When Manny Pacquiaos hand was raised against Miguel Cotto a couple of weeks ago, boxing fans in the U.S. said goodnight to superfight season for 2009.

There are other parts which make up the world.

In one of them, a potential T.V. audience of between 30 and 50 million, if not more, will turn their attention to the Super Arena in Saitama City, Japan.

In Japan, Koki Kameda is big business. Its a rare turn, but a Japanese draw could end up big business for the entire Flyweight division. A couple of years ago, American Brian Viloria was briefly mentioned as a Japanese import to face Kameda.

With the drawing power hes building among the little men, its not hard to imagine a Viloria or World Jr. Flyweight champion Ivan Calderon tempting a trip in 2010.

Kameda has to win first. Hell have his work cut out for him. across the ring is a veteran champion who rebuilt himself from the ashes of an embarrassing knockout loss in 2002 into the lineal World and WBC Flyweight champion. Its a classic match-up of contrasting styles with old lion-young lion overtones.

Can Kamedas talent meet his stardom in the ring on Sunday?

Lets go to the report card.

The Ledgers

Daisuke NaitoAge: 35Title: Lineal World/WBC Flyweight Champion (2007-Present, 5 Defenses)Height: 54Weight: 112 lb.Average Weight Last Five Fights: 112 lbs.Hails from: Tokyo, JapanRecord: 35-2-3, 22 KOBoxingScene Rank: World ChampionRecord in Major Title Fights: 5-2-1, 2 KO, 1 KOBYCurrent/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 1 (Pongsaklek Wonjongkam)Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Faced in Defeat or Drawn: 2 (Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Takefumi Sakata)

Vs.

Koki KamedaAge: 23Title: NonePrevious Titles: WBA Jr. Flyweight (2006, 1 Defense)Height: 55 Weight: 112 lb.Average Weight Last Five Fights: 112.75 lbs.Hails from: Tokyo, JapanRecord: 21-0, 14 KOBoxingScene Rank: #6Record in Major Title Fights: 2-0Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 2 (Noel Arambulet, Saman Sorjaturong, Juan Landaeta)

Pre-Fight GradesSpeed Naito B; Kameda A-Power Naito B+; Kameda B Defense Naito B; Kameda B+ Intangibles Naito B+; Kameda B

Kameda is the quicker man in this contest and the more classic boxer. he applies a steady, straight left jab and can pop a lead left hook or straight right hand with precision. he also has good balance and quick feet. Added together, if he can maintain a distance where Naito is regularly forced to reset, Kameda can control this championship contest. Hell need to because hes not likely to make the fight relying on power and Naito will have heavier hands.

Its easier, much easier, said than done. Naito may not have the edge in speed but hes awkward and ornery. he is the rare fighter who feints with his whole body, occasionally leaving his feet and stomping before punching. he doesnt use a jab often, instead wading in with an almost crab walk style and winging hooks to the head and body. Its not traditional but its effective. Naito will also plow forward with his head while punching and regularly swing from one side while slipping to the other. Get too close to his man, and Naito will clinch and grapple.

It can be a frustrating experience for opponents. Kameda knows that well. he saw it from the corner in 2007 when younger brother Daiki stepped in as Naitos first challenger. by the end of one of the most-foul filled contests of the decade, Daiki was so aggravated he resorted to body slams. Suspended for his behavior, that fight builds a natural grudge into this one and is Kokis first serious since at least the summer of 2008.

Defensively, Kameda can be good or bad. in his first title shot in 2006, for the vacant WBA belt at 108 lbs. versus the veteran Landaeta, Kameda was sucked into a trench war. Hurt at points, and lucky to escape on points as a winner, it was a learning experience in only his twelfth start. to Kamedas credit, he showed a world class learning curve. in the immediate rematch, Kameda used his feet to keep him from danger and at times put on a show, dominating for the decision win.

