominantly Muslim regions in western China.

 

"In order to hold any public gathering, parade or protest the organizer must apply with the local police authorities. No such activity can be held unless a permit is given. ... Any illegal gatherings, parades and protests and refusal to comply are subject to administrative punishments or criminal prosecution."

The document also warns against the display of insulting slogans or banners at any sports venue. It also forbids any religious or political banner at an Olympic venue that "disturbs the public order."

The guidelines seem to clash with a pledge made two month ago by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who said athletes could exercise freedom of speech in China. He asked only that athletes refrain from making political statements at certain official Olympics venues.

"Freedom of expression is something that is absolute," Rogge said in Beijing in April. "It's a human right. Athletes have it."

The detailed document is titled: "A guide to Chinese law for Foreigners coming to, leaving or staying in China during the Olympics." This appears under the slogan of the Beijing Olympics: "One World, One Dream."

For months Chinese authorities denied there had been any change to visa regulations, but recently acknowledged that rules had been amended. The changes may have little affect on some of the 500,000 foreigners expected to visit for the Olympics, many of whom will come on package tours with visas already arranged.

The rules published Monday say entry will be denied to those "who might conduct acts of terrorism, violence and government subversion ... and those who might engage in activities endangering China's national security and national interest."

The rules also bar entry to smugglers, drug traffickers, prostitutes and those with "mental diseases" or contagious conditions.

The document also warns foreigners that not all areas of the country are open to visitors. One such area is Tibet, which is also off limits to journalists.

"Not all of China is open to foreigners, and they shall not go to any venue not open to them," the statement said.

The guide also spells out a long list of items that cannot be brought into the country, including weapons, imitation weapons, ammunition, explosives, counterfeit currency, drugs and poisons. It also prohibits the entry of materials "that are harmful to China's politics, economics, culture and morals".

Foreigners staying with Chinese residents in urban areas must register at a local police station within 24 hours of arriving. The limit in rural areas is 72 hours.

The guide also threatens criminal prosecution against anyone "who burns, defaces ... insults or tramps on the national flag or insignia."

For those planning on sleeping outdoors to save a little money -- forget it. This is banned to "maintain public hygiene and the cultured image of the cities."

 

 

 

 

 

American female teacher in tragic fall from Bangkok condo

An American teacher fell from the rooftop of a condominium in Bangkok's Bang Na area and was killed early Friday morning, police said.
Police said Michelle Rere Stillwell, 32, fell from the rooftop of the Parkland Building 9 at 5:40 am.
Police found one of her shoes on the rooftop and found an empty bottle of wine and a nearly empty bottle of whisky in her room.
Police suspected that the woman was walking on the rooftop and accidentally fell because she was drunk.
She taught English at the Thai-Chinese International School in Samut Prakan's Bangplee area.

Source: BahtandSold

Hiding from the junta

CNN's Dan Rivers gives a first-hand account of the Myanmar authorities' determined search for him

I realized we were in danger when our remarkably brave local contact told us the military government had put out a request to all hotels asking for a list of foreigners. We were told the regime had seen one of my reports and was furious I was in the country. They were specifically looking for me. I was skeptical at first, but over the next few days it became apparent that despite the biggest humanitarian crisis in Myanmar's history, the government was expending considerable time and energy trying to stop me from reporting on the true extent of the disaster. A colleague from the BBC had already been deported on arrival from the airport and it was clear they wanted me out next.

We started taking all the precautions we could, changing vehicles, changing locations, and constantly staying on the move. But it was as we made our way into the worst affected parts of the delta that I realized how serious the junta was in its attempts to stop me.

My colleagues had stopped to ask a local government worker whether the road ahead was clear. I'd decided to hide in a restaurant while this was happening, not wanting to be recognized. The civil servant said the road to Laputta was passable, but then a local immigration officer came over and started comparing everyone's passport photos to a photo of me, apparently taken from my last report on CNN. The others were shocked, but played dumb. The subsequent questioning lasted for an hour or so, but finally my team was released, the authorities presuming they were something to do with the aid operation in the area.

Meanwhile, I was pacing the streets worried they hadn't returned, trying to remain inconspicuous, which was difficult when I was the only white face in town. Someone asked me half mockingly if I was with the CIA. I just laughed nervously and hoped the curiosity would die down.

Eventually I was reunited with the others, who were now all very concerned for our safety. We decided though to push on further towards Laputta, along miles of dirt roads, until we spotted a checkpoint at a bridge. I hid in the boot of the car under a blanket, my cameraman scrambling to throw bags and boxes on top of me to disguise my contorted, lanky form. I was sweating heavily and frankly by now rather scared.

