Summary: The project led by the Young Church Association aims to integrate more physical activity into young people's daily lives.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland wants to inspire young people to get more exercise, and is starting clubs to help get them moving.
 The project, which starts at the end of October, aims to get 1,000 young people who currently undertake little physical activity to work out regularly in their daily lives. The target group is adolescents aged 15 to 18 years old.
 "The idea is to increase physical activity as part of the parish’s other activities," project coordinator  Markku Autio  said.
 The project led by the Young Church Association was initiated following recent studies that reveal that  youth in Finland are not exercising enough.
 According to Autio, the goal is to allow anyone to participate in outdoor or indoor sports that don’t need special equipment. He said that he hopes the young people themselves will come up with ideas on the kind of activities that can be taken up.
 The parishes of Kuopio, Varkaus and Kajaani will launch the project simultaneously at the Partaharju Camp Center in Pieksämäki on 26-27 October. The pilot phase will also be adopted by a few parishes in Helsinki. There are plans to launch similar sports clubs in several other parishes early next year.

Church to start exercise clubs to get youth moving


Summary: Homicides committed by drunks make up a greater proportion of total killings in Finland than elsewhere in the Nordic region.

Kriminologian ja oikeuspolitiikan instituutti (Krimo)

Drunk men killing people remains a distinctive feature of Finnish criminal offences compared to other Nordic countries, according to a fresh analysis by researchers from across the Nordics.
 "The relationship is such that if alcohol was eliminated, in practice violence would be eliminated," said  Martti Lehti  of the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (Krimo).
 The data show that between 2007 and 2016, suspects were drunk in 75 percent of all homicides in Finland. The corresponding figure in Sweden was 42 percent.
 Story continues after graphic.

 The study suggests that if homicides involving alcohol occurred in Finland with the same frequency as they did in Sweden during the period researched, it would mean one fewer person killed for every 100,000 people. Or in other words, an average of fifty fewer homicides per year.
 In 2017, the proportion of homicides perpetrated by drunken men fell to under half the total recorded during the study period. This was the first year on record in which inebriated males did not represent a majority of suspects in homicide cases.
 The total number of killings also decreased, and in 2017 stood at half the figure in the worst years since 2000.
 Story continues after graphic.

 In most western countries the number of homicides has declined over the last decade, and that has occurred in Finland too. However, that downward trend has stopped within the last two years. The reasons vary from country to country.
 "In Sweden, gang violence in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö is the clear reason," said Lehti. "In Denmark, killings within the home have become more common."
 In Finland, the number of homicides perpetrated by someone under the influence of alcohol rose last year after the decline until 2017.

Report: Finnish killers likeliest in Nordics to be drunk


Summary: Parents in Kontula, eastern Helsinki will pay 16.70 euros for the same photo set that costs Kaivopuisto residents 2.60.

An Yle analysis has found wide variations in prices paid for annual school and daycare photos in Helsinki, with residents of well-to-do areas sometimes paying significantly less for the service than parents in less prosperous parts of the city.
 The investigation examined the result of Helsinki’s decision to open up a competitive bidding process to select suppliers for photo services to more than 300 schools and daycares across the city.
 Extensive bidding process
 Yle reviewed the procurement material and found that the tender asked potential suppliers to send offers to provide photo services to roughly 70 schools and more than 250 early years education centres, such as daycares and playground clubs.
 Altogether 24 firms participated in the bidding and submitted offers for a standard photo package that included a class or group photo, a single portrait of the child and an additional smaller series of portraits. The schools and daycares had been divided into 39 areas.
 The bidders were allowed to study historical data showing the areas where parents most often ordered school photos. The best areas for business included districts with many schools and daycares and where well-income families tended to live.
 The firms bidding for the contracts sometimes aimed to secure contracts for more profitable areas by offering low prices for the photo package. In many cases the prices were even loss-making, however firms such as Kuvaverkko said that they expected to make a profit off other merchandise such as mugs, pillows, larger portraits and fabrics bearing children’s photos.
 Lowest prices often in affluent areas
 The result of the extensive bidding process was that 10 photography firms were assigned different zones where they could sell their services. More than half of the bids (14) were rejected because the offers did not conform to tender requirements.
 Yle found that the outcome of the tender process however, was wide price swings for the same photo set across the city.
 The cheapest photo package containing a class photo, portrait and portrait series at a Helsinki school cost 1.60. At its most costly, the same package purchased at a Helsinki daycare came in at nearly 17 euros.
 Yle’s analysis showed that photo package prices were very low in school and daycare areas where firms submitted tenders with loss-making prices – typically in affluent neighbourhoods and districts with large schools.
 The city’s procurement process was no different from many other public tenders, where the lowest-priced bids tend to win supply contracts.
 Kontula photos six times pricier than in Kaivopuisto
 Parents of toddlers in Helsinki daycares are likely to pay more than the guardians of school-aged children for their photos, the Yle probe found. However there were also distinct price differences depending on whether or not the photo set was for a toddler or primary school student.
 For example a family from Kontula, eastern Helsinki, with a child in daycare, would pay more than six times more for the photos than a family resident in central Helsinki’s swank Kaivopuisto district.
 In addition to Kontula families, parents from areas such as Jakomäki, Puistola and Suutarila – all in eastern Helsinki – would have to fork out 16.70 euros for the set of photos.
 By contrast, families with addresses in Kaivopuisto, Eira, Lauttasaari and Töölö in central and western Helsinki would pay 2.60 for precisely the same set.
 City official: Process partly "missed the mark"
 Yle reached out to Helsinki department head  Liisa Pohjolainen , who is responsible for the city’s school and daycare operations to ask her opinion on the outcome of the tendering process.
 "We decided that a tender had to be done. It is a bit complicated but in my opinion we had quite a good result. We got several suppliers and prices fell," she said.
 Deputy mayor  Pia Pakarinen , who is reponsible for education admitted that the tender process partly missed the mark.
 "Of course in part because the end result was so unequal in different areas. It shows price differences between small and large daycares as well as between small and large schools. And to some extent there i´s a regional split. We would have hoped that there wouldn't be such large differences," Pakarinen noted.
 Below is a list of the cheapest and priciest photo sets for schools and daycares in Helsinki. Parents of children in other institutions pay prices that fall between the two extremes.
 LOWEST PRICES FOR SCHOOL PHOTOS – 1.60 EUROS
 Hietakumpu elementary school
 Hiidenkivi primary school
 Jakomäki primary school
 Karviaistie school
 Latokartano primary school
 Maatulli elementary school
 Malmi primary school
 Pihlajamäki elementary school
 Pihlajisto elementary school
 Puistola primary school
 Puistolanraiti elementary school
 Pukinmäenkaari primary school
 Siltamäki elementary school
 Suutarinkylä primary school
 Tapanila elementary school
 HIGHEST PRICES FOR SCHOOL PHOTOS – 7 EUROS
 Hertsikka elementary school
 Herttoniemenranta elementary school
 Kulosaari elementary school
 Laajasalo primary school
 Outamo school
 Poikkilaakso elementary school
 Porolahti elementary school
 Roihuvuori elementary school
 Santahamina elementary school
 Sophie Mannerheim school
 Tahvonlahti elementary school
 LOWEST PRICES FOR DAYCARE PHOTOS – 2.60 EUROS
 Lokki–Silkkiuikku, Melkko–Särki, Pajalahti–Veijari, Päiväpirtti–Vaahtera, Ratikka–Topelius, Ruoholahden lastentalo–Jaala, Saukko, Telkkä–Lunni, Kampinmalmi–Lauttasaari–Töölö
 Aleksi–Luotsi, Alppimaja, Eira–Haukka, Franzenia, Kaisaniemi, Kaisla–Kaleva, Kaivopuisto–Onnela–Tähtitorni
 HIGHEST PRICES FOR DAYCARE PHOTOS – 16.70 EUROS
 Herttoniemi, Ilomäki, Jollas–Poikkilaakso–Puuskakulma, Kulosaari–Santahamina, Laivakello–Ranta, Merituuli, Nalle–Tahvonlahti, Porolahti–Tammisalo, Roihuvuori–Strömsinlahti, Satama, Siilitie, Tuorinniemi, Yliskylä, Kaakko
 Fallpakka–Laakavuori, Haikara–Ruuti, Humikkala–Mellunkylä, Inari–Jousi–Kuovi, Kivilinna–Portti, Kontula–Kurki, Lammikko–Pihapirtti
 Leipuri–Tuulimylly, Liinakko–Loimi–Varhela, Myllymetsä–Neulanen, Myllynratas–Myllytupa, Nalli–Sakara, Saana–Tunturi, Itäkeskus–Marjaniemi–Myllypuro
 Alppikylä–Suurmetsä, Himmeli–Perttu, Kaskisavu–Pentinkulma, Klaara–Vihtori, Kotilo–Naava
 Kumina–Pikkuprinssi, Minttu–Neilikka, Nurkka–Savotta, Seulanen–Vaskiniitty, Jakomäki–Puistola–Suutarila

Yle analysis: Some affluent parents will pay less for school, daycare photos than lower-income Helsinki residents


Summary: In her dissertation, researcher Nafisa Yeasmin looked at factors that negatively impact northward migration.

