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Ahoy! Swede builds giant pirate ship in his garden

A Swedish man has found Facebook fame after pictures of a giant pirate ship he built for his children when he was on sick leave from work went viral on Friday.

Ahoy! Swede builds giant pirate ship in his garden
This picture of the boat has more than 14,700 likes on Facebook. Photo: Private

When Niklas Andersson from Hedemora in central Sweden went home ill early from work a few weeks ago he quickly became bored.

What did he do? Read a book? Watch television? Potter around on his laptop?

No, none of the above. He built a giant pirate ship for his children.

“At first I thought I might build a skiff (a small rowing boat) but then I though that I might build a ship,” he told Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet.

“It took probably three weeks in total, although I didn’t work on it every day.”

Andersson, a construction worker, used old wood from the demolition of an old part of his house. He didn’t use sophisticated tools either.

“I had a hacksaw, hammer and some nails. Building it was a bit like therapy.”

When it was finished, his sister Josefin asked Niklas if she could post some images of the ship on the Facebook group “Upcycle More”, on which users post pictures of house projects built using old material.

By Friday afternoon the picture had logged more than 14,700 likes.

Niklas told The Local on Friday afternoon that he had no more plans for extravagant maritime-themed building projects.

“The kids love to play in it but I have no plans for anything apart from ordinary house renovation,” he said.

NORWAY

Norway Uni pulls coronavirus message citing ‘poorly developed’ US health system

One of Norway's leading universities has been forced to change a message warning overseas students of the US's "poorly developed health services", after it was dragged into a storm of criticism on social media.

Norway Uni pulls coronavirus message citing 'poorly developed' US health system
Norwegian University of Science and Technology is one of Norway's leading universities. Photo: NTNU
Over the weekend, the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology posted a message on its Facebook page for its students on international postings,  advising them to heed the latest advice from Norway's foreign ministry on the coronavirus pandemic, and return back to Norway. 
 
“This applies especially,” the message said, “if you are staying in a country with poorly developed health services and infrastructure and/or collective infrastructure, for example the USA.” 
 
But on Monday, after a storm of social media criticism, the message was changed, stripping out all mention of the US. 
 
Anne Dahl, communications advisor for the university's rector, told state broadcaster NRK that the university had decided to change the post because the furore was distracting people from the serious underlying message. 
 
“We do not want the expression of a single phrase to overshadow important information, so the specific wording about the US was removed,” she wrote in an email. 
 
The original wording was quickly picked up by Twitter commentators in the US. 
 

It then got viral news coverage, with both conservative outlets like Fox News, and left-of-centre newspapers like the UK's Independent picking up the story. 
 
Several people flocked to the original post to attack the university in the comments. 
 
 
 
 
The post was then changed on Monday to remove all reference to the US. 
 
 
 
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