Naito is tough to catch but he can be caught and has been by lesser fighters. in his last outing, upstart Xiong Zhao Zhong had him down in the sixth. in his only knockout loss, longtime rival Wonjongkam blasted him with a hook for a Flyweight championship record knockout (:34 seconds). that loss has proven somewhat a fluke. Naito is a tough man. His style makes it hard to catch him because it requires patience and concentration. one cant get caught looking at some of the strange things he does but must instead just continue to fire in the wide openings the champion is sure to present.

Even those who have some patience struggled. After the knockout loss, he lost a decision to Wonjongkam before finally winning a decision (ending Wonjongkams record seventeen-consecutive defense title reign) and then holding him off for a draw in defense of the crown. Naito can make a fight messy, and that can make a scoring mess as well. Kameda doesnt necessarily want a scoring mess.

The Pick

Despite all the problems he can pose, Naito isnt getting any younger and the speed difference here could be critical. Hell likely be rough in the early going but as Kameda masters the range of the bout the punishment will mount. Kameda may not be able to stop Naito with a single shot, but the opposite wont happen either. Its going to be a distance contest and the better, younger, more traditionally sound fighter will solve the riddle. look for Kameda to battle through some tough rounds before taking over near the midway point and cruising to a decision or late stoppage over Naito.

And then let the era of Kameda in Japan truly begin.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. he can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com

Bryan Saunders, Arts & Entertainment Staff
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Written by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Directed by Marianne Copithorne
Starring Andrea Jorawsky, Robert Markus, Karyn Mott, Darren Paul, Tatyana Rac, and Sarah Sharkey
Runs November 26–December 5. no show Sunday.
Tickets $5-20 at the Timms box office or at tixonthesquare.ca

What would happen if two of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies, Othello and Romeo and Juliet, were rewritten as comedies? perhaps they were even intended to be comedies all along!

This concept is the doctoral thesis of PhD student Constance Ledbelly — one of the characters in Ann-Marie MacDonald’s play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) — but she’s struggling to find the evidence to prove it. that is, until she tumbles down, down, down into a wastebasket and finds herself magically dropped into Othello’s Cyprus and, later, into Romeo and Juliet’s Verona. in quick time, Constance bumps into the kooky characters from these plays and support for her theory starts to pile up.

According to Karyn Mott (Juliet), audiences will be rolling out of their seats with laughter when they see how some of Shakespeare’s most well-known characters have been transformed.

“They’re heightened to a different extent than they are in the original play,” she laughs, pointing out that the character archetypes aren’t really “transformed,” per se, just exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness.
Juliet, for example, becomes just your stereotypical melodramatic 14-year-old girl, where every tiny decision is live-or-die — more often the latter, as it turns out.

“Juliet tries to kill herself a lot,” Mott deadpans. “She tries real hard.”

Sarah Sharkey, who’s making her Studio Theatre debut in the role of Desdemona, notes that her character is the opposite.

“My archetype is a raging, bullish, warrior princess,” she chuckles.

“Another interesting thing is that in Othello and in Romeo and Juliet, our two characters would never meet,” Mott points out. “And, in this play, [...] our archetypes go head-to-head.”

The result, of course, of two over-the-top characters meeting is something even more over-the-top, but Sharkey says the production manages to walk the line between being a satire and being a valentine.

“I think it’s very much both,” she says. “I mean, to make fun of something is quite endearing. People love to laugh. So, to parody something is essentially to love it, to give it an homage — it’s kind of like a roast.

“Our goal was to make this the funniest journey we possibly could,” Sharkey continues. “So, anyone who will sit down and watch it will enjoy the pure comedy of it all: there are SNL kind of moments; there are YouTube comedy clip moments [...] there are also these elements of Die Hard. It’s very fast-paced; there’s a lot of action and stage fighting to it.”

“And there are a lot of surprises,” Mott offers.

“Yes, be prepared for surprises,” Sharkey menaces, before breaking down into laughter.