Nafisa Yeasmin , a Doctor of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland, was named Academic of the Year 2019 by the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT) on Friday.
 In her doctoral dissertation completed last year, Yeasmin explored factors that negatively impact migration to Northern Finland. The study showed that many immigrants feel socially isolated from the majority population.
 "My research explored immigrant issues, particularly in Finnish Lapland and the kind of support migrants need to integrate into a society which needs to be more inclusive. I hope this award will bring attention to this subject and spark conversations around it so that policymakers also view it as an important issue," Yeasmin told Yle News.
 Yeasmin, who moved to Rovaniemi from Bangladesh in 2006, is the project manager of the Aim2Work initiative at the university's Arctic Centre. The project, backed by the European Social Fund, aims to motivate small and medium-sized companies to support individuals with immigrant backgrounds and to help the long-term unemployed enter the job market.
 The selection panel said the award is not only a sign of high scientific merit, but also reflects the FUURT union’s diversity.
 "This year, we emphasise our international nature. The status of international researchers at Finnish universities and in Finnish society is one of the cornerstones of our work and we will continue to build a better future for all academics in Finland," FUURT President  Maija S. Peltola  said when presenting the award at Aalto University in Espoo.
 Yeasmin’s research focuses on topics such as sustainable entrepreneurship, immigration, integration, regional development, and social inclusion. She has written dozens of articles on these topics for professionals, the academic community and the general public.
 The social activist said she strives to use her research findings to bring about real world change.
 "I'm working towards making policy recommendations on the wellbeing of immigrant youth in schools and the integration of immigrant women into Finnish society," Yeasmin added.
 Yeasmin is a member of the government-appointed Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (Etno), a member of a working group focused on immigration matters appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and an active member of the monitoring committee of Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (Amif) managed by the Interior Ministry.

Finland's Academic of the Year looks to improve immigrant employment in Lapland


Summary: Authorities seized more than 800 illegal pills as well as weapons at the Finnish-Swedish border.

Swedish and Finnish authorities said on Friday that they had seized weapons and drugs in a major drugs bust on the border between the two countries.
 Customs and border guard from the two countries conducted a major joint surveillance operation in October to combat cross-border crime at the border crossing between Tornio, Finland and Haparanda, Sweden.
 More than 800 illicit tablets were seized in the operation, including ecstasy and amphetamines, as well as cannabis. Authorities also seized several weapons and a large amount of ammunition.
 Detective Inspector  Tuomo Seikkula  from the Finnish police said there were about 20 Finnish suspects involved, and that three Finns had been detained in relation to the operation.
 "Some of the suspects are connected and this is a link between organised crime and cross-border crime. But some of the suspects are individual players. It's not about identifying an individual organisation, but about street surveillance of drug crime," Seikkula said.
 Martin Petersson  from Swedish Customs described it as a success.
 "This was a unique investment in surveillance in the sense that the presence of authorities in both countries was significantly increased in Haparanda," Petersson said in a press release.
 Swedish Customs also said that this was the largest operation ever carried out on the shared border with Finland.
 The operation involved 40 customs officers, Finnish and Swedish police officers as well as prosecutors from both countries.
 "When authorities of both countries are in the same joint patrols, they can effectively exchange information and expertise, " Seikkula added.

Finnish and Swedish customs bust drug smugglers in joint operation


Summary: More than 40,000 households faced blackouts overnight.

A storm that struck Finland’s west coast on Friday evening knocked out power to thousands of customers around Finland overnight.
 As of Saturday morning some 6,500 homes were still without electricity.
 The areas worst affected were Satakunta including Pori, Tampere and he rest of Pirkanmaa, Ostrobothnia, Central Finland and Savo. Shortly after midnight, the electricity was off in about 42,400 households.
 Jörgen Dahlqvist  of Finland's largest electricity distribution system operator, Caruna, tells Yle the firm has raised staffing levels to respond to the disruptions.
 Warnings for Saturday, too
 On Saturday the storm is moving off towards Russia. Winds are diminishing but may still topple trees.
 The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has issued warnings for the entire country.
 In eastern Finland, it predicts strong southwesterly winds with strong gusts of 15-20 metres per second.
 In Northern Lapland there is a warning of strong winds from the northeast. Gusts of 15 metres a second may fell trees and cause electricity outages.
 There is also a traffic alert for poor road conditions due to snow or sleet in North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu and Lapland.
 It is also blustery on all maritime districts. On south-western sea areas, the FMI warns of very rough seas with significant wave height of more than four metres and gale-force winds of 19 metres per second. By Sunday only southern sea districts will still have brisk winds.
 Dahlqvist says that Caruna expects to complete all repairs on Saturday. He reminds people to stay away from downed power lines and not to try to remove fallen trees from electric lines themselves – but to instead notify their power utility.

Storm cuts off power to thousands of homes, heads east on Saturday


Summary: The foreign minister says that Finland and the EU are working daily to resolve the status of citizens at the camp.

Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  says that the Turkish offensive in northeast Syria has not significantly affected the al-Hol detention camp, where those being held include  Finnish women and their children . They are believed to be family members of so-called Islamic State (Isis) combatants.
 "Conditions at the camp are stable at the moment. But it cannot be a permanent state of affairs that there are underage children at the camp," Haavisto said on the Yle current affairs programme Ykkösaamu on Saturday.
 The foreign minister stressed that Finland and the EU are working on a daily basis to resolve the situation of their citizens at the camp.
 "We don't have armed force or any other power to get these people out of there. If people come out of there, they must be able to do so safely. There are neighbouring countries that consider at least the adults to be criminals as they have acted within Isis," he said.
 Haavisto added that the Kurdish administration in Syria has been informed that the Finnish citizens in the camp have a right to return to their homeland.
 2024 presidential bid? No comment
 Turning to domestic politics at the end of the interview, Haavisto was asked about the 2024 presidential election. He replied that it was too early to comment on that.
 According to a recent survey published by Alma Media, Haavisto, 61, is so far the overwhelming front-runner to succeed President  Sauli Niinistö , whose second and final term ends on 1 March 2024.
 In the poll, former Greens chair and UN official Haavisto garnered 33 percent support. The second-most popular candidate at this early stage was Centre Party veteran and former European Commissioner  Olli Rehn  with 11 percent support. Rehn, 57, took over as Governor of the Bank of Finland last year.
 In the first and only round of this past spring's presidential election, Haavisto came in a distant second to Niinistö, picking up 12.4 percent compared to 62.7 percent for the incumbent.
 In their previous match-up during the 2012 election, Niinistö defeated Haavisto in the second round by a margin of roughly 63 to 37 percent.

Haavisto: Conditions stable at Syrian camp housing Finnish Isis relatives


Summary: A Finnish-led effort to push the EU to stop changing the time twice a year appears to be faltering.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

It's time to get used to darkness falling earlier in the afternoons, with sunset just after 3.30pm in northern Finland.
 Daylight saving time ends in Finland at 4am on Sunday, 27 October. While phones and some other electronic devices automatically make the switch, clocks and other gadgets may need to be moved back an hour in the evening – allowing an extra hour of sleep.
 Whereas Helsinki's sunrise and sunset times on Saturday were 8.27am and 5.43pm, on Sunday they will be 7.29am and 4.38pm.
 In the northernmost municipality of Utsjoki, Saturday's times were 9.11am and 4.39pm, Sunday's corresponding times will be 8.15am and 3.35pm.
 This year's DST dates are the same in Europe, 31 March-27 October. However, in the US and Canada for instance, daylight saving does not end until next weekend, on 3 November. Other countries, including Russia and most of Asia, do not change their time at all.
 Some EU states reluctant to quit DST
 For several years, Finland has been urging the EU to  abandon the daylight saving practice . Last spring, it appeared that the bloc  might drop the system , possibly even during the current Finnish EU presidency term.
 However since then it has become clear that many central and southern European countries remain committed to DST. Meanwhile Ireland does not want to risk being on a different time than its main trading partner, the UK.
 There are also concerns about Europe being split into more than its current three time zones. Finland is now part of the Eastern European Time (EET) zone along with the three Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. Non-EU states in the EET include Ukraine, Moldova and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
 The autonomous Åland islands are the westernmost area using EET in Europe. It and parts of mainland southwestern Finland should in purely geographic terms observe Central European Time (CET) as they lie to the west of 22°30' E, as do parts of the major Estonian islands.
 11:00 Corrected US DST date

Clocks fall back to standard time on Sunday


Summary: The nationalist party's youth faction aims to seek reinstatement of its funding through the courts.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

The Ministry of Education and Culture has rejected the Finns Party youth wing's appeal of its decision to claw back state subsidies. The group had demanded that the ministry reverse its decision last June to cancel this year's funding to the organisation.
 That came in response to a post on the organization's Twitter feed ahead of the 26 May European Parliament election that featured a racist text below a picture of a dark-skinned family. The ministry determined that the message violated the Youth Act and the rules regulating state subsidies to political parties.
 The ministry ordered the group to repay the 57,500 euros it had already received for this year. That was half of the total sum earmarked for the youth organisation this year, 115,000 euros.
 The nationalist party's youth wing had claimed that the ministry's decision "was strongly reminiscent of political discrimination".
 2020 funding to be set in January
 The group has already applied for next year's state subsidies.  Mikko Cortés Téllez , a senior adviser at the ministry, says that decisions on 2020 funding for political parties' youth factions will likely be made in January.
 The youth group still has the right to appeal the latest rejection to the Helsinki Administrative Court. On Friday evening the organisation said it intended to seek reinstatement of its funding through the judicial system.
 The opposition Finns Party  came in fourth  in Finland's European Parliament election, retaining its two seats in the legislature. It garnered 13.8 percent of the vote, one percentage point higher than in the previous EP election five years earlier.

Finns Party youth fail to recoup subsidies cancelled over racist tweet


Summary: The government agenda calls for drug policy reform, but the minister does not see decriminalisation as the way forward.

