World Briefs

What should be put on the site of a massive Nazi-built airport that once helped save West Berlin from the Soviets? Housing? Museums? A red light district? No, it needs a phantom mountain, says architect Jakob Tigges.

After years of debate over its future, the Berlin state government decided in November to turn a big chunk of the airfield into a 250-hectare park, but locals like Mr Tigges are still hotly disputing how best to protect the iconic site.

Mr Tigges's tongue-in-cheek plan for a 1,000 metre-high mountain was one of 80 proposals entered into an international competition over how to develop an area on the edge of the future park. A winner is due to be announced in May.

Mr Tigges said Berlin risks ruining the central landmark where the Western Allies staged an airlift to defy a Soviet blockade in 1948/49 - and hopes his vision of a mountain for the overwhelmingly flat city will give developers food for thought.

Cruise ship stuck in ice

A cruise ship carrying nearly 400 people has been stuck in thick ice in the St Lawrence River in eastern Canada for over a day, but passengers are nonetheless having a "festive" time, the company that owns the vessel said yesterday.

The ship, CTMA-Vacancier, chartered by a group travelling from Montreal to the Gaspe Peninsula for a cross-country skiing trip to celebrate the 475th anniversary of the region's settlement, is now inching through the heavy ice, said Leonard Arsenault, a spokesman for MTMA Group.

A Canadian coast guard icebreaker that was already in the area, tried to assist the ship, but was also having difficulty getting through the thick ice, Mr Arsenault said.

He said the 300 passengers, along with a crew of nearly 100, were in no danger and that there was plenty of food on board.

Maintenance dodgers face passport ban

British parents who refuse to pay child maintenance could have their passports and driving licences confiscated without a court order, under tough new laws aimed at cleaning up the welfare system and cutting costs.

The Welfare Reform Bill, which was debated in Parliament yesterday, also seeks to nudge single parents and people with health problems into employment and to make the long-term unemployed work for their state benefits.

"For those who choose not to support their own kids, we will not stand by and do nothing," said Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell. "If a parent refuses to pay up then we will stop them travelling abroad or even using their car."

'Toilet poems' to save paper

Poetry in the loo can cut down on paper use too, says a Japanese group campaigning to save toilet paper as part of the country's battle against global warming.

Simply pasting a "toilet poem" at the eye level of a person seated in the cubicle can help cut toilet paper use by up to 20 per cent, a study by the research centre Japan Toilet Labo showed.

"That paper will meet you only for a moment," reads one poem. "Fold the paper over and over and over again," says another. Or just: "Love the toilet".

Toilet paper use in Japan has been increasing in recent years, according to an industry body, possibly because of a rise in the number of public toilets, where people tend to use more paper. "It's because it's free," said an official at the Kikaisuki Washi Rengokai. "At home, people are more inclined to scrimp."

Rare reptile a dad at 111

New Zealand's most celebrated centenarian, a rare reptile known as Henry, has discovered his mojo and become a father for the first time at the age of 111.

Henry the tuatara, a lizard-like creature of prehistoric origin, has become the father of 11 offspring over the past four days, staff at the Southland Museum in the southern city of Invercargill said yesterday.

Henry once had a reputation for aggression and was not interested in sex, but he turned his life around after a cancerous growth was removed from his bottom.

He mated last March with Mildred, 31 years his junior, who laid 12 eggs in June with 11 surviving.

"It's the completion of a love story," museum tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley said.

The 1.2-kilogram, 60-centimetre-long Henry, who had been known to attack female tuatara before his operation, was now living with three females "in great harmony" and was expected to mate again this year, Ms Hazley said.

Playing cricket on Everest

Two teams of cricket-mad Britons vowed yesterday to take the sport to new heights by playing on Mount Everest in the world's highest-ever match.

The two teams are to make a nine-day expedition in April to Gorak Shep, a plateau 5,165 metres above sea level near the Everest base camp, for the record-breaking Twenty20 charity game.

England captain Andrew Strauss is the honorary skipper of Team Tenzing, while England vice-captain Alastair Cook is doing likewise for Team Hillary.

Self-confessed "cricket obsessive" Richard Kirtley dreamed up the Everest Test idea during a trip to the world's highest mountain in 2006. He saw Gorak Shep, thought it resembled The Oval cricket ground in south London, and resolved to set up a match.

The expedition leader said the game would go ahead on April 21 no matter what the conditions - clear blue skies or a blizzard.