The two-day train journey from Singapore to Bangkok offers many delights including a variety of local – sometimes rather pungent – delicacies, as Christine Finn discovered.

One of the biggest questions before a long train ride is about eating. by that I mean not only what food there will be, but whether there will be any at all.

On long-distance trains in America, Japan, China and Siberia, I feasted on delicious finds en route, but journeys like these always start with a stock-up of unfamiliar snacks at the station kiosks.

In Singapore’s art deco terminal, bound for Bangkok, I spied something unusual: durian flavoured popcorn.

Now, the durian is a fruit which provokes abject delight or utter disgust. its pungency is legendary: a mixture of cheese, onions, sherry, rotting meat and drains.

Author Anthony Burgess wrote that it was “like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in a lavatory”. the celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain described it far worse: “Like French-kissing your dead grandmother”. Oddly, he is still a huge fan.

So potent is the aroma from its large, fleshy lobes that the green, spiny fruit is banned from hotels, hospitals, planes and most other public transport, trains included.

Novices, like me, start the relationship cautiously.

I first sampled it as an ice-cream flavouring. so how could I resist durian popcorn? I bought one of the luridly coloured packets, tucked it into my bag and started my two-day journey.

Spicy rice

The first part of my trip to Bangkok began on the jungle train, which burrows through the heart of Malaysia to the east coast.

Rail aficionados love the west-coast route from Singapore via Butterworth and Kuala Lumpur, a journey through British colonial history.

But I fancied fewer rubber plantations and more mystery.

I clambered into my second-class sleeper.

It was comfortable but the upper berth was a little cramped for a picnic of snacks, so I went in search of spicy rice in the dining-car.

Back in my bunk, night fell quickly and the train powered into the dark, as Rudyard Kipling’s jungle tales worked on my imagination.

The dawn barely broke through the dense vegetation.

Sitting in the dining car with mugs of teak-coloured tea and fresh papaya, time flew by in a jungle tunnel.

We reached the end of my first line at Wakaf Bharu, and the durian popcorn was still intact in my rucksack.

Off the train and to the border by taxi.

Thai green curry

I crossed into Thailand on foot.

At Sunghai Kolok station, I bought a ticket for the afternoon train to Bangkok. it was a long wait, I was hungry and the durian popcorn was burning a hole in my bag.

But the prospect of something freshly cooked was suddenly more compelling. I walked into town and feasted on Thai green curry, watching the world go by.

Back on board, I had joyfully snagged a lower bunk in second class.

“Dinner?” A young Thai man with a long pony-tail and eyes made up like a peacock’s tail came to my seat with a menu.

It was one of my most enjoyable train meals ever, memorable also because this time armed guards were patrolling past my plate.

The previous month a train had been targeted by terrorists. but my tensest moment was a light one: a soldier got his rifle trapped in my compartment door and we shared a nervous smile.

Later an attendant – with a magician’s flourish – conjured my seat into a single bed, with fine white cotton sheets and a thick white throw as seen at boutique hotels.

I smiled “goodnight” to the woman across the compartment, drew the curtain and slept better than I have in many a stationary bed.

Dawn broke on villages, paddy fields and limestone crags. Children were walking to school, motorbikes coursing across the landscape. Soon we were cruising up the east coast of Thailand, in sight of the sea.

Fishy porridge

We were running two, maybe three, hours late.

My fellow-travellers were getting tetchy and I was getting hungry. I searched for the durian popcorn.

But I wondered whether I should risk unleashing this incendiary flavour.

As I deliberated, the train stopped at a station full of hawkers bringing food onboard.

“Try!” said a fellow passenger pushing a bowl of fishy porridge into my hands.

Glutinous rice, shrimps and spicy green vegetables. delicious.

I arrived at Bangkok station still reclining on my white-draped sofa-bed. I had promised myself a Thai beer and the noodle classic, pad Thai, before heading for my plane.

