Problem Child

Christmas was just two days away and snow was falling when the five factory girls finished their shift. They'd been working for 12 hours, it was already after 1 a.m., and their dorm was freezing cold. One of them ran out to grab a bucket and some burning coal. The room warmed slightly. They drifted off to sleep. The next morning, none of them woke up. They had been poisoned by the fumes. But their parents believe at least two of the girls died much more horrible deaths.

British supermarket giant Tesco may soon be bidding bon voyage to its American problem child. Five years after the company landed in California and opened 200 stores across the West, Tesco said it is preparing to sell its struggling Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain and retreat from the U.S. market altogether. "It's likely, but not certain, that our presence in America will come to an end," Tesco Chief Executive Philip Clarke during a Wednesday conference call from Los Angeles.

When the responsibilities of being a young father and the pressures of college course work begin to weigh on Frank Agnew, he sometimes finds himself taking the long way home. It leads him to a place from his past--a nondescript, concrete apartment complex in a quiet neighborhood of Fullerton, across a narrow street from a schoolyard.

Cable's USA Network will add two new shows to its "Cartoon Express" this fall: "Problem Child," a half-hour animated series loosely based on the movie of the same name, and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," a series based on the adventures of the nursery rhyme's spider as he avenges injustice. Frank Welker, who portrayed Itsy in a seven-minute theatrical short based on the rhyme, will provide the voice of the title character in the latter show.

Living up to its advance billing as the winter's best rental title, "Die Hard 2" entered the Billboard chart at No. 2--one of the most impressive debuts in years. Starring Bruce Willis as a cop trying to foil a terrorist plot in Washington, the movie grossed more than $113.5 million. Look for it to climb to the top next week and probably reign until "Ghost' hits the chart at the end of March. The rise of "Young Guns II" to the top this week is a surprise.

In the Top Five of the Billboard magazine rental chart, where change is usually slow, suddenly there's a new policy: out with the old and in with the new. The new leader, "Die Hard 2," is one of three movies that jumped into the Top Five after just two weeks on the chart--"Navy SEALS" (No. 3) and "Problem Child" (No. 5) are the others. "Dick Tracy," "RoboCop 2" and "My Blue Heaven" were swept out of the Top Five.

Drag boat racing, absent from Long Beach Marine Stadium for 20 years, will return Sunday as part of the Long Beach International Sea Festival Regatta. Four blown alcohol hydros, capable of reaching speeds of more than 210 m.p.h. in five seconds, will participate in a drag racing exhibition designed to revive interest in the sport at Marine Stadium, where it was banned 20 years ago because of excessive noise.