Minister of Justice  Anna-Maja Henriksson  takes a dim view of a citizens' initiative calling for the decriminalisation of cannabis use.
 On Thursday, the initiative received 50,000 certified signatures from Finnish citizens. That means the document must now be submitted to Parliament for consideration. As of Sunday the initiative had gathered more than 57,000 signatures since being launched last spring.
 Article continues after photo
 Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Lehtikuva
 The wording calls for the decriminalisation of possession, use and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis, with a number of restrictions. It would not however legalise the sale of cannabis.
 "This is a difficult question, an extremely difficult question," says Henriksson, the Swedish People's Party chair who has served as justice minister under three prime ministers.
 She notes that the government programme adopted in June calls in general for reform of the nation's substance abuse policies, but Henriksson does not see the debate over marijuana usage as part of this reform.
 "I do not believe that it is most important to decriminalise the use of cannabis, but rather to [seek] a more effective substance abuse policy," she told Yle.
 Henriksson says she would take a positive view of medical use, but considers youth and the proliferation of drug consumption to be a more essential issue, suggesting that cannabis can be a gateway to harder drugs and more serious problems.
 "Under no circumstances should this perspective be forgotten in this discussion. Additionally, drug use appears to shifting to ever-younger age groups, and not only in large cities. I am concerned about how we can reverse this trend. "Unfortunately I do not believe that this is now the way," says Henriksson.
 Henriksson says that the Finnish government does not feel any international pressure to change its laws in this regard.
 "We do not have any policy outlined in the government agenda that would support this," she adds.
 Meri: "Open to hearing the reasons why"
 The chair of the Legal Affairs Committee,  Leena Meri  of the opposition Finns Party, expects her panel to consider the initiative.
 Article continues after photo
 Leena Meri Jarno Kuusinen / AOP
 This will take time, though, she says, noting that the committee has many other issues to weigh, including two other citizens' initiatives. Meri expects deliberations on the marijuana issue to begin sometime next year.
 She too takes a sceptical view of the document, and declined to speculate on how the committee will see it.
 Article continues after photo
 At 24, Iiris Suomela is the youngest MP. Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 "I have not asked other committee members about their opinions, but I myself inherently take an rather sceptical view of liberalisation of any part of the Narcotics Act – but I am open to hearing the reasons why some would want to do so," Meri told Yle.
 A few politicians from the five government parties, meanwhile, have welcomed the initiative.
 They include MP  Iiris Suomela  from the Greens, who noted in a tweet on Friday that both the World Health Organisation and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) have both recommended an end to criminal penalties for drug use. In February 2018, the THL published a blog post entitled "The punishability of drug use should end" .
 5.08: Corrected Henriksson's status as SPP chair

Justice minister sceptical about cannabis decriminalisation


Summary: Antti Rinne says he aims to calm the debate over climate-related measures.

The government's ambitious climate targets can be achieved without negatively impacting people's everyday lives, says Prime Minister  Antti Rinne .
 This is despite the fact that all possible measures must be sought to fend off global warming, he told Yle on Sunday. Rinne did not directly rule out rationing purchases of petrol and diesel, as  proposed by a panel of economic researchers  last week.
 "Personally, I don't eliminate any alternative before it has been studied and considered whether it would be a good way to move things forward," Rinne said during the traditional 'Prime Minister's Interview Hour' programme on Yle's Radio Suomi on Sunday.
 "Let's make vegetables a bit cheaper"
 One such measure, he said, could be more "climate-friendly" food, as suggested in the government programme adopted in early June. Rinne said that taxes could be lowered on vegetables, but not on meat.
 "I should have said this directly last spring, but I'm saying it now, in other words let's make vegetables a bit cheaper through taxation and leave meat as it is. That's how we'll guide [consumption]," Rinne said.
 Rinne's centre-left cabinet, which took office nearly five months ago, has ambitious goals when it comes to countering climate change, but it has been criticised for a lack of concrete means to attain them.
 Carbon-neutral by 2035
 The PM says that Finland will reach carbon-neutrality by 2035 by cutting emissions from transport and energy production. As he sees it, there is no need to intervene in process industry, or to make major changes in agriculture.
 "They can be realised through the kind of policy where regular people's day-to-day lives certainly change, but not for the worse," Rinne said.
 As decisions are made, corrective decisions can also be made that eliminate social inequalities, he said.
 The premier told reporters that he wants to calm the debate over measures aimed at combating climate change, and that he is confident that the government's goals will be reached.
 "This discussion is now going a bit overboard here and there, spurring fears and uncertainty among regular citizens that their own lives will now immediately be destroyed by measures against climate change," Rinne suggested.
 "In this debate, I'd warn various actors that we don't need to do the kinds of things that would significantly undermine or worsen regular people's daily lives."

Finnish PM seeks lower taxes on plant-based food


Summary: Papers look at Prime Minister Antti Rinne's views on Isis, group chatting outside of work hours and another burning school.

Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  went on national broadcaster  Yle's traditional 'Question Time'  programme on Sunday and spoke on a variety of issues; local daily  Turun Sanomat highlighted a few key topics , among which was Rinne's cautious view on the repercussions of the recent death of  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , leader of terrorist group Isis.
 "The fight against Isis troops is still not over. If these dramatic events are true, the death of the leader effectively raises the risk of retaliatory terrorist strikes," TS quoted Rinne as saying.
 US President  Donald Trump  announced on Sunday that American troops cornered al-Baghdadi in Idlib, Syria where the terrorist leader committed suicide by detonating an explosive, also killing three of his children.
 TS wrote that Rinne saw little chance of the European Union reacting quickly to the developments in Syria due to the EU's principle of unanimity. He said that Finland's view has long been that issues of foreign policy should be decided by majority vote in the EU for faster responses to crises.
 Rinne also touched on other phenomena, such as abolishing daylight savings time in Finland in favour of a permanent 'summer time'. The European Parliament  has already approved a bill  that would put an end to moving the hour hands twice a year in all EU states by 2021. EU governments still have to agree on the proposal.
 "We would have more sunlight in the evenings. The 2021 deadline seems unfeasible," said Rinne.
 Off the clock, on the phone
 The  breakneck pace of working life  and the  stress it can bring  are always hot topics, and one reason is that social media and other modes of online communication may blur the distinction between labour and leisure.
 Daily  Helsingin Sanomat runs a piece  reporting that employee organisations and health professionals alike are worried about the effect of workplace group chats on instant messaging platforms such as Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger taking up precious free time.
 Service workers' union Pam  featured an article  in its members' magazine a week ago that urged employees and employers to seek common rules when it comes to allowing their work to follow them home.
 The health risks of after-hours message floods are also of concern to the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy). Negotiation manager  Riikka Rapinoja  said in HS the union's stance is clear: work should stay at work, and no one should be expected to constantly follow Whatsapp notifications after they've clocked out.
 "Employees contract out their working time to their employers, for which they are paid a salary. This is the deal," Rapinoja said.
 HS wrote that the pressure to stay in group chats can be high even if it isn't an official responsibility. Psychology professor  Ulla Kinnunen  said she does not endorse strict lines between work and leisure time, as working life expands and changes.
 "It goes two ways. Employees might be more inclined than before to sort out personal errands while on the job, as well as work after they've gone home, although spillage in this direction is much rarer."
 Second Nurmijärvi school burns
 The Southern Finnish municipality of Nurmijärvi was shocked early on Monday morning when a local school caught fire. Most Finnish papers,  including Ilta-Sanomat , carried the story of the blaze that firefighters said would take most of Monday to quell.
 Fire chief  Yrjö Jalava  said the Valkjärvi school building would be completely destroyed. The fire department was able to salvage some personal property before the fire expanded out of control. The school used to teach grades 1—6, IS wrote.
 The fire was the second to shock Nurmijärvi in a short period, after the Lepsämä school burned down on Saturday a week before. Police are investigating the Lepsämä fire as arson, while the cause of the Valkjärvi fire is still unknown.

Monday's papers: PM on Isis, after hours texting, schools ablaze


Summary: Ex-hockey forward Janne Puhakka came out as gay on Sunday. Ilves and TPS will play a Pride-themed match in November.

Suomen jalkapallon ensimmäinen divisioona (Ykkönen)

Former elite-level ice hockey forward  Janne Puhakka , 24, came out as the first publicly homosexual Finnish hockey player in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday.
 "It would be ideal if I didn't have to talk about this," Puhakka said. "But as long as people are silent on the subject, we must speak up."
 Puhakka said that LGBTQ subjects are taboo in Finnish hockey, and that he'd wanted to raise the issue while still active in the domestic 'Elite League' (SM-liiga).
 "But I wasn't good enough to have complete security in my job. That brought uncertainty," he said. "I'm sure other players fear the issue because of their jobs, as well."
 Puhakka started in the national under-18 team in 2013 and played 40 matches during his League career from 2015 to 2016. He then played in the second-highest ice hockey league in Finland, Mestis, finishing up the 2017-2018 season in France's Rapaces de Gap team.
 Other Finnish athletes who have come out of the closet include footballer  Tinja-Riikka Korpela , boxer  Elina Gustafsson  and swimmer  Ari-Pekka Liukkonen . Fellow hockey player  Jon-Lee Olsen  of Denmark announced his homosexuality in early October.
 "The hockey world is somehow lagging behind," Puhakka said. "We wouldn't have to go through all this if everyone could be themselves in the locker room. I'm glad if even one junior or professional player finds something positive in this interview."
 Ilves to play TPS in support of gay rights
 Elite league team Ilves out of Tampere will meet TPS on home turf in Turku on 2 November for a Pride-themed hockey match. The event aims to promote LGBTQ rights and equality in Finnish sports.
 Both teams will wear the colours of the rainbow as part of their gear for the special match.
 Ilves and TPS will switch their jerseys to rainbow-coloured ones in November. AOP / Tomi Natri
 CEO  Risto Jalo  of Ilves-Hockey Ltd said that TPS invited his team to take part in the head-to-head.
 Jalo said that no form of discrimination or exclusion is tolerated in Finnish hockey.
 "Playing and spectating should be open to everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, age, gender, religion, background or political views," Jalo said.
 Jalo said that the teams along with the Elite League and other sports organisations are currently working to improve tolerance and equality in the culture.

Ex-hockey player Puhakka comes out as hockey plans rainbow match


Summary: Motorists will have to slow down starting Tuesday.

Winter speed limits take effect for some four months on Tuesday, according to the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA). The new limits will be applicable nationwide by the weekend.
 The maximum highway driving speed falls to 100 km/h, except on road portions where the speed limit changes depending on weather conditions. Such roads may use higher maximum limits than usual until the end of November.
 Changing limits are in effect on Roads 1 and 7 heading west and east out of the capital respectively.
 Speed limits on major roads will fall to 80 km/h or even 70 km/h. The 100 km/h limit will mainly remain in effect on some roads with little traffic, dual carriageways and other main roads where cars driving in different directions are separated by barriers.
 Higher summertime speed limits will take effect once more in March-April, as days lengthen and driving conditions improve.