Three weeks later, back in England, the durian popcorn is still unopened.

I gave it to a friend and it has pride of place on his mantelpiece. He loves the lurid illustration on the packet and is waiting for an occasion to open it.

But he has never heard of durian. so, how much should I tell him?

How to listen to: From Our own Correspondent

Radio 4: Saturdays, 1130. second weekly edition on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only)

World Service: see programme schedules

Download the podcast

Listen on iPlayer

Story by story at the programme website

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Dozens of tearful mourners clungto each other in the gray autumn chill yesterday asTottenville High School senior Janine Brawer was laid torest in Ocean View Cemetery, Oakwood.

some 1,600 people attended her wake over the weekend.

Ms. Brawer, 17, of Eltingville, died Thursday withoutregaining consciousness after she was struck by a car onNov. 13 as she crossed a dangerous stretch of Luten Avenueafter an early school dismissal.

Rabbi Lester Polonsky of Temple Israel, Randall Manor, ledfamily and friends in prayer at Ms. Brawer’s graveside,with her father and mother, Sandy and Robin, sobbing in atight embrace afterward.

Rabbi Polonsky said he had counseled Ms. Brawer’sloved ones to, in the days ahead, “surround themselveswith friends and family, to try to look beyond the tragedyof her death and to look at her life and the special bond oflove they shared.” he advised her fellow students”to look to each other for strength.”

Earlier, Ms. Brawer’s father and her brother, Seth,gave moving eulogies at a service in the Bedell-PizzoFuneral Home, Tottenville.

Calling Ms. Brawer “my princess,” Sandy Brawersaid her “loss is a hurt which has no boundaries.”He said his daughter was “high-spirited, determined andcaring,” and recalled how she would call for him fromher crib just to say, “I love you, Daddy.”

Seth Brawer called his sister his “companion andpartner in crime” and said he was proud of her”courageous” decision to be an organ donor, a wishthat tragically came to pass all too soon.

“Every brother should be blessed with a sister likeJanine,” he said.

Ms. Brawer, a straight-A student with a flair for the arts,was involved with her school’s “Sing”production. the program, which was held last weekend, wasdedicated to her memory.

Ms. Brawer suffered head and internal injuries after beingstruck by a car driven by a Tottenville student who hadstopped to let her cross Luten. that car was struck frombehind by another car, also driven by a Tottenville student,and the force of the impact pushed the first car into Ms.Brawer. No charges have been filed.

Judy L. Randall is a news reporter for the Advance. Shemay be reached at randall@siadvance.com.

GM Said to see No Saab Bids as Board Nears Shutdown (Update1)

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — General Motors co. doesn’t expect tofind new bidders for Saab and may shut the bankrupt unit afterKoenigsegg Group AB canceled a planned acquisition, peoplefamiliar with the matter said.

Saab’s future will be decided at a Dec. 1 GM board meeting,said the people, who asked not to be identified because thetalks are private. while directors might opt to keep Saab, asthey did with the Opel division this month, GM has a contingencyplan that calls for winding down the brand, the people said.

“They should just get rid of it,” said Tom Stallkamp,industrial partner at buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC, whichwas part of an unsuccessful bid for Opel in Germany. Saab”really doesn’t matter in terms of technology, and there is nosynergy like there was with Opel.”

Closing Saab instead of selling would still help GM achievethe goal of trimming U.S. brands to four from eight whileworking to return to profit after a U.S.-backed bankruptcy. AKoenigsegg sale would have protected jobs at Saab while wrappingup GM’s affiliation with the brand by year’s end.

The collapse of that accord yesterday marked the thirdbrand sale to falter since GM’s July 10 exit from Chapter 11. GMbacked out of the Opel sale to a group led by MagnaInternational Inc., and Penske Automotive Group Inc. withdrew inSeptember from a plan to buy Saturn.

