Calling Deuce Bigalow and gigolos everywhere: Heidi Fleiss needs you. The former Hollywood madam plans to open a ”rooster ranch” — a brothel catering to women — in Nevada. ”I am opening up a stud farm,” Fleiss told the Associated Press. ”I’m going to have the sexiest men on earth. Women are going to love it.”

The United States has detained more than 80 000 people in facilities from Afghanistan to Cuba since the attacks on the World Trade Centre four years ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The disclosure comes at a time of growing unease about Washington’s treatment of prisoners in its ”war on terror” and Europe’s unknowing help in the CIA’s practice of rendition.

A ”plan for life” could help save the life of a teenager with suicidal thoughts or tendencies, says Roshni Parbhoo of the SA Depression and Anxiety Group. Parbhoo told the South African Press Association that teenage suicide is becoming more common in South Africa especially at this time of the year.

The Bush administration’s counter-attack against critics of the Iraq war reached a ferocious new pitch on Thursday after Dick Cheney accused Democrats of dishonesty and lacking ”backbone”. Democrats reacted furiously but George Bush stood by his vice-president, reflecting the White House view that to salvage his embattled presidency he had to defend his decision to go to war more aggressively.

Iran is facing political paralysis as its newly elected president purges government institutions, bringing accusations that he is undertaking a coup d’état. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s clearout of his opponents began last month but is more sweeping than previously understood and has reached almost every branch of government.