Winter speed limits kick in


Summary: A problem with the ship's stabiliser system kept more than 2,000 from departing for Helsinki on Sunday evening.

The Silja Symphony passenger ship was unable to depart Stockholm on Sunday evening due to technical problems, according to ferry firm Tallink Silja.
 The company said the vessel's stabilisers, which help to reduce the ship's roll on waves, were not functioning correctly, according to a company press release.
 The ferry was scheduled to arrive to Helsinki on Monday morning, and to leave the Värtahamnen port at 4:45pm local time.
 However, the departure was delayed for hours, and at around 9pm the ferry operator announced that the journey would be cancelled outright.
 About 2,100 passengers were given the option to spend the night aboard the ship.
 The firm said that it rebooked a handful of passengers who had international airline reservations on the Silja Galaxy to Turku, in southwest Finland to ensure they caught connecting flights on Monday.
 Silja Symphony's route from Helsinki to Stockholm on Monday was also cancelled due to the delay, according to the ferry operator.
 The company said it was contacting affected passengers on Monday.
 News outlets Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat previously reported about the cancellation.

Silja Symphony ferry technical issue strands passengers in Stockholm


Summary: China Radio International pulled its 60-percent stake in GBTimes.

Police suspect the Tampere-based media company GBTimes of numerous counts of aggravated fraud.
 The media firm's sister company runs the Radio Classic station, and GBTimes itself publishes China-related articles on its website. The firm was partly funded by the Chinese government in 2012-2017.
 Daily  Helsingin Sanomat published a story  in August where CEO  Zhao Yinong  said the company's purpose was to give Westerners a more varied picture of China, claiming that Western media 'demonises' China with its reporting. News agency STT was unable to contact him or his wife for an interview.
 The now-defunct  Finnish GBTimes website  features a message from Zhao in February of this year, explaining the site's closure. "The difficult decision to close this service was part of adjustments that helps [sic] us refocus our business operations," the release reads.
 Public court records show that Zhao, 58, is suspected of committing aggravated fraud between 2012 and 2016. Police suspect a 56-year-old Finnish man, a representative or advocate for GBTimes, of abetting in aggravated fraud from 2012 to 2015. He has denied the accusations. Police say they have seized more than 700,000 euros from the men's personal property and company assets.
 Head of investigation  Kirsi Silomäki  had no comment on the case.
 Chinese broadcaster withdrew funding
 GBTimes reported a turnover of more than 9.4 million euros for 2018, and profits of less than 274,000. One year earlier the turnover was more than 11 million euros, with gains of some 765,000 euros.
 In 2015 news agency Reuters reported that a sister company of the government-owned China Radio International (CRI) owned 60 percent of GBTimes. At the time CEO Zhao said CRI paid several million euros a year to his company for producing radio programming for a Finnish audience.
 Reuters said that GBTimes has also operated in Italy and Hungary.
 The company's financial statements show that a tax audit was begun in 2017, concerning operations for 2013 to 2018. They also show that CRI terminated its contract in December, 2018, leading to layoffs in January.
 Zhao told HS in the summer he did not know why the Chinese government pulled the funding. The interview included no mention of criminal charges, even though police authorised the seizure of assets in late June.
 Reuters: Pro-China coverage scheme
 Reuters reported in 2015 that GBTimes was part of a network of pro-China news agencies, which are run from Melbourne and Los Angeles as well as Tampere.
 Reuters said the business model is always the same: a Chinese entrepreneur cooperating with the Chinese government establishes a local media outlet, of which a CRI subsidiary owns 60 percent.
 Leading US expert on China,  David Shambaugh   told the Financial Times in 2017  that China spends around 10-12 billion dollars annually on "soft power" or shaping public opinion abroad.
 Zhao told HS that neither GBTimes nor the network were established on a government mandate. Instead, he said the network was his own idea.

Police suspect tax fraud by China-linked Tampere media firm


Summary: A government decision to suspend arms exports to some countries is not reflected in 2018 figures, the watchdog said.

Finnish arms exports totalled around 205 million euros in 2018, according to data gathered by the peace and security non-profit, SaferGlobe Finland. The organisation released figures on Monday indicating that most Finnish ordnance was shipped to the European Union, followed by the Middle East.
 During the period from 2002 to 2013, the main destinations for Finnish arms exports were the European Union and North America, SaferGlobe said. However from 2014 to 2018, the Middle East became either the largest or second-largest annual importer of military materiel from Finland in terms of euros spent. Within that group the most important export destinations were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
 "It's surprising that so little has changed. For some time the Middle East has been a major recipient of arms exports from Finland. Given the sensitive situation in the Middle East and the conflicts going on in Yemen in particular, one would have expected to see some change in 2018 but it wasn't reflected in the figures," SaferGlobe researcher  Kari Paasonen  told Yle News.
 Record exports of naval vessels
 In a statement released on Monday, Paasonen said that the Finnish  government's recent decision to suspend arms export licenses  to countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are not yet reflected in the 2018 analysis.
 "Export licenses granted before the decision were not revoked and many of them are valid for years. The decision to withhold export licenses to these countries will likely show in future statistics as reduced exports to the Middle East," he explained.
 Of total exports last year, war materiel accounted for 128 million euros sold mainly to military or government authorities. Finland also sold nearly 77 million euros in civilian weaponry abroad.
 "Finland has exported a lot of civilian arms for hunting and sport shooting to the United States. This has been the situation for several years. This is not surprising given the big gun culture in the United States," Paasonen told Yle News.
 Overall, the biggest importers of Finnish arms in 2018 were Poland, the United States, Sweden, Turkey, Oman, France and the United Arab Emirates. The value of all arms exports was about the same as in 2016 and 2017, but SaferGlobe noted that exports in 2018 were well above the average for the period 2002 to 2017.
 There were some changes in the overall composition of arms sales in 2018, SaferGlobe said. On average, armoured military vehicles accounted for more than one-third and in certain years past more than half of the value of arms exports. However in 2017 and 2018, military vehicles represented just 15 or 17 percent of the arms trade, respectively. Naval vessels used by the military or other government authorities accounted for a record 12 percent of arms exports in 2018.

SaferGlobe: Middle East still a major importer of arms from Finland


Summary: The court said that while the women supported their adult children, they weren’t entirely reliant on their parents.

Finland’s Supreme Court has ruled that the adult children of  three women who were murdered in Imatra , eastern Finland in 2016, are not entitled to compensation over the loss of earnings from their parents.
 The court pointed out that at the time of the shooting that claimed the women’s lives, none of the children filing for damages relied on their parents to support them financially.
 Three of the women’s adult children had filed a motion to claim a monthly payment of 250 euros with interest for five years, claiming loss of income from their deceased parents.
 Both the district court and the appellate court had previously rejected their claims. Two of the murdered women had been providing financial support to their adult children. The Supreme Court said that the support was not being contested, but it noted that the young people were not reliant on their parents' help.
 In December 2016, a young man shot three women outside the Vuoksenvahti restaurant in Imatra. The victims were the chair of the city council and two local journalists.
 The district court found the defendant guilty on three counts of murder. However he was determined to be of unsound mind and was ordered to undergo compulsory mental health treatment.
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat first reported the Supreme Court ruling on Monday.

Supreme Court rules no compensation for adult children of Imatra murder victims


Summary: Prosecutors charged that 700,000 euros in bribes were given to an executive over the course of several years.

On Monday Helsinki District Court dismissed numerous bribery charges involving a former executive from the HOK-Elanto business cooperative and more than a dozen other defendants, citing lack of evidence.
 At the centre of the major case was the former property director at HOK-Elanto,  Jari Leivo , who faced charges of receiving bribes valued at around 700,000 euros over the course of seven years.
 The bribes were alleged to have been given in the form of sponsorship money for  equestrian sports intended for Leivo's daughter .
 The case was expansive, involving a preliminary investigation that police opened in 2012 and charges being filed in 2016. Prosecutors accused Leivo of accepting bribes from a construction company in exchange for taking on potential projects from January 2005 until April 2012.
 Monday's decision is not yet final, as prosecutors still have the opportunity to appeal the case. But if and when the ruling is finalised and enforceable, the state would be obligated to pay the defendants' legal costs, a total of some 2.3 million euros. The legal costs of Leivo alone amounted to more than 384,000 euros.
 Inadequate evidence, with two exceptions
 Altogether 13 people were accused of giving the bribes, but five of those faced aggravated charges. The defendants worked at several firms, including construction companies Skanska and Caverion Finland, as well as architectural firm Innovarch.
 All of the defendants denied the charges, claiming that the equestrian sport sponsorship was unrelated to the former executive's role at HOK-Elanto. The defendants testified that the payments were not made for their personal benefit.
 The prosecution had demanded that the involved firms face corporate fines, but those demands were also thrown out by the court.
 The court said there was insufficient evidence for convictions to be handed down.
 Prosecutor Tuire Tamminiemi told Yle it's likely she will take the case to the court of appeal.
 However, the court did find a former boss at Skanska - as well as a real estate company representative - guilty of aggravated fraud. The court found that Skanska had made unauthorised payments of around 37,000 euros to the real estate firm, which was a Skanska subcontractor.
 Both of those defendants were handed ten-month suspended jail sentences.

Court dismisses charges in HOK-Elanto bribery case


Summary: Tuesday's press looks at social media’s impact on political speech, troubles abroad for Telia customers, and a delicious-looking dress.

