'Palace of Happiness' to beat crisis

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan has found an original way of coping with the global financial crisis: if your people are sad, build them a "Palace of Happiness".

The ex-Soviet republic said yesterday that it would build the palace as part of over $1 billion's worth of construction projects to beautify the capital Ashgabat and make it more liveable.

"President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a series of documents under which several important community structures will be built in Ashgabat at a cost of over one billion dollars," state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan wrote.