Dwarf beggar rakes in Dh3,000 a day in Saudi

Saudi police arrested a 25-year-old Arab beggar who is just less than one metre tall and ears an average SR3,000 (Dh3,000) a day.

The woman told police she had been left by her father every day near a traffic signal in the capital Riyadh to beg for money, adding that he watched her from a distance to ensure she works properly.

“She said people rushed to give her money because they felt sorry for her…she told police her daily income could reach SR3,000,” Sharq daily said.

The paper quoted the beggar as saying one man gave her SR1,500 and told her that all he had got in his pocket. It said her father, in his 60s, was also seized.

The paper said the woman had been arrested and released many times over the past two years.

6-year-old handcuffed by cops

A six-year-old kindergartner was handcuffed for throwing tantrums in Georgia and charged with assault.

Salecia Johnson was detained by police after her alleged outburst in school. According to reports in yahoo.com, the kindergartner tore items off the walls in principal's room and threw furniture and a shelf injuring the principal.

She even bit the doorknob and attempted at breaking a glass frame and push two students when the principal called cops who handcuffed her and took her to the station in a patrol vehicle.

Police defended the action saying according to policy, anybody taken in a patrol vehicle must be handcuffed in the back and there is no age discrimination.

The child was later taken home by her mother.

Dutch bug cookbook launched to stir taste for insects

Need more protein in your diet? Try adding worms to your chocolate muffin recipe mix, or spice up a mushroom risotto with a sprinkling of grasshoppers.

"The Insect Cookbook", which comes out on Tuesday and is written in Dutch, contains these and other unusual recipes and is intended to promote insects as a source of protein.

"I see this as the next step towards the introduction of insects on restaurant menus in the Netherlands. I also expect people to buy the book and start cooking with insects at home," said Marcel Dicke, a professor at Wageningen University which specializes in food and food production.

To mark the book launch in Wageningen, specialist insect chef Henk van Gurp will try to set a record for cooking the world's biggest grasshopper pie.

Research by scientists at the university showed that insects could provide the best source of protein to meet the needs of a rising population. Currently, 70 per cent of agricultural land is used for livestock production.

Dicke said that with the world population expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, it will be difficult to provide enough protein for everyone because there will not be enough land for raising livestock.

The nutritional value of insects is similar to those of meat, and the emission of greenhouse gases from insect production is a hundred times lower than in pig production, the university said.

Dicke said that the biggest resistance to the use of insects as the source of proteins is likely to be in countries where people are used to eating big portions of meat.

Those who can't be bothered to shop, prepare and cook the bugs for themselves can sample them at a handful of restaurants in the Netherlands.

Specktakel restaurant in the town of Haarlem, just west of Amsterdam, served customers a five-course menu of insect dishes last month, while this month's special is meat pie sprinkled with nuts, seeds and worms.

But Mark Van Kimmenaede, a chef at Specktakel, does not expect insects to become hugely popular because of their particular taste.

"It does not go well with fish, for example," he said.

"It is nice to have one or two dishes with insects on the menu, but it has to stay fun."

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