Helsingin Sanomat reports on  criticism by the parliamentary group chairs  of the language being used by politicians, and a warning that social media - particularly twitter - is responsible for a change in how MPs communicate. A number of politicians have been sharply criticised for the language they use both in parliament and on social media, with  three prominent MPs the subject of a recent police investigation .
 Kai Mykkänen  of the National Coalition Party tells HS that MPs seem more concerned with creating attention-grabbing soundbites than serious political debate.
 "The frustrating thing is that the content of the discussion has become more visually appealing and focused on superficial dexterity. The focus is spectacular one minute snapshot, which attempts to make a point in a couple of sentences. I think this has to do with the emphasis on social media," Mykkänen said.
 The paper lists the opinions of each of the party chairs in parliament, revealing a consensus that the political discourse is changing - and social media is to blame. For example,  Antti Lindtman  of the Social Democratic party tells HS that he believes social media encourages people to say things loudly rather than constructively, and this naturally has an effect on politicians too.
 Lindtman has a very concrete - and Finnish - solution to this issue: get the politicians from different parties together over a cup of coffee and discuss what to do.
 Telia troubles
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports that mobile operator Telia’s  roaming service stopped working all over the world  on Monday - leaving thousands of Finnish people currently abroad unable to make calls, send messages or use mobile data.
 Timo Saxén , Senior Communications Advisor at Telia, told IL that the outage was caused by two separate malfunctions which occurred at the same time.
 "In Sweden, a hardware fault occurred early in the day on Monday which affected foreign traffic. At the same time, there was a physical malfunction in the backup route cable," Saxén told the tabloid.
 As Telia’s international traffic passes through Sweden, customers were left without service for a number of hours until Telia fixed the problem late last night.
 Good enough to eat
 Tabloid Iltalehti reports from the Helsinki Liquorice Festival which took place over the past weekend, and  especially an eye-catching (and mouth-watering) dress  designed by Jyväskylä-based artist  Maaria Salminen .
 Salminen tells IL that the dress took over 100 hours to make and required about 6 kilograms of liquorice - although she admits that a few pieces of the material may have been eaten along the way.
 There is a video accompanying the article, which shows the dress in all its glory, and the artist also tells IL that her future plans include a dress made from playing cards.

Tuesday’s papers: Changing political discourse, roaming problems, and a liquorice frock


Summary: The government has earmarked a total of 5.8 million euros for the agency in a supplementary budget proposal.

The government plans to advance 4.7 million euros to the Finnish Immigration Service, Migri, to fund operations to the end of the year. An additional 1.1 million euros has been set aside for developing the agency’s IT systems.
 The Interior ministry said in a release on Tuesday that the additional spending is meant to ensure no further delays in residence permit processing between now and the end of the year.
 "Migri processes have developed significantly, but the measures taken have not been able to respond to the growing number of study and work permit applications," the ministry said in the release.
 Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to confirm that government would be allocating funds to the cash-strapped organisation and that the planned two-week furlough would not be implemented.
 "We are safeguarding Migri’s resources to the end of the year. We are proposing supplementary spending of 4.7 million euros for operations and 1.1 million euros for ICT development. Permit processing has been preserved, layoffs are not needed," Ohisalo wrote.
 Nearly three weeks ago, the agency indicated it was set to  reduce staffing by 10 percent , mainly by letting fixed-term employment contracts lapse.
 The announcement came as Migri faced broad criticism for delays in processing  residence permits for international students  as well as for  foreign workers in Finland .

Migri to get €5m, end-of-year layoffs cancelled


Summary: One person was killed and ten were wounded during the attack at a Vocational School in Kuopio in early October.

The government has included an additional 1 million euros in its supplementary budget to provide ongoing support to those affected by the  Kuopio Vocational School attack in early October  in which one person was killed and 10 were injured.
 If the proposal is accepted when the budget is put to parliament in December, the Ministry of Education and Culture will receive 400,000 euros, while a further 600,000 euros will be allocated to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
 The government wants the money to be used to ensure that those whose lives and activities were affected by the tragedy receive the necessary psychological support and appropriate treatment.
 "The goal is to restore mental balance and maintain working and functional capacity at the individual, family and community levels," the government press release stated.
 The funding will be used to recruit psychological support professionals, ensure adequate services are provided in student and occupational health care, and increase the number of teaching staff and mentors.
 The government further announced that any costs incurred by the Vocational School relating to be incident will be reimbursed.
 One person was killed and 10 others were injured  during the attack at Savo Vocational College , located in the premises of the Herman shopping centre in Kuopio, on October 1. Two people were seriously injured, one of them was the suspected attacker, who sustained injuries when he was shot in the leg by police.
 The suspect,  a Finnish student with no previous criminal record , has been arrested and is expected to face one murder charge and nine attempted murder charges.

Govt earmarks €1m for Kuopio attack aftercare


Summary: The press today reports on the emergency situation facing Finland's healthcare centres, the big annual reveal of who earned how much in 2018, and the start of winter.

On Monday Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reports that there is a crisis facing healthcare centres in Finland.
 According to the Finnish Medical Association (FMA), health care centres are experiencing their biggest crisis in history largely because funding for healthcare centres has remained at the same level for the last 15 years although demand for healthcare services has dramatically increased.
 “The longer one lives, the more chronic illnesses arise, ”  Samuli Saarni , president of the FMA, told the paper, referring to the impact of an ageing population on healthcare costs.
 In recent years, healthcare centres have also been given added responsibilities including specialised medical care, which means aftercare and follow-up duties that were previously handled elsewhere.
 More work, same budget
 Healthcare centres’ portion of the total healthcare bill was 20 percent of the overall medical budget in 2000, whereas now it’s at 13 percent. In terms of euros, healthcare centre funding is at the same level as it what is in the 2000s, writes HS.
 According to Saarni, the number of doctors has not increased on par with the larger workload – for example, in the last 15 years 4,200 new doctors have entered the workforce but only 330 of them have gone to work in healthcare centres.
 Doctors are now responsible for extra paperwork, including renewing electronic prescriptions and these time-consuming tasks take away from the time they spend with patients.
 “The current set-up doesn’t support doctors spending as much time as possible with patients,” Saarni told HS.
 As a result of the backlog, which has caused long line-ups for medical appointments, both patients and doctors have gone elsewhere. About 1.1 million people living in Finland have now opted for private medical insurance, according to HS. Every second child has private medical insurance, which means that they don’t need to use the public healthcare centres. Despite this, the public healthcare centres are still under strain.
 Public healthcare centres have lost experienced doctors and gained more young doctors (those under 30 and those between 30-39) have increased.
 “As a result, burnout by young doctors at healthcare centres is more common and not surprisingly,” Saarni told HS.
 The new government announced in October that it has earmarked an additional 70 million euros for healthcare centres to address the crisis in an effort to decrease wait times, and hire additional doctors.
 The rich get richer
 All the papers have extensive data, stories and background on the release of 2018's tax data.
 Iltalehti was early, reporting ahead of Monday morning’s official announcement by the tax authorities of who Finland’s top earners were for the 2018 tax year.
 IL reports that real estate mogul Jethro “Jeti” Rostedt earned more than one million euros last year. His official earnings were 1, 056,071 euros, a significant increase over the previous tax year when Rostedt earned 670, 800 euros.
 The realtor, a familiar face from many TV shows, told the paper that the money he’s earned has required a lot of hard work and he’ll continue “to work with humility.”
 Winter on its way
 Meanwhile, Ilta-Sanomat, the sister tabloid of HS, reports that the weather will be wintry weather throughout the country on Monday, with temperatures in many regions below zero degrees Celsius.
 Ilta-Sanomat reports that it will be windy in southern and central regions, and in southern Lapland.
 In the country’s southern and central regions temperatures will be between 0-5 Celsius, and between minus 10 and 15 degrees in Lapland.

Friday’s papers: Finnish health centre crisis, big earners, and wintry weather in store


Summary: Latest figures show a steady year-on-year increase, as drug prevention network criticises under-funded services.

The number of drug-related deaths in Finland is on the increase, according to a report by the  Network for Preventive Substance Abuse Work . Last year, 188 people died from drug overdoses, 21 more deaths than in 2017.
 This increase is in line with a wider trend which has seen a sharp rise in drug-related deaths in recent years. In 2005, for example, there were only 72 reported deaths from drug overdose in Finland.
 In many municipalities, substance abuse services are severely under-resourced and difficult to access, CEO  Ron Furman  said in a statement released by the network, and called on policy makers to take more action.
 "There is cause for concern about drug-related deaths, as almost all of them are preventable," Furman said, "However, deaths among drug users have been viewed as a necessary evil in which there has been no political motivation to intervene."
 "Still a taboo subject"
 The gender distribution of drug users in Finland follows the wider European trend: a clear majority, up to 75 percent, are men. Drug poisoning is the second most common cause of death in men under 40 in Finland, second only to suicide.
 "Drug deaths affect ordinary people and families," said  Heli Saavalainen , whose son died of drug abuse at the age of 26. "Drug deaths have to be talked about because drug addiction is still a taboo subject. Unfortunately, drug death is often treated with prejudice as if it were deserved."
 Finland has the seventh-highest number of drug-related deaths in the EU relative to population, according to a report released earlier this year by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
 Another report, released by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in June, found that there had been a  marked increase in the use of intravenous drug use  in Finland over recent years, with amphetamine, methamphetamine and buprenorphine becoming especially popular.

Drug deaths rising in Finland


Summary: So far 70 people have applied for -- and received -- permission to be excluded from a public list of high income earners.

