World briefs
Titanic ticket is on display
The only remaining first class ticket for passage aboard the Titanic has gone on display.
Originally belonging to the Reverend Stuart Holden, a vicar from London, the document is on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic shipwreck.
Rev Holden was set to travel to New York on board the doomed ship but had to pull out the day before it sailed from Southampton on April 10, 1912, because his wife had fallen ill. The lucky priest, who was the vicar of St Paul’s Church in Portman Square, London, later had his ticket framed and kept it above his desk until his death in 1934.
Although it belongs to the museum the ticket is not usually on display due to its sensitivity to light.
Flu jab and narcolepsy
Swine flu vaccine may have been responsible for a sudden increase in cases of narcolepsy among schoolchildren in Finland, a study has found. The sleep disorder is characterised by periods of extreme drowsiness, sudden naps, and paralysis attacks.
Scientists spotted a sudden increase in narcolepsy rates among Finnish children early in 2010. Research showed it was associated with the Pandemrix vaccine, given to children to protect them against H1N1 swine flu.
One study found that the incidence rate of narcolepsy among children and teenagers under the age of 17 shot up 17-fold after the vaccinations. In contrast, the incidence rate for adults over 20 was unchanged.
Body in suitcase
Police in Russia’s Saint Petersburg yesterday launched a murder investigation after a suitcase containing the corpse of a woman was found at a local playground.
The police were alerted by residents after they found a suitcase in the courtyard of their building. Inside it there was the body of a woman of about 70 years of age. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the body had no signs of violent death or any documents. Police are already investigating another gruesome discovery in Moscow after a street cleaner came across a suitcase with the decapitated body of a woman inside, whose hands had been tied behind her back.