The three policemen on guard turned us back, saying the senior civil servant in the last town wanted to speak to us all again. We were now convinced that the authorities knew we were a TV crew and during the drive back we decided we were driving to certain arrest.

Our last gamble involved veering off the road along a jungle path towards the river. We hid the vehicle as best we could and managed to persuade some bemused villagers to take us across the river in two small boats. It was while walking out of that village that we were caught by a gruff, fat man who was barking into a walkie-talkie. I was horrified.

He told us we weren't allowed any further and that the police were waiting for us at our vehicle. We were marched back, ever more alarming thoughts of what might happen next swirling through my mind.

The police were at first angry and suspicious, but emolliating words, cigarettes, water and snack bars seemed to calm things down. They insisted on checking all our passports. I felt a churning sense of dread as I prepared to hand mine over. My greatest concern was for the local members of our team, who faced possible imprisonment and beatings if we were found out. I showed my passport, but managed to keep my thumb over both my first and last names. As my manager later pointed out, thank God we hired a middle-class lad whose parents had given him two middle names. Those middle names were the details the rather incompetent policeman radioed ahead. Eventually we were released and allowed to return to Yangon.

I'd had enough by this time, realizing my presence was endangering the others, so I decided to leave. I got through immigration and customs and had actually sat down on the plane when there was one last surprise. The flight attendant told me immigration needed to check my details again -- waiting at the gate were half a dozen police, special branch officers and soldiers. They photographed every possession I had and searched me thoroughly, even removing my shoes and socks. Thankfully I'd dumped any tapes and photos, and with the flight already delayed, the flight attendant was impatiently imploring them to make a decision on whether I was allowed to board the plane. After a few minutes, they reluctantly gave in and I left, still trembling from 12 hours of exhausting tension being hunted by the junta.

It all gives perhaps a small idea of the repression and intolerance of this regime. That it cannot countenance the independent reporting of a natural disaster speaks loudly and clearly to the generals' utter paranoia. That they see fit to devote such resources and energy stopping reporters, aid-workers and the United Nations from entering, rather than helping their own devastated people, is a damning indictment of their callous disregard for those who have lost everything.

Dan Rivers is CNN's Bangkok-based correspondent and has just returned from reporting in Myanmar. For more on CNN's coverage from Myanmar go to www.cnn.com/myanmar.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of CNN Asia Pacific.

 

Just the cricket: Eating insects is good for us and for the environment, scientists claim

It might be a while before they appear on the shelf at Tesco.

But scientists claim adding insects to our diet would be good for us and the environment.

Crunching into crickets or snacking on grilled caterpillar is apparently a means to a nutrient-rich diet that also helps reduce pests and puts less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat.

 

 

Some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein of raw meat and fish, while others are rich in unsaturated fat and contain important vitamins and minerals.

Experts believe they could one day be marketed as a healthy alternative to fatty snacks.

In most of Europe, bug-eating is largely restricted to the belated realisation that there has been an unwelcome addition to the salad.

It is common elsewhere, however, with some 1,700 species of bug eaten in 113 countries.

In Taiwan, stir-fried crickets or sauteed caterpillars are delicacies. A plate of maguey worms  -  larvae of a giant butterfly  -  sells for £12.50 in smart Mexican restaurants.

Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves go down well in Papua New Guinea, as does dragonfly in Bali.

In many parts of south-east Asia market stalls sell insects by the pound and deep-fried snacks are served up as street food.

Insects are arthropods, much like crab, shrimps and lobster which are all accepted by the European palate. In North Africa locusts are sometimes called sky prawns.

But Patrick Durst, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that if consumers were to be tempted to broaden their culinary horizons the trick might be to make the bugs look more palatable.

'You need to get the food into a form where someone doesn't have to look the bug in the eye when they eat it,' he said.

Earlier this year the Food and Agriculture Organisation held a conference to discuss how entomophagy  -  eating insects as food  -  could contribute to sustainable development.

Bug-farming preserves forests  -  which are needed to attract insects  -  and is encouraged in some countries.

As for pesticides, some experts have pointed out the irony of using chemicals to get rid of bugs that are more nutritious than the crops they prey on.

In Thailand when pesticides failed to control locusts, the government urged locals to eat them and distributed recipes.

Chef Paul Cook, who supplies exotic and unusual food through his Bristol-based business Osgrow, has sold a range of insects including locusts.

He said: 'You have to get past your feeling when you look at a whole locust or cricket. They are very clean and nutritious.

'But I don't think we are going to see Jamie Oliver encouraging us to have sky prawns on the school menu.'

Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk

Man jailed for faking his death

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore man was jailed for three years after he faked his own death in a civil war shoot-out in Sri Lanka in 1987 to escape his creditors and claim S$331,341 ($243,600) in insurance money, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Straits Times said that Gandaruban Subramaniam fled Singapore more than 20 years ago -- harassed by creditors and illegal money lenders since the failure of his car rental business -- and moved to London to work as a street sweeper.

The 60-year old eventually settled in Sri Lanka where he managed to obtain a death certificate stating he had been killed in a shootout between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, allowing his family to claim on his insurance policies.

But he returned to Singapore a number of times using a fake Sri Lankan passport and also remarried his wife in Sri Lanka in 1994 and fathered a son, their fourth child, two years later.

The couple has since divorced.

Gandaruban's scam was discovered by a Singapore lawyer and arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport last October.

His former wife and brother both served jail time for their part in the fraud, but have since completed their sentences.

(Reporting by Jan Dahinten; Editing by David Fox)

China earthquake: Expat's experience

Brian Thomson, an expat who lives in Chengdu, tells how events unfolded.

By Brian Thomson

 

I am on the third floor of a building near Chengdu's Shangliu Airport. I am there to meet their finance director regarding a possible story on his low-cost airline.

I am speaking to the interpreter when she looks at the ceiling, and says: "Something is wrong?" I feel the room sway, and experience a slight nausea, as though I'm on a ship. I say to her: "I think we should get out of here, fast."

Together with another hundred or so employees we go quickly down the stairs. Nobody attempts to use the lifts. There is no panic. As I enter the foyer I can see the light fitting swaying though an arc of four or five inches.

We gather in the gardens at the rear. I meet the director, and postpone the interview. I want to get back to the city. Everyone keeps looking at the buildings around us, some 11 stories high.

I head for the bus stop; everyone else seems to have the same idea - get home. I get off near the Shamrock Bar, an expat hangout, intending to find a taxi, but the area is gridlocked.

In the Shamrock are a dozen or so Americans, Brits and Aussies. They all tell me mobile phones are out and land lines are erratic. The bar has no electricity but they are handing out snacks from the kitchen. It begins to rain. I call my flat but the number is constantly engaged.

I find a bus which takes me close to home, passing a school playground where hundreds of people are huddled under umbrellas, ready to spend the night.

My wife is relieved to see me, as I her. We decide to spend the night in our fifth-floor flat rather than camp out. The lift is out, but power comes back late that night.

I receive email from the embassy. (I am warden for the Chengdu and Sichuan Province, but duties are not very onerous - help any Brit who may be in trouble). I email back that I am OK and available at the flat.

TUESDAY: China Television is on 24/7 giving the full reports on mounting death figures. My wife comes back from shopping, saying there are now limits on how much you can buy. People are queuing to get cash from ATMs, and at the petrol stations; purchases are restricted to 10 litres. A mobile blood centre has been set up; crowds of donors are waiting. I am impressed by their quick, stoical reaction.

WEDNESDAY: Still no local phones, but strangely I can receive calls from the UK. I tell my relations we are OK. Shops are now operating normally and restaurants are open. But the airport is closed to commercial traffic.

THURSDAY: I meet the newly-arrived British Embassy team. A communications office with six staff has been set up, working round the clock.

On my way back to the flat, the bus is halted by a convoy of ambulances heading to a hospital. At the main doors dozens of nurses converge around the stretchers. A military hospital has set up tents in the gardens.

People are returning to their flats. The makeshift shelters are empty, leaving behind three days of litter.

FRIDAY: Schools are still closed. People are not going into work. Yet essential services are working well. Another aftershock; it must be the tenth since Monday.

I meet senior consulate personnel at the Bookworm restaurant/bar. They tell me a team of 11 British aid and disaster relief experts will arrive over the weekend.

SATURDAY: Government communiqués state that they want people back at work (and school) on Monday. Collecting points have been set up where people can donate clothing, cash?.?.?. anything that may be useful.

I am sent a list of five Britons who may be missing in Sichuan. I email it to all my friends and acquaintances and ask the Shamrock and Bookworm to put it up behind the bar. I receive a call ten minutes later; one of the names is believed to have left China six months ago.

SUNDAY: The city seems back to normal. My wife - a former army nurse - has gone to the wrecked city of Duijangyen with twenty other volunteers. They don't quite know their duties yet, but any spare hands will be welcomed.