This year for the first time, individuals will be able to withhold their earnings and tax data from a list of high income earners released by the Finnish Tax Administration.
 The list, which contains the tax and income information of people who earn 100,000 euros or more is typically handed over to news media and published in what has become known as  a kind of national day of envy .
 However new EU data protection regulations and expanded national data privacy laws that came into force at the beginning of the year mean that people can now request that their names and income information be dropped from public lists.
 Officials will still have discretion over whether or not to comply with such requests. The agency has said that it will agree to withhold the information in the event of "special personal circumstances".
 Tax administration senior adviser  Noora Kontro  said that "special circumstances" could mean something financial, health-related or security-related, for example.
 70 requests approved so far
 So far about 100 taxpayers have applied to take advantage of the opportunity to conceal their income and tax data from public lists. Kontro said that 70 have been processed and all have been approved, although in some cases the agency has asked for additional information relating to the request. She declined to comment on the specific reasons that applicants gave for withholding their data.
 Kontro did acknowledge however one of the reasons was that the publication of such information provided an opening for criminal activity.
 She added that being listed among the top earners in the country could create pressure in a small town, for example.
 While Yle is one of the media organisations that requests the list of high-income earners from Vero every year, it only published the top 1,000 people on the list, and regular workers rarely end up on it.
 Data still available from tax office
 Kontro speculated that in the years ahead, more individuals will ask to be removed from the public list. She added that the exception only applies to the list delivered to media organisations. Everyone’s income and tax information is still available from the tax office.
 "Our view is that the list we provide to the media is an additional service. There is still openness and transparency given the fact that it’s possible to get the information by asking at the tax office," she noted.
 "Processing these exception requests is rather time-consuming and if the number grows we will have to think about how we process them," she added.
 The tax official pointed out that in the past, people have asked to be removed from the public list, but it wasn’t possible then.
 Requests to be excluded from the public list of top earners must be handed on to the tax administration before it is published on 4 November.

New laws allow top earners to hide income data from "tax day" lists


Summary: Helsinki Regional Transport also wants to raise the penalty for travelling without a ticket from 80 to 100 euros.

Helsinki Regional Transport's (HSL) board of directors said on Tuesday that it had confirmed fares for next year that will see no price increases. Instead, the board agreed to a proposal to  reduce fares for long-distance customers .
 In particular, discounts will be granted to commuters travelling across three and four zones of the capital's transportation network. A trip from Helsinki city centre in Zone A to the airport in Zone C, for example, will cost 50 cents less next year than it does this year.
 The purpose of the change is to make public transport more appealing in areas where service uptake is weak, explained HSL department head  Mari Flink.
 "The price level for longer journeys is now clearly higher than for two-zone journeys. When we consider the purchasing power in these municipalities, the price level has been a bit too high," Flink said.
 Story continues after graphic.
 Zonal map of the Helsinki Regional Transport network.  HSL
 The price reductions are estimated to slash HSL revenues by 6.9 million euros next year. However, the company's overall turnover will remain several million euros higher than estimated in the preliminary action and financial plan published late last year.
 As part of that plan,  HSL introduced new fare zones  as well as a fare hike in the cheapest one-way ticket to 2.80 euros. Flink said that HSL will not reduce the price of the cheapest one-way ticket.
 "I can't promise that those prices will be lowered. We still have a high price difference between the two zones and longer distances," Flink said.
 Story continues after table.
 How the prices compare:
 Single tickets

Story continues after table.
 Season tickets
 Fare's fair as fare-dodging fine set to increase
 HSL's board of directors also proposed increasing the fine for traveling without a ticket from the current 80 euros to 100 euros, which would be the first time the penalty has been raised in 10 years.
 HSL argued that the increase is justified as it would be more comparable with the sanction in the metropolitan areas of other Nordic cities.
 The final decision on this and tother price changes will be made by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

HSL confirms lower long-distance commuter fares in 2020


Summary: Parents in Kontula, eastern Helsinki will pay 16.70 euros for the same photo set that costs Kaivopuisto residents 2.60.

An Yle analysis has found wide variations in prices paid for annual school and daycare photos in Helsinki, with residents of well-to-do areas sometimes paying significantly less for the service than parents in less prosperous parts of the city.
 The investigation examined the result of Helsinki’s decision to open up a competitive bidding process to select suppliers for photo services to more than 300 schools and daycares across the city.
 Extensive bidding process
 Yle reviewed the procurement material and found that the tender asked potential suppliers to send offers to provide photo services to roughly 70 schools and more than 250 early years education centres, such as daycares and playground clubs.
 Altogether 24 firms participated in the bidding and submitted offers for a standard photo package that included a class or group photo, a single portrait of the child and an additional smaller series of portraits. The schools and daycares had been divided into 39 areas.
 The bidders were allowed to study historical data showing the areas where parents most often ordered school photos. The best areas for business included districts with many schools and daycares and where well-income families tended to live.
 The firms bidding for the contracts sometimes aimed to secure contracts for more profitable areas by offering low prices for the photo package. In many cases the prices were even loss-making, however firms such as Kuvaverkko said that they expected to make a profit off other merchandise such as mugs, pillows, larger portraits and fabrics bearing children’s photos.
 Lowest prices often in affluent areas
 The result of the extensive bidding process was that 10 photography firms were assigned different zones where they could sell their services. More than half of the bids (14) were rejected because the offers did not conform to tender requirements.
 Yle found that the outcome of the tender process however, was wide price swings for the same photo set across the city.
 The cheapest photo package containing a class photo, portrait and portrait series at a Helsinki school cost 1.60. At its most costly, the same package purchased at a Helsinki daycare came in at nearly 17 euros.
 Yle’s analysis showed that photo package prices were very low in school and daycare areas where firms submitted tenders with loss-making prices – typically in affluent neighbourhoods and districts with large schools.
 The city’s procurement process was no different from many other public tenders, where the lowest-priced bids tend to win supply contracts.
 Kontula photos six times pricier than in Kaivopuisto
 Parents of toddlers in Helsinki daycares are likely to pay more than the guardians of school-aged children for their photos, the Yle probe found. However there were also distinct price differences depending on whether or not the photo set was for a toddler or primary school student.
 For example a family from Kontula, eastern Helsinki, with a child in daycare, would pay more than six times more for the photos than a family resident in central Helsinki’s swank Kaivopuisto district.
 In addition to Kontula families, parents from areas such as Jakomäki, Puistola and Suutarila – all in eastern Helsinki – would have to fork out 16.70 euros for the set of photos.
 By contrast, families with addresses in Kaivopuisto, Eira, Lauttasaari and Töölö in central and western Helsinki would pay 2.60 for precisely the same set.
 City official: Process partly "missed the mark"
 Yle reached out to Helsinki department head  Liisa Pohjolainen , who is responsible for the city’s school and daycare operations to ask her opinion on the outcome of the tendering process.
 "We decided that a tender had to be done. It is a bit complicated but in my opinion we had quite a good result. We got several suppliers and prices fell," she said.
 Deputy mayor  Pia Pakarinen , who is reponsible for education admitted that the tender process partly missed the mark.
 "Of course in part because the end result was so unequal in different areas. It shows price differences between small and large daycares as well as between small and large schools. And to some extent there i´s a regional split. We would have hoped that there wouldn't be such large differences," Pakarinen noted.
 Below is a list of the cheapest and priciest photo sets for schools and daycares in Helsinki. Parents of children in other institutions pay prices that fall between the two extremes.
 LOWEST PRICES FOR SCHOOL PHOTOS – 1.60 EUROS
 Hietakumpu elementary school
 Hiidenkivi primary school
 Jakomäki primary school
 Karviaistie school
 Latokartano primary school
 Maatulli elementary school
 Malmi primary school
 Pihlajamäki elementary school
 Pihlajisto elementary school
 Puistola primary school
 Puistolanraiti elementary school
 Pukinmäenkaari primary school
 Siltamäki elementary school
 Suutarinkylä primary school
 Tapanila elementary school
 HIGHEST PRICES FOR SCHOOL PHOTOS – 7 EUROS
 Hertsikka elementary school
 Herttoniemenranta elementary school
 Kulosaari elementary school
 Laajasalo primary school
 Outamo school
 Poikkilaakso elementary school
 Porolahti elementary school
 Roihuvuori elementary school
 Santahamina elementary school
 Sophie Mannerheim school
 Tahvonlahti elementary school
 LOWEST PRICES FOR DAYCARE PHOTOS – 2.60 EUROS
 Lokki–Silkkiuikku, Melkko–Särki, Pajalahti–Veijari, Päiväpirtti–Vaahtera, Ratikka–Topelius, Ruoholahden lastentalo–Jaala, Saukko, Telkkä–Lunni, Kampinmalmi–Lauttasaari–Töölö
 Aleksi–Luotsi, Alppimaja, Eira–Haukka, Franzenia, Kaisaniemi, Kaisla–Kaleva, Kaivopuisto–Onnela–Tähtitorni
 HIGHEST PRICES FOR DAYCARE PHOTOS – 16.70 EUROS
 Herttoniemi, Ilomäki, Jollas–Poikkilaakso–Puuskakulma, Kulosaari–Santahamina, Laivakello–Ranta, Merituuli, Nalle–Tahvonlahti, Porolahti–Tammisalo, Roihuvuori–Strömsinlahti, Satama, Siilitie, Tuorinniemi, Yliskylä, Kaakko
 Fallpakka–Laakavuori, Haikara–Ruuti, Humikkala–Mellunkylä, Inari–Jousi–Kuovi, Kivilinna–Portti, Kontula–Kurki, Lammikko–Pihapirtti
 Leipuri–Tuulimylly, Liinakko–Loimi–Varhela, Myllymetsä–Neulanen, Myllynratas–Myllytupa, Nalli–Sakara, Saana–Tunturi, Itäkeskus–Marjaniemi–Myllypuro
 Alppikylä–Suurmetsä, Himmeli–Perttu, Kaskisavu–Pentinkulma, Klaara–Vihtori, Kotilo–Naava
 Kumina–Pikkuprinssi, Minttu–Neilikka, Nurkka–Savotta, Seulanen–Vaskiniitty, Jakomäki–Puistola–Suutarila

Yle analysis: Some affluent parents pay less for school, daycare photos than lower-income Helsinki residents


Summary: On Wednesday the papers in Finland cover healthcare reforms, dangerous prisoners and HJK Helsinki’s terrible season.

