Since 1927 Finnish legend has it that Santa Claus, or "Joulupukki" as he is known there, lives in a cabin atop the nearby Korvatunturi mountain.

SantaSport, SantaFood, SantaPark, Hotel Santa Claus, Santa Hair Center: in the Finnish Arctic town of Rovaniemi Father Christmas is everywhere, milked to the max by local businesses.
“Christmas tourism is a magnet for investments,“ says Tuula Rintala-Gardin, the head of tourism for the municipality of Rovaniemi, a town of 60,000 people built on the geographical Arctic Circle, wrote AFP.
Since 1927 Finnish legend has it that Santa Claus, or “Joulupukki“ as he is known there, lives in a cabin atop the nearby Korvatunturi mountain.
But it was only in the mid-1980s that Rovaniemi launched itself as the home of the “real“ Father Christmas.
The town has since fended off fierce competition from towns staking the same claim in Sweden, Norway, and Greenland, and appears to have emerged victorious.
Twenty years later, Santa now rakes in 235 million euros ($345 million) of direct and indirect revenue for the region of Lapland.
The windfall is crucial, as Rovaniemi suffers from high unemployment amid a population flight to more urban areas. People in the region live off forestry and mining industries, reindeer herding and niche sectors such as Bombardier snowmobile production.
“Our strategy counts on almost double the number of tourists 10 years from now,“ said Erkki Kautto, the director of business development at Rovaniemi city hall.
Rumor has it that city officials have tried to get the European Union to declare Rovaniemi “the official home of Santa Claus“, though they have denied it, saying that with growth of seven to 10 percent per year they have no need for such a title.
Santa Claus’ Village, open year-round, attracts some 340,000 visitors each year from Finland and abroad.
The site is made up of about 20 log cabins housing restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops, as well as the main attractions, Santa Claus’ Office and his official post office, which receives 500,000 letters and wish lists from around the globe each year.
“Twenty-five family businesses employ 60 people in full-time jobs and twice as many in winter, accumulating sales of 12 million euros,“ said Jarmo Kariniemi, the owner of Santa Claus’ Office.
His business is profitable, he said, yielding sales of 2.5 million euros in 2008.
Inside, sitting on Santa’s knee is free but a picture or video taken with him costs 30 to 45 euros. The gift shop also offers an assortment of products, including stuffed toy teddy bears or reindeer “Made in China“ sold for 25, 30 or 35 euros depending on the size.

Some 500 foreign tourists visit the grim execution sites every day.

The number of foreigners visiting Cambodia’s “Killing Fields“ has more than doubled from last year due to growing public interest in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, an official said.
Up to 500 foreign tourists are visiting the grim execution sites on an average day, compared with 200-300 per day in 2006, said Ros Sophearavy, deputy director of a private company running the fields.
“The increase could be related to the arrest of Khmer Rouge leaders,“ she told AFP.
“People hear about the Khmer Rouge tribunal and that must have prompted tourists to visit the Killing Fields,“ said Ros Sophearavy.
Visitors will see a 17-story stupa, or tower, that houses some 9,000 skulls of people killed during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal 1975-79 rule in Choeung Ek, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Phnom Penh.
Many people were executed in Choeung Ek and buried in pits by the ultra-communist regime.
Up to two million people were executed, or died of starvation and overwork as the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia’s cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, one year after Cambodia first sought the United Nation’s help in setting up a genocide tribunal to try regime leaders.
Established in July 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN, the joint Cambodian-UN tribunal seeks to prosecute crimes committed by senior Khmer Rouge leaders.
So far five top Khmer Rouge leaders, including the regime’s former foreign minister Ieng Sary, have been detained to face charges for crimes committed by the regime.

Imam Mosque (Masjed-e Imam) is a mosque in Isfahan, Iran, standing in the southern side of Naghsh-e Jahan Square. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution it was called Shah Mosque.
Built during the Safavid period, it is an excellent example of Islamic architecture of Iran, and regarded as the masterpiece of Persian architecture, said Wikipedia.
The Imam Mosque of Isfahan is one of the everlasting masterpieces of architecture in Iran and the world.
It is registered along with the Naghsh-e Jahan Square as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its construction began in 1611, and its splendor is mainly due to the beauty of its seven-color mosaic tiles and calligraphic inscriptions.
The port of the mosque measures 27 meters high, crowned with two minarets 42 meters tall. The mosque is surrounded by four iwans and arcades.
All the walls are ornarnented with seven-color mosaic tile. The most magnificent iwan of the mosque is the one facing the Qibla measuring 33 meters high.
Behind this iwan is a space which is roofed with the largest dome in the city at 52 meters height.
The dome is double layered. The acoustic properties and reflections at the central point under the dome is an amusing interest for many visitors.
There are two seminaries in the southwest and southeast sections of the mosque.
Architects of the mosque are reported to be the following masters: Ostad Ali Akbar Isfahani, Ostad Fereydun Naini and Ostad Shoja’ Isfahani.
The mosque is one of the treasures featured on Around the World in 80 Treasures presented by the architecture historian Dan Cruickshank.