Contingency Plan

GM’s Saab contingency plan is modeled on its blueprint forSaturn, one of the people said. Saab owners would continue to becovered by GM warranties and be assigned to a new dealership forservice, the person said.

“We will take the next several days to assess thesituation and will advise on the next steps next week,” ChiefExecutive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement. “We’reobviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out.”

Earlier today, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding co.,which in September agreed to take a minority stake in theinvestment team set up by Koenigsegg to take over Saab, said ina statement it will “cautiously” reconsider plans to buy astake.

Expected Transaction

Saab had expected the transaction with Koenigsegg Group toclose by the end of this month, pumping in fresh funds tofinance a ramp-up of production of older models and productionof new car types.

The investment group includes Koenigsegg Automotive, makerof the $1.2 million CCXR sports car; China’s Beijing AutomotiveIndustry Holding co.; and Baard Eker, a Norwegian entrepreneur.The team is led by Augie Fabela II, an American who co-foundedRussian mobile-phone operator OAO VimpelCom.

“We’re extremely disappointed. It’s like a plane crash,”Eker said. “Our deadline was Nov. 30 and at one week away werealized that we had so far to go that we weren’t going to makeit, so unfortunately we had to call it a day.”

GM began getting indications of a possible snag over theweekend, and Koenigsegg Group’s board decided on Nov. 23 to backaway, one of the people said.

Koenigsegg Group had sought to obtain in advance all 400million euros ($600 million) of financing approved by theEuropean Investment Bank, while the lender planned to disbursethe funds in tranches, another person said. Rainer Schlitt, abank spokesman in Luxembourg, couldn’t be reached yesterday.

‘End of the Road’

“That’s it, goodnight, goodbye,” said Stephen Pope,chief global strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald in London. “Saabhas reached the end of the road, there’s nothing left in thetank.”

Saab traces its roots to aircraft company Svenska AeroplanAB, founded in 1937 to secure production of Swedish warplanes,and is based in Trollhaettan, a cradle of the country’s 19th-century industrialization. GM bought one half of Saab in 1990and took full ownership a decade later.

Posting losses in most of its years under GM, Saab hadplanned to become profitable by 2012 with annual sales of100,000 cars, according to Christian von Koenigsegg, one of theinvestors in the acquisition group.

Saab got Swedish court protection in February after GM saidit was cutting ties. Koenigsegg won the bidding for the unit inJune, and the European Investment Bank approved a 400 million-euro ($600 million) loan for Saab on Oct. 21 after an initialdelay. Saab had about 4,100 employees as of August.

Koenigsegg’s rivals for Saab included U.S. billionaire IraRennert’s Renco Group Inc. and Merbanco Inc., a group ofinvestors from Wyoming, a person familiar with the process saidat the time.

An aide to Rennert said yesterday that the billionairewouldn’t comment on Koenigsegg’s exit, and a voice-mail messageleft with Merbanco President Chris Johnston wasn’t returned.

At Saab’s peak of popularity in the 1980s, it appealed tobuyers who sought a European brand mixing safety, reliabilityand innovation. while Ford Motor co.’s Volvo championedpracticality, Saab peddled its aviation heritage withturbocharged engines and fighter-jet design elements.

Plunging demand and Saab’s losses made the unit a candidatefor disposal as GM slid toward bankruptcy. U.S. sales slumped 62percent this year through October, with just 513 deliveries lastmonth, and the European total plunged 59 percent. As of Nov. 15,Saab planned to reduce its U.S. dealership body by 37 percent,cutting 81 of 218 dealers.

Inventory Levels

“I don’t think that the inventory levels on Saab are veryhigh, so I would expect that dealers would get no new productsand the company wouldn’t have to heavily discount them to selloff the remaining stock,” said Eric Ibara, director of residualconsulting for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, California.

Saab was among four U.S. brands GM planned to unload aspart of its restructuring to focus on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC andCadillac. The Swedish unit has been unprofitable for most of thetwo decades GM has owned it.