The Centre Party re-entered government despite losing a lot of support at the last election partly to ensure that their cherished regional administrative reform would be enacted, but that goal now looks to be in trouble.
 To recap, this is the model by which  health and social care services  are organised under 18 regional authorities, rather than municipalities as is currently the case. The current model has no obligation to open up services to private providers, as the last government’s did, but retains the regional organisation that was regarded as inefficient by experts.
 The 18 bodies are expected to be dominated by Centre Party politicians, as the party is strong in rural areas and hopes to do well in elections to these authorities.
 However Iltalehti  reports  on Wednesday that the project is now in trouble.
 Savonlinna municipality has decided that it will organise its ‘sote’ services with North Savo, rather than South Savo as envisaged under the planned reforms. That would leave South Savo’s regional authority with a much smaller population, drastically reducing the hoped-for efficiency savings.
 That prompted two Centre Party ministers,  Jari Leppä  and  Hanna Kosonen , to send a letter to Savonlinna outlining their concerns for the wider reform.
 Decision-makers in the town were unmoved: they felt that was a price worth paying to preserve their current hospital and keep the highly-paid jobs associated with it in their town.
 This is the core of the problem with ‘sote’ reform. Local authorities want to keep their services as local as possible, but efficiency savings by and large come when hospitals and health centres are brought together.
 Solving that puzzle has occupied several governments in a row in Finland, as  demographic changes make the task ever-more urgent .
 Lifers with no parole?
 Finland has a famously lenient criminal justice system, with an emphasis on rehabilitation for even those guilty of the most horrific crimes.
 There are currently around 200 prisoners serving life sentences in Finnish jails, with the average ‘lifer’ getting out after 14 and a half years.
 They are eligible for parole after 12 years and can be freed for trial periods to test their ability to handle the outside world.
 But what to do with those prisoners incapable of reform? That’s the question Helsingin Sanomat  asks  on Wednesday, publishing an extensive feature focusing on  Michael Maria Penttilä , a  Helsinki man known as the ‘serial strangler’  and the only Finnish murderer defined by the FBI as a serial killer.
 He has strangled three women and one 12-year-old girl since his first killing in 1983, and is regarded as being unable to control his urges.
 He is eligible for parole in 2030 for his latest killing, which occurred in 2018 and was the first to be regarded by the courts as murder rather than manslaughter.
 HS interviews  Hannu Lauerma , Chief Psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Hospital for Prisoners, and he says there are at least five prisoners in Finland so dangerous that they should not be released.
 He does not however support a ‘life means life’ approach, where courts would designate some lifers as never to be released. Instead he says the situation should be assessed every few years to take account of changes in prisoners’ mental states.
 HJK horror show
 Finland’s biggest football club HJK Helsinki have had a terrible season. They did not qualify for European competition next year, they were out of the title race early in the autumn and their big budget players under-performed.
 In response the club is organising a  live chat online  on Wednesday, in which the club’s senior figures will answer questions from fans about their under-performance.
 Ilta-Sanomat  publishes  an opinion piece ahead of that forum in which  Juha Kanerva  outlines why he thinks the blame lies with former Crystal Palace midfielder and current HJK CEO  Aki Riihilahti .
 Kanerva argues that Riihilahti is not regarded as a collaborative figure at HJK and has a say in all decisions affecting the club. That reduces the freedom afforded his coaching staff and has a detrimental effect on coaching.
 It remains to be seen whether that issue will be addressed in the live chat, but fans of rival clubs will no doubt enjoy observing the post-mortem.

Wednesday’s papers: Sote stress, dangerous lifers and a HJK post-mortem


Summary: The men are suspected of charging another Iraqi man 4,500 euros for a forged French passport.

Two Iraqi residents in Finland are suspected of organising the illegal entry of individuals into the country. Finnish Border Guards also found in the men’s possession several photographs of passports that had either been reported stolen or missing.
 The men are suspected of acquiring a forged French passport for another Iraqi man. Officials believe that that passport came from a man living in Malaysia.
 The suspected offences came to light when Russian border officials barred the man from travelling from St. Petersburg to Helsinki in the Allegro train on 22 May.
 The man had presented to the officials the forged French passport as the travel document entitling him to free movement within the Schengen region.
 Russian authorities later found out that the man had arrived in Moscow one day earlier, on 21 May holding an Iranian passport with an authentic Russian visa.
 Several photos of European passports
 A preliminary investigation by the southeast Finland Border Guard unit determined that the Iraqi man who tried to enter Finland from Russia had paid about 4,500 euros for the forged French passport.
 Authorities found on the suspects’ phones several photographs of European passports that had been reported as stolen or missing.
 One of the suspects has been remanded into police custody. The case has been handed over the eastern Finland district prosecutor’s office for consideration of charges.

Border Guards suspect two Iraqi men of people smuggling


Summary: This week we’re asking if Finland needs to start taxing flights to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Is flying too cheap?
 That’s what one group of activists argues as they campaign for Finland to introduce a tax on flights. The idea is that if it costs more, people would fly less often--and that aviation is currently under-taxed compared to other modes of transport.
 "If we want to fly then we should fly less and pay the price that it is actually costing us both in monetary costs and the environmental costs that will eventually be paid by future generations," said  Oona Blom  from the flight tax campaign. "That's a harder price than a couple of euros for flying now and adjusting our way of life now."
 It’s a valid concern. Although aviation only accounts for about four percent of all warming activity, according to the Finnish state’s innovation fund Sitra,  aviation is growing at a rate of five percent each year .
 That means it is on course to double in 15 years as people in poorer countries become accustomed to the kind of lifestyles westerners have been enjoying for decades.
 People living in Finland, for instance, are  among the worst offenders for greenhouse gas emissions from aviation .
 In addition, there are no currently-viable technologies that can enable people to fly without adversely affecting the climate.
 Avoiding flights 'takes some planning'
 That’s why people like  Istvan Rytkönen , who is currently completing his national service at Finland’s Justice Ministry, are starting to travel without planes.
 "Avoiding flights is not that difficult in my case because my friends are close, in Europe," admits Rytkönen.
 "It takes some planning, because there are not so many websites that will plan a trip for you, but once you have decided your schedule and booked your tickets, you just hop on a train and enjoy the journey."
 Rytkönen stresses that this isn’t for everyone. He has been able to plan his time so that he can visit grandparents in Hungary on a regular basis without flying. He does, however, pay a price: the cheapest train and bus journeys come to double or treble the cost of the cheapest flights from Finland to Budapest.
 "Flying is so cheap that it’s very difficult to compete with that," says Rytkönen.
 That is very much the approach of  Johanna Korpela , who is travelling from Finland to India overland with her boyfriend. She contacted us from Pakistan to explain the joys of overland travel.
 "Besides the ecological aspect of overland traveling, for us traveling is often not only about coming to a certain destination and visiting some attractions there, but also about experiencing what’s along the way," says Korpela. "This way you also get to visit places that you otherwise might not travel to."
 No shame in flight avoidance
 Like many people who have reduced their reliance on planes, Korpela says she doesn’t like the Swedish term ‘flight shame’ to describe the change.
 "I think that instead of shaming people about flying it’s better to approach the topic through the positive – to spread the joy of overland travel and to tell what a great experience it is to get to places without flying, seeing what lies along the way," says Korpela.
 The carrot of a more pleasant travelling experience is one thing, but flight tax advocates argue a stick is also needed. And it doesn’t have to be too painful, she argues.
 "If we do it on the Swedish model, which is very moderate. The amount is from 6 euros to about 40 euros, so if you can afford to buy a ticket, I think you can also afford to pay the tax."
 "Despite the fact that the amount is so small, the effect in Sweden at least has been very positive from an environmental point of view. I believe that is more down to a change in attitudes and the general atmosphere, and I think this is something that we need in Finland as well."
 Modern tax regime?
 On top of that advocates of the flight tax say that lying is just too cheap and part of the reason is the tax regime, which needs to be harmonised and modernised.
 "Kerosene is entirely tax free and international flights are tax-free, while domestic flights have this lower, ten percent tax, which is the same for train tickets," says Blom. "Even though travelling by train produces a fraction of the amount of emissions as compared to flying."
 This treatment is a legacy of the optimism of the post-WW2 years, when it was felt that flying strengthened international bonds and should be encouraged. The 1944 Chicago Convention effectively prevents fuel taxes by banning double taxation of fuel already onboard aircraft.
 If one country started to levy a tax, airlines would just fill up their planes somewhere else.
 "It was thought that flying was a way to show tolerance, but back then there were no signs of climate change. So this tax regime is a historical thing, it is time to change it. There are no grounds to keep it any more."
 Her fellow activists have until Saturday 2 November to gather the required signatures to get the proposal considered by parliament.
 What do you think? Is it time for Finland to make flying more expensive?
 This week on the All Points North podcast we’ll be joined by Tehilah Auramo who jointly proposed the Citizens’ Initiative to levy a flight tax, and Finnair’s Vice-President for Sustainability Anne Larilahti. You can send comments or questions via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or to yle.news@yle.fi.

APN this week: Is it time for Finland to bring in a flight tax?


Summary: The practice of prioritising affluent seniors over cash-strapped elders for places in private homes was deemed unlawful.

