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The waiter looks like a monster from another planet but he asks that you trust him.

He requires you to put your hand on his shoulder while your companion’s hand goes on your shoulder. As soon as you pass through the two sets of heavy curtains you know why it’s necessary. The dinning hall is pitch black.

The waiter in his night-vision goggles leads you to your chair and your first task is to grope around the table for a fork, a spoon and a pair of chopsticks.

It’s a restaurant that deprives you of your sense of sight with the idea of enhancing your sense of taste and smell.

The “Touch Touch Special ” provides an interesting challenge for three of your remaining senses. There are eight different side dishes and you’re offered a prize if you can guess them all.

Something that feels like it’s breaded and fried and should be a meat dish ends up tasting like watermelon. Another dish that is served in what feels like the shell of a crab isn’t at all seafood. It smells like mashed potatoes but your companion insists it’s pumpkin.

“We’ve not only deprived people of their sight, but we’ve asked our chefs to disguise the shape and texture of the food too. You’ll never know what you are eating,” said He Zaijian, one of the owners.

The Whale Inside has become the latest trendy place to eat in Beijing and claims to be the first dark restaurant in Asia.

The experience is not only a bit of a shock to the senses it can also be a very sensual experience, and the owners have a special for that sensation too.

The Lovers Set is designed to get lovers to feed each other.

“I smeared something that tasted like mashed potato on her faceby accident and she did that to me in revenge. It was fun,” said a man named Jackie.

The waiters in their night-vision goggles are the kings of the dinning hall as only they have the power of sight.

“Besides guiding diners to their table and helping them find the utensils we’ll sometimes creep up to someone and pat them on the back,” said 24-year-old Chen Yawei, one of the restaurant’s mischievous waiters.

“We were inspired by a story on the Internet about the world’s first dark restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland, which was opened in 1999 by a blind priest. His idea was to get sighted people to experience how non-sighted live,” said Chen Long, another partner.

Not only is the Whale Inside a new culinary experience the darkness changes the social aspect of dinning out.

“We feel much closer to each other after dinner,” said 24-year-old Wang Bin who has come a second time with his girlfriend.

“It’s easier to make friends in the restaurant where you don’t judge a person by the way they look or how they are dressed, all you can do is talk,” he said.

The owners of the Whale Inside say they will open franchises in Shanghai and Guangzhou and hope to open 20 franchises across Asia by 2008.

The restaurant is not without its critics. Some have complained the food isn’t that good and worry about sanitary conditions. Others go for the novelty and not many say it’s an experience they’ll often repeat.”I would rather go home, turn off the lights, close the curtains and enjoy my dinner,” said a man surnamed Cao.

“The food tastes just so so. It was a fun experience but the food is not the main attraction,” said another diner who’s appearance can’t be described because you never saw him.

Hundreds of business and political celebrities and company staff bid their farewell to Hong Kong’s richest woman Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum here Wednesday at her lavish funeral.

The elite who turned out at Wang’s funeral service included Rita Fan, President of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, the richest Chinese tycoon Li Ka-shing and representative officials from the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong.

Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body, Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang and director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong Gao Siren had already paid their respects to Wang on Tuesday.

Wang, chairwoman of Chinachem Group, died of illness on April 3.

Born in 1937 in Shanghai, Wang was one of the world’s richest people listed by the Forbes magazine and known among the Hong Kong public for her symbolic pigtails.

She was once under the media spotlight for also 10 years because of a lengthy sensational legal battle with her father-in-law Wang Din-shin over her missing husband Teddy Wang’s estate worth billions.

The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong ruled in 2005 that Nina Wang was the sole beneficiary of her husband’s estate.

Teddy Wang, who was kidnapped on April 10, 1990, and never seen again, was declared legally dead on Sept. 22, 1999.

Indonesia’s two biggest Muslim organizations — Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah — have called for the immediate release of the South Korean hostages being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said he would ask the Taliban to release all 21 hostages.

“Muhammadiyah will send a letter through the Foreign Ministry, the Muslim organizations in Afghanistan and also to the South Korean government,” Din was quoted Saturday by major national newspaper The Jakarta Post as saying.

Muhammadiyah is Indonesia’s second biggest Islamic organization.

He said he would ask other Muslim organizations to urge the release of the hostages. Muhammadiyah, he added, strongly condemned the act of kidnapping and the killing of two South Koreans of the group.

“It is contradictory to the teachings of Islam and the universal principles of humanity,” Din said.

In a separate event, NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi earlier this week met South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Lee Sun-jin, Pakistani Ambassador Maj. Gen. Ali Baz, and Sherzamin Kunary from the Afghanistan Embassy.

Hasyim said the NU would seek the help of Taliban clerics who had attended an NU event previously in Indonesia to release the hostages. However, Hasyim said he would not make any contact with the Taliban.

“We have no access to the Taliban, because it is difficult to track them. They are a movement, not an institution,” Hasyim said.

He said the acts of the Taliban had no connection with religion or racial issues. “Their action was purely for their interest and political power,” he said.