GM dropped Pontiac, had the Saturn deal fail and agreed tosell the Hummer sport-utility vehicle brand to China’s SichuanTengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery co., pending regulatoryapproval.

“You feel sorry for the guys at GM, because they just needto get Saab, Saturn and Hummer off their plate,” saidRipplewood’s Stallkamp, a former Chrysler Corp. executive.”Suddenly GM has all these leftovers when what they really needto do is start cooking a whole new meal.”

To contact the reporters on this story:Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at Jgreen16@bloomberg.net;Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net;Katie Merx in Southfield, Michigan, at kmerx@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: November 25, 2009 01:02 EST

• Last Updated: November 21. 2009 12:30AM UAE / November 20. 2009 8:30PM GMT

Float through any social event with Ms fast facts. This week John Mather explains Where the Wild Things Are

THE BASICS Where the Wild Things Are is a childrens picture book by Maurice Sendak. First published in 1963, it has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. the film adaptation will be released this week in the UAE.

THE CHILDS VIEW Max upsets his mother, is sent to his room without dinner, goes to a fantasy world of monsters, becomes their king, returns home and finds dinner waiting for him – still hot; pretty much an ordinary day in a childs life, with monsters.

THE ADULTS VIEW The books plot has more layers and nuance; in other words, its more adult. Critics have hailed the 338-word book as a brilliant examination of childhood anger. it can, apparently, be read through both a Freudian and Jungian perspective to reveal fundamental truths about emotions. the films screenwriters, Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, have expanded these themes into a darker reflection on childhood. as a result, the film has been criticised for neglecting the assumed target audience – children – in favour of their parents, but this might also be the result of early test screenings when children reportedly left cinemas crying.

THE CONVERSATION Lets play a game of reinventing other childrens classics. take Goodnight Moon, for instance. its really about communism: by saying goodnight to her possessions, a child casts away consumerism, unaware of the cold darkness that comes with night.

Goodnight Dad is a monologue read by illustrator and writer Mike Payne, with all net profits donated to the Yellow Ribbon Foundation (yellowribbon.org.uk)

How many times have we looked at the news on television, and thought to ourselves, I wish I could do something!

When Mike Payne, illustrator, writer and creator of the iconic Tatty Teddy from me To You Bears, and the Charlies Ark range of audiobooks saw a news item on Sky News about another soldier being killed in Helmand Province, he did do something. He is hoping that it will generate much-needed funds for the Yellow Ribbon Foundation, which spreads awareness of and support for the British Armed Forces and their families and loved ones back home.

Mike, 65, from Worthing, was formerly a professional actor. In his acting days, he often performed an old-time music hall monologue written by Martyn Herbert and Herbette Jordan. Mike wanted to do something that would both raise funds for the Yellow Ribbon Foundation and to make people stop and think – rather than just casually hear another tragic piece of breaking news.

Mike remembered the monologue, adapted it for todays climate and recorded it. Partnering with AUK Records, Mike decided to release the single as a digital download with all profits going to the foundation. In the monologue, Mike tells the emotional story of a father who is close to his son, with the son joining the army and being detailed to Afghanistan. It is a highly emotional piece, and has a non-political message about the emotional effect of losses of forces personnel.

When the Yellow Ribbon Foundation were approached with Mikes proposal for the single, they felt it was wonderful, very emotional, and gave the perfect message that tied in with the aims of the foundation. Victoria Evans, director of the Yellow Ribbon Foundation, said This is an excellent way for us to get our message across, and we hope many people will buy this not only to support the foundation, but also to appreciate the human cost of conflicts on the families of our brave armed forces personnel.

With more sad news of deaths in Afghanistan every day, it is hoped that the public will pick up on this single release, and download it to express non-political support for the men and women of the British Armed Forces.

Goodnight Dad is available from all major digital download sites, and all profits are being donated to the Yellow Ribbon Foundation.