The Southern Finland regional administrative authority (Avi) has warned the southeastern city of Hamina for allowing more well-to-do candidates to bypass lower-income seniors in queues for care home accommodation.
 According to Avi, the practice of prioritising affluent over cash-strapped older people for accommodation in private care facilities was unlawful.
 The regional authority was alerted to the practice two years ago when it received complaints over queue-jumping in elder care housing services.
 Hamina city council’s welfare board acknowledged in a statement on the matter that wealthier customers paying out of pocket or with service vouchers for care home placements had been given places quicker than poorer clients.
 The board justified the practice by arguing that lower-income customers wouldn't necessarily be able to pay for private homes. The municipality claimed in the statement that when necessary, officials exercised discretion with respect to customer charges to ensure that as many seniors as possible could get into private facilities.
 Previous director did not remember
 Sanna Niskanen , a former director of elder care services in Hamina, declined to comment on why seniors’ incomes influenced their access to care facilities while she worked there.
 "I cannot comment because I have not seen the Avi decision. I don’t even remember the matter. I haven’t worked there for years," she stated.
 Since the beginning of the year, care home services have been managed by Kymsote, the Kymenlaakso municipal health cooperative. According to service manager  Mervi Takala , wealth no longer plays a role in getting placement in a care home.
 "Solvency is not a factor in receiving a care placement; rather it is the customer’s need for service that determines it. We provide care places the same way for Ingrian Finns, who usually have not accumulated much pension," she explained.
 The regional authority has called on the city of Hamina to take note of the issue and also issued a caution on the subject.
 Placement based on need, not ability to pay
 Officials found that Hamina elder care services’ way of operating and its practice of fast-tracking affluent customers into care homes were in every way unlawful. They noted that the provision of care home places should be based on an individual’s need for assistance and support and not on their ability to pay.
 "Care home fees are based on the customer’s income. However the municipality or municipal cooperative must charge customers the same fee for both private and municipal care homes," said  Maria Borg , chief inspector of the local Avi office.
 Borg noted that she was not aware of similar cases elsewhere in Finland.
 "The ability to pay is not mentioned as a criterion for receiving a care placement, at least not generally. Nothing like that has been publicly stated," Borg added.
 However she said that from time to time, people have spoken about how wealth might affect allocation of care home spots. She said this could be attributed to the fact that some seniors foot the bill for their care homes themselves.
 "Not all customers seek placement via public services. Some wealthy pensioners do not get a placement from the municipality based on their means so they want to pay themselves and apply to homes on their own. Of course this is a minority of customers," she explained.
 Legal waiting time exceeded
 The regional administrative authority also criticised the fact that in many cases, seniors in Hamina who met the criteria for enhanced service housing did not receive a placement in a care home within three months of the decision to accommodate them.
 Current laws require municipalities to provide customers their approved services without delay and without compromising an aged person’s right to immediate care. Elderly people have the right to receive approved non-urgent social services without undue delay, but within three months of the decision to provide the service.
 The authority asked the city to provide a waiting list showing applicants for round-the-clock services for 2015, 2016 and 2017. During that time Hamina regularly had elderly folk who were not able to get the services they had requested within the three months specified by the Elderly Services Act.
 "There were months when things worked smoothly and months when the time frame was exceeded," Borg commented.
 On top of that, Avi deemed that social care expertise in the city was inadequate since there were no social workers employed in Hamina’s elder care services unit. The authority said that the customer’s right to have their service needs evaluated had not necessarily been satisfied according to social care laws.
 Tabloid Iltalehti first reported on the fast-tracking of wealthier seniors in the Hamina elder care system.

Officials in Finland warned for fast-tracking wealthy candidates for elder home services


Summary: The court says it will dismiss the case if the elusive businessman does not show up for the hearing.

The Turku Court of Appeal has called on the businessman appealing a multimillion-euro damages ruling to appear in court for the start of the hearing, which began on Tuesday.
 Markku Ritaluoma , the man behind  an ambitious but failed plan to build Europe’s largest auto showroom  in Hämeenlinna, is appealing a lower court ruling ordering him to return 6.2 million euros from the bankruptcy estate of the failed Sunny Car Center.
 However the appeal court in Turku wants the former CEO of the infamous enterprise to appear for the hearing in person, according to local paper Hämeen Sanomat. Ritaluoma participated in previous hearings remotely from the United States.
 The appeal court has said however, that the scale of the case is so extensive that Ritaluoma must physically attend the hearing. Court documents detail 35 separate financial transactions over a period of several years, amounting to the 6.2 million euros that Ritaluoma allegedly pocketed and was ordered to repay. The main hearing in the lower court lasted exceptionally long for such a matter – a total of six days plus three additional reserve days.
 The appellate court said that the case turns on Ritaluoma’s actions and noted that he is the only one who can explain them. Additionally during a lower court hearing, the Skype connection in use was unreliable due to technical problems. As a result the Turku court said that Ritaluoma should participate in the main hearing or face the possibility of having his appeal dismissed in his absence.
 For his part Ritaluoma has told the appeal court that he will not appear in person for the hearing. However his legal counsel has said that there is no legal reason why his client should not attend.
 A long-running scandal
 Sunny Car Center went bankrupt in autumn 2015, following which  investors have attempted to recover their funds  from the bankruptcy estate.
 Ritaluoma as well as the former board member of the showroom venture and ex-Hämeenlinna city council chair,  Iisakki Kiemunki , appealed the sentences handed down to them by the Häme District Court in April 2018. At the time, the court ordered Ritaluoma to repay the missing 6.2 million euros to the bankruptcy estate and Kiemunki was called upon to pay 350,000 euros in damages.
 The complainant in the case against Kiemunki and Ritaluoma was the Sunny Car Center bankruptcy estate. It claimed that Ritaluoma had taken the money, so it was no longer available to creditors. Kiemunki was found guilty of being negligent and passive during his tenure as Sunny Car Center board chair and thereby facilitating the withdrawal of the funds.
 Both men denied the allegations made by the bankruptcy estate. In addition to the damages cases, the public administrator assigned to the venture’s bankruptcy estate filed a criminal complaint over millions of euros that went missing from the company. An investigation began in 2017, with authorities considering charges of aggravated debtor fraud and aggravated accounting offences.

Fugitive businessman ordered to appear in multimillion-euro car dealership case


Summary: The permit will cost a couple of hundred euros and processing could take up to 3 months, the Ministry of Defence stated.

Foreign residents will need to obtain permission to buy real estate in Finland, starting 1 January 2020, as part of new legislation passed in March this year. The applications will need to be submitted to the Ministry of Defence electronically.
 "The legislation has been put in place to protect national security,"  Matias Warsta,  Director of Real Estate and Environment at the Ministry of Defense, told Yle News.
 "The security environment in the Baltic region has deteriorated over the last decade. We wanted to create a system that lets us monitor and control real estate purchases in Finland to help us secure the national interest of protecting the country," Warsta said.
 The new legislation on ensuring national security in land use and real estate ownership applies to properties located throughout Finland, with the exception of the Åland Islands. It applies only to property deals closed after 1 January 2020.
 There is no requirement to seek permission to buy shares in a housing company, which is how most apartments and some other residential property is owned in Finland.
 The permit has to be obtained by both private individuals who are not nationals of European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA) states and companies or other entities domiciled outside EU and EEA.
 People with dual citizenship don't have to obtain the permit if one of the nationalities is in an EU or EEA country.
 "In the case of joint ownership where even one of the partners is a foreign national, permission has to be acquired," Warsta noted.
 "Not a very expensive process"
 The buyers have to pay a fee to obtain the permit.
 "Though the amount has not been fixed yet, we estimate that the fee will be in the range of a couple of hundred euros — it’s not going to be a very expensive process," Warsta said. The fee will not be refunded if permission is refused.
 According to The Ministry of Defence website, applications can be submitted in Finnish or Swedish and that it aims to process the applications within three months.
 The ministry stated that in the permission application, buyers will have to state their intended use of the real estate.
 "The authorities will then make a case-by-case decision and take specific measures depending on the kind of real estate being purchased before granting the permit," Warsta revealed.
 Public discussion over foreign land ownership
 Public discourse on foreign property ownership in Finland re-ignited late last year, following  a major police operation near Turku  that focused on a Russian-owned firm suspected of money laundering.
 Public records showed that the firm, Airiston Helmi, either bought or sold 9.2 million euros of real estate in the Turku archipelago between 2007 and 2014. The properties were said to be  in strategically important areas , as the maritime routes through the islands off Turku serve major ports and contain  important data cables .
 In September last year, then-Defence Minister  Jussi Niinistö  said that  the legislation then under preparation  would grant the government the right to intervene in transactions that it thinks could jeopardise national security.
 The new rules can be read in English  here .
 EDIT 31.10.2019 This story has been edited to clarify that the new rules do not apply to housing company shares and to add a link to the rules in English.

Permission needed for foreign residents to buy property in Finland from 2020


Summary: The slowdown in the global economy has hit the industrial sector especially hard, an EK survey said.

Finnish companies estimated that the economic situation in the country has declined in all major sectors during autumn, according to a survey published by the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) on Wednesday.
 The slowdown in the global economy has worsened the situation, especially in the manufacturing sector, the Business Tendency survey said.
 "It is worrying that the economic outlook has declined rather rapidly during autumn. This has primarily affected the industrial sector. If you look at the economic development forecast, next year is projected to have the lowest growth of half a per cent. If you compare the barometer to other growth forecasts, we cannot rule out [the possibility] that growth will fall to zero," EK's chief economic policy advisor  Sami Pakarinen  said.
 Business outlooks have been on the decline for a long time now. Production and sales expectations, however, are still at a relatively good level in other main sectors apart from manufacturing.
 According to Pakarinen, cyclical deterioration is also reflected in employment over time. In manufacturing, the business cycle is already seeing a downturn and the number of employees is expected to decrease in the coming months.
 "How this will affect possible co-determination negotiations remains to be seen. Each company makes its own decisions. The message is worrying in terms of employment growth in Finland," Pakarinen said.
 Insufficient demand and labour shortage
 The slowdown of Finland’s export market is reflected in barriers to increased production. Over 40 percent of the respondents felt insufficient demand was a major problem.
 Demand in the service sectors has also declined further. While the availability of skilled labour has somewhat eased, recruitment problems are still perceived as widespread, according to respondents.
 The worst labour shortage is in construction, but the situation is estimated to improve as activity slows down and demand for labour declines.
 "The Finnish economy is facing something new. Both exports and investment are declining at the same time. Growth forecasts will be further downgraded. This is also bad news for public finances. The deficit is growing and the debt ratio is rising rapidly," Pakarinen observed.
 According to Pakarinen, government could alleviate the situation by trying to balance public finances. "The deficit should be brought under control. More employment measures are also needed."
 EK director general  Jyri Häkämies  also emphasised that the situation requires more measures to support employment.
 "An industry-wide round of salary negotiations would be the best solution in this situation. This would allow us to advance local agreements and improve the ability of different sectors and companies to adapt to the challenging situation," Häkämies said.
 The Business Tendency Survey, which has been carried out since 1966, is published by EK four times a year. In October 2019, 1,169 companies employing over 250,000 people in Finland responded to the survey.

EK business lobby sees dark economic clouds ahead