World Briefs

A flamboyant Finnish businessman said yesterday he aimed to build a full-sized copy of the Titanic on dry land, housing a hotel and restaurants to lure tourists to northern Finland.

"There are no tourist attractions in the Oulu region and I think it could attract tourists from abroad," Toivo Sukari said.

Mr Sukari, who runs a furniture store chain and has built a huge shopping centre in Finland near Tampere, said he was putting together a plan for another shopping centre in Kiiminki, 630 kilometres north of Helsinki.

The copy of the doomed ship, which sank in April 1912 killing some 1,500 passengers and crew, would be 269 metres long and 28 metres wide and would be built next to the shopping centre to cater for tourists and exhausted shoppers.

"It could have a hotel and a number of restaurants inside," Mr Sukari said.

Building the copy of the Titanic would cost between €30 and €40 million but according to plans, the new shopping mall and the Titanic copy would be open for business in November 2011. (AFP)

Woman shackles herself to husband

An American woman handcuffed herself to her sleeping husband in an apparent attempt to resolve an argument, but police ended up breaking into their home and charging her with assault and other crimes.

Helen Sun, 37, handcuffed herself to her husband Robert as he slept in their Fairfield, Connecticut, home last Monday in an effort to reconcile their differences, police said. But when her husband called the police with his mobile phone, his wife responded by biting him on the arms and torso. Police officers heard screams when they arrived at the home and had to force their way in the woman had also changed the locks on their bedroom door.

Helen Sun was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment and unlawful restraint. She was released on a $400 bond. (Reuters)

'Killer' SMS rumours

The Egyptian government has sought to dispel rumours that a mobile phone text message "from unknown foreign quarters" is spreading around the country and killing those who receive it. The extraordinary move by Egypt's health and interior ministries follows press reports that an SMS containing a special combination of numbers killed a man in Mallawi, south of Cairo.

"He died vomiting blood, followed by stroke, shortly after he received a message from an unknown phone number," the Egyptian Gazette reported yesterday.

"The number begins with the symbol (+) and ends with (111)," it said.

An "official security source" was quoted by the official Mena news agency as denying that those who receive the SMS "get splitting headaches followed by brain haemorrhage that leads to death."

"These rumours contradict all scientific facts," the statement said. (AFP)

Recession hits Santa's Lapland

Pounded by the global recession and facing a sharp economic contraction in 2009, Finland said last Tuesday it would sell its stake in Santapark, home to Father Christmas, to local investors.

Finland said it would sell its 32 per cent stake to Santa's Holding Oy, which will also buy shares in the Lapland-based park from the city of Rovaniemi and travel firm Lapin Matkailu Oy to take its stake to 56 per cent. A handful of Finnish investors own the remaining shares.

National broadcaster YLE said the new owners planned to slash sales and marketing costs at the park, which has struggled financially since opening in 1998, and raise annual sales to €2 million from €1.5 million.

Finland said earlier it expected a five per cent drop in the economy this year, and a contraction of 1.4 per cent in 2010. (Reuters)

China fights gerbil plague

Authorities in China have resorted to using a contraception-abortion pill to rein in a plague of gerbils which is threatening the local desert ecosystem, state media said yesterday.

Forestry officials in Changji, Xinjiang region, distributed the pellets to curb the exploding gerbil population because the gerbils' large burrow systems in the Gurbantunggut Desert had begun to damage the root systems of the few plants that can survive in the area, while also damaging local agriculture. The pellets contain a specially developed contraceptive and an abortion drug.

Du Yuefei, head of the epidemic prevention section, said the drug has "little effect" on other animals but after pellets were scattered near burrows last year, a noticeable drop in gerbil population density was noticed. Mr Du said the project could be extended to deal with rodent problems elsewhere. A female gerbil can give birth to a new litter every three months. (AFP)