Malaysia expressed a deep regret over the attacks on an Indonesian referee policemen last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Dato Zainal Abidin Muhammad Zain said here Thursday.

“We deeply regret about it. It can be interpreted as an apology,” the ambassador made the statement after meeting with Indonesian House Speaker Agung Laksono at the parliament building here.

Regarding to the anniversary of the 50th independent day of Malaysia, Agung Laksono said that the parliament hoped governmental leaders can meet Malaysia’s invitation to attend the ceremony on Friday.

However, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, which is Indonesia’s second biggest Muslim Organization, canceled his plan to give a sermon at the Malaysian embassy office here on the Malaysia’s independent day.

Indonesian karate referee, Donald Luther Kolopita, was physically assaulted by four Malaysian police officers without cause in Kuala Lumpur last Friday when he joined a karate competition.

The incident sparked a wave of protests from various quarters in major Indonesian cities.

Unknown personnel have abducted four Afghan employees of a Turkish road construction company in eastern Afghan province of Paktia, a provincial administration spokesman said Wednesday.

The incident occurred in Zurmat district of Paktia on Tuesday evening and some unknown armed men entered houses of the four and took them away to unknown places, Din Mohammad Darwish, spokesman for Paktia governor told Xinhua.

No one or group claimed responsibility for the incident yet but the spokesman accused the Taliban for the kidnapping.

Afghanistan has witnessed several kidnappings targeting foreign nationals or local employees of international institutions over the past months.

The Taliban, after being toppled by the U.S. invasion in late 2001, has waged a war against the Afghan administration and international troops.

Taliban insurgency-related violence and

A Palestinian rocket struck a college campus in southern Israel on Wednesday, killing one person and lightly wounding a second, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted medics as reporting.

Twenty-two Qassam rockets were fired towards the southern town of Sderot and communities in vicinity of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, the report said, adding that 11 of them were launched within several minutes and landed in and outside Sderot.

One of the rockets hit factories in the Shaar Hanegev industrial zone, causing damage.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services reported that four people suffered from shock. The Color Red alert system was activated in the city three times at around 2:50 p.m.(1250 GMT).

Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets.

Residents of Din Daeng area in Bangkok began to evacuate when protesters drove two tanker trucks fueled by NGV (Natural Gas for Vehicles) gas into the compound.

Reporters saw two NGV cylinders on the trucks and the red-shirted protesters shouted that the flat residents there should leave immediately, prompting speculation that the protesters would explode the gas tanks.

Many residents smelt the odor of the gas and began to flee away, TV footage showed.

Din Daeng is a key entrance to Bangkok as well as a major residential area, where the clash between anti-government protesters and the army took place hours ago.

Leaders of an anti-government movement announced on rally stage at Government House Tuesday that they all are ready to surrender to face charges.

The announcement came as soldiers were moving towards the rally site on Tuesday. The leaders included Jakrapob Penkair, Veera Musikapong, Nuttawut Saikua.

Around 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, Veera Musigapong, a red-shirted leader told the protesters at the Government House to disperse, Channel 11 reported. The crowd said that the voluntarily dispersing was not a defeat of the red-shirted movement but was aimed at protecting the life of the protesters, he said.

“The story is not yet over as we can return later,” Veera said. He vowed to use international stage to continue the rally movement.

Weng Tojitrakan, another red-shirted leader, asked soldiers to move back by 20 meters so that the protesters could pick up their belongings and disperse.

Representatives of the Thai anti-government group, United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), demanded Monday the government to lift the state of emergency imposed earlier, while they had vowed to continue their anti-government rally.

Several anti-government protestors participated in the press conference held at a hotel in central Bangkok.

The Sudanese government, the Arab League (AL), the African Union (AU) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) started a consultative meeting in Khartoum on Sunday evening to discuss ways to end the conflict in Darfur and to improve the humanitarian situation in the restive region.

The Sudanese delegation included Presidential Advisers Mustafa Osman Ismail and Ghazi Salah al-Din, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ali Karti while the three regional organizations were represented respectively by AL Secretary General Amr Moussa, AU Chairperson Jean Ping and OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

Abdallah al-Azrag, the director of the Arab Department in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, told reporters that the consultative meeting was held at an invitation of the Sudanese government, adding that the participants in the meeting would discuss the coordination of positions on the humanitarian situation in Darfur and the political efforts to solve the problem of Darfur,

He said that the meeting would deal with the latest developments in the peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which were hosted by Qatar, and a recent arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir and the arrangements to suspend the decision.

“It is natural for the three organizations to hold a consultative meeting,” the Sudanese official said, denying any previous arrangement to form a joint delegation by the three organizations in order to take coordinated moves in the United Nations to defer the ICC arrest warrant against the Sudanese president.

The representatives of the three regional organizations will visit the North Darfur State on Monday to inspect the humanitarian situation on the ground and hold talks with local authorities there before returning to Khartoum to have a meeting with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha.