WhiteBoard News for Monday, August 25, 2003

Dhaka, Bengladesh (Reuters):

Bangladesh's currency notes have become so dirty that even fishmongers reckon they stink too much to use. 

The central bank wants to replace the notes and is threatening to deny branch licenses to banks that refuse to cooperate. 

The notes are losing their usefulness as currency because people are becoming unwilling to take them, central bank officials say. Fish-market traders, for example, have found that their customers are demanding coins as change, they say. 

Dhaka's fish-buying public confirmed that on Monday. 

"I feel very uncomfortable taking paper money from sellers because they are not only soiled but sometimes smell awfully bad," said Tanveer Ahmed, a buyer at a fish market. 

Fish seller Mohammad Suleman said: "Customers often decline to take the notes we give them as change because they are too dirty. What can we do? We also get soiled and torn notes from the buyers, who often become angry if we refuse." 

Officials are planning to issue replacement notes and insist that commercial banks cooperate in distributing them. 

The central bank has even threatened to deny licenses for new branches to banks that do not comply, according to a commercial bank official. 

Replacing the notes would be troublesome for commercial banks. They would have to open special counters, for example. 

Bangladesh has currency notes in denominations of one, two, five, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 takas, with a taka being worth about 1.7 U.S. cents. Most of the notes in circulation, except for the 500 takas, are soiled or torn. 
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Ottawa County, Michigan (Ananova):

Officials in a county in Michigan have produced a brochure which smells of manure aimed at people moving to rural areas.

Ottawa County officials say the idea is to try to educate would-be residents of some of the realities of rural living.

It is designed to reduce nuisance complaints that new homeowners sometimes make against farmers. It comes with a scratch-and-sniff section.

"It's an attention grabber," said Mark Knudsen, director of the county's planning and grants department. "The whole purpose is that people should not move into a rural area unless they're willing to accept and embrace the practices that happen on a farming operation."

Ottawa is a farming area, with dairy cows, beef cattle, chickens, turkeys and pigs.

The pamphlet explains that state law generally protects farmers from complaints about their operations, especially when spraying pesticides, spreading manure, transporting products and driving slow machines on two-lane roads.
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Copenhagen, Denmark (Ananova):

A forgetful grandad sparked a major police hunt in Denmark after he picked up the wrong child from the wrong nursery.

The 75-year-old, from Copenhagen, offered to pick up his 15-month-old grandson, Jonas, from the creche in the district of Valby.

But when he arrived back at their home he found his daughter had already picked up her son.

The confused grandad had gone to the wrong nursery and collected another boy called Jonas.

The family immediately drove the toddler back to the creche where they were met by police, who thought the child had been kidnapped.

The missing boy's mother was taken to the Rigs Hospital in the Danish capital suffering from shock when she was told her baby had disappeared, but was released following the news of his safe return.

No charges were brought against the old man after he explained the mistake, despite 20 officers with police dogs being brought in to search the neighbourhood.
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Sanaa, Yemen (Reuters):

A man begging at a mosque in Yemen was exposed as not being so destitute as he pretended when his mobile started ringing inopportunely on Friday. 

The Yemeni news agency Saba said the embarrassed man beat a quick retreat after worshippers heard his phone ring inside his bag. 

There are only about five telephones, both land-lines and mobiles, for every 100 people in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries. 
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Berlin, Germany (Reuters):

A German man of Polish origin lost his driving licence after failing an alcohol test but his dog passed with flying colours, police in the western city of Koblenz say. 

Police said the 47-year-old man failed to perform any of the required actions, only to be upstaged by his West Highland white terrier who executed all of the commands given perfectly, including a 360 degree turn as his master staggered and fell. 

At the conclusion of the uneven contest, the supervising doctor announced, "Man: fail; dog: pass." 
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Bangkok, Thailand (AP):

An ice-cream truck driver in Thailand died while laughing in his sleep, a newspaper reported Thursday. 

Damnoen Saen-um, 52, laughed for about two minutes on Wednesday and then stopped breathing, The Nation said, quoting officials. 

The newspaper said Damnoen's wife tried to wake him up but he kept laughing. An autopsy suggested that he might have had a heart attack, The Nation quoted a doctor as saying. 

"I have never seen a case like this. But it is possible that a person could have heart seizure while laughing or crying too hard in their sleep," said Dr. Somchai Chakrabhand, deputy director-general of the Mental Health Department, according to The Nation. 

The incident occurred in Phrae province, 300 miles north of Bangkok. 
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Gamebell, Alaska (Anchorage Daily News):

Two young women narrowly escaped serious injury one night recently when they used a cigarette lighter to check the fuel level in a four-wheeler's tank while stealing gasoline at a fuel depot, Alaska State Troopers said.

The fuel being pumped into the all-terrain vehicle caught fire, and so did the women's clothing and some nearby material used to clean fuel spills, troopers said. The women beat out the flames on each other's jackets and then ran in a panic, said Sgt. Burke Barrick. 

Local police were able to quickly douse the flames on the ATV and the ground before they spread much farther. Less than 10 feet from the fire was a tank holding 3,000 gallons of gas. Another 30 feet away stood a dozen more tanks, each holding 27,000 gallons of gasoline or fuel oil. 
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