Summary: Some 100,000 applicants were turned away by Finnish universities in 2019, amid calls to ease access to higher education.

Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture says it is prepared to improve access to the country's network of academic and applied sciences universities with more study positions.
 "We are currently in discussions with the universities about where increases are needed and in which lines of study the amount of study places could be boosted," said  Birgitta Vuorinen , the ministry's director of higher education policy.
 She says decisions won't be made on specific admission rates until the next performance agreement is drawn up. This is when the ministry and the educational institutions will jointly define the quantity and content of the next term's educational objectives.
 "We also need to look at what kind of education is in demand and what kind of knowledge our society needs," she said.
 Selection criteria reform comes into effect next year
 Finland has already made changes to its university admissions policy, with the aim to ease the transition from secondary to tertiary education. Whereas most applicants in the past had to show both their high school diplomas and sit for a department-specific entrance exam, the reform will allow some applicants with good grades on their school-leaving certificates to be admitted directly to some fields of study, with no exam. These changes will come into effect in 2020.
 Vuorinen said the reform will lower the threshold for applying to higher education and allow applicants to apply to several institutions simultaneously.
 "Those who have done well in upper secondary school or vocational education and training will have the ability to be admitted on the basis of their school-leaving certificates alone. It will be considered suitable proof of their ability to succeed in university studies," she explained.
 Education minister  Li Andersson  went on record in mid-June to say that if Finland wants to attract more young people to start tertiary studies, it will have to do more than just change its selection criteria.
 "If we really hope to achieve an ambitious goal, then we also have to be ready to examine the adequacy of starting study positions," the minister said in an Yle interview.
 Some 150,000 students applied to university in Finland this spring, with less than 48,000 accepted , leading to an overall acceptance rate of less than a third. Only 8,000 of the incoming students were first-time applicants. This means that over 100,000 applicants were not enrolled.
 One of Europe's most highly selective countries for uni admissions
 The economic organisation  OECD recently called on Finland to make changes to its admissions criteria  to tackle growing youth marginalization.
 The 36-member-country group deemed Finland one of Europe's most highly selective countries in terms of university admissions.
 The group pointed out that low acceptance rates delay the start of higher education for many young people in Finland and force many applicants to take a gap year against their will. Its report included figures that showed that only a quarter of secondary education graduates were able to continue their studies at an institute of higher education straight after finishing upper secondary school, for example.
 The OECD also recommended expanding the capacity of Finland's universities and developing a clearer system of financial aid for students.
 More funding in the pipeline
 Finland's  new government  has announced that it will put an end to eight years of austerity – particularly in the education sector – with plans to increase government spending by 1.2 billion euros.
 Among other things, the Government programme seeks to raise the age for compulsory education to 18, strengthen vocational training, and increase budgets for both academic universities and universities of applied science.

Education ministry, universities weigh admission rate increases


Summary: Teens in Finland expect their future options to be limited by the climate crisis.

Youngsters aged 13-16 are braced for the idea that their choices will be restricted due to the climate crisis, according to the Finland 2050 survey published by the  Children and Youth Foundation  on Friday.
 Last spring, more than 4,300 youth of upper comprehensive school age were asked to envision what Finland will look like in 2050 through workshops and an extensive questionnaire. Also taking part in the survey were IT firm Tieto and the  Futures School , which also this past spring organised Futures Day in conjunction with Unesco and Turku University's Finland Futures Research Centre.
 A majority of those polled consider it likely and desirable that in the future people's choices will be limited in order to rein in climate change. Most said there is no doubt that there will be restrictions on driving cars and eating meat, for instance, as it is clear that lifestyles must be altered in order to slow climate change.
 Finland "radically different" by 2050
 The young respondents said that this is the most important way to ensure that Finland is still a good place to live in 2050.
 Eighty-five percent said they expect Finland to be a radically different place by mid-century.
 Two-thirds say they expect climate change to be the biggest driver of that change, while smaller majorities cited technological development and immigration.
 Only one in three say they believe they will have the same opportunities as their parents have had, while just six percent expressed faith that humanity will succeed in controlling climate change.
 "Dramatic message to decision-makers"
 "Young people want intervention in climate change and see it as important, but see a strong contradiction in that adults are not doing enough. I think it's extremely worrying from the standpoint of youth and more broadly in terms of combating climate change," says Futures School director  Otto Tähkäpää , an environmental researcher at the University of Helsinki.
 "This is an example of where youngsters' climate angst comes from. The problem is huge and existential but they are offered solutions like 'recycle your banana peels'. There's an imbalance," he says.
 Responding to the report, Interior Minister and Greens chair  Maria Ohisalo  said that it sends "a dramatic message to decision-makers".
 "Young people's faith in the future, ability to cope and sense of security are being tested. Confidence in security and faith in the future are the most important things to pass on to new generations," she told the online paper Uusi Suomi.

Survey: Only six percent of young people believe climate change will be controlled


Summary: Antti Rinne says the government is "working hard to find a solution" regarding Finns at a Syrian refugee camp.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  met on Friday with relatives of Finnish women and children living at the al-Hol refugee camp, established in northeastern Syria for family members of Islamic State (IS or Isis) combatants. There are an estimated 40-50 Finns at the camp.
 Also taking part in the meeting were Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto , Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  and Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Krista Kiuru .
 "I heard the relatives describe the conditions of those at the al-Hol camp. I told them that the Finnish state has been working hard to find a solution to the situation," Rinne said in a statement afterwards.
 The meeting was part of the cabinet ministers' fact-finding process regarding the situation, according to the Council of State. Last month, a couple of weeks after taking office, the new premier told Parliament that there were "no plans to use consular services to bring these people to Finland".
 Supo responds to criticism
 In an Yle interview on Wednesday morning, Professor  Martin Scheinin  criticised the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) for labelling all the Finns at al-Hol as a security threat. Scheinin is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the European University Institute and a former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.
 Later that day, Supo denied that it is evaluating those who left the Isis territory and are now at al-Hol as one group, but rather that each case is being considered separately.
 "According to current information there are about 10 Finnish women and about 30 children at the camp," the agency said on Wednesday. Previously officials have said there were 11 women and 33 children there.
 "An immense challenge"
 IS family members were evacuated to al-Hol earlier this year when the extremist group lost the last of its territory.
 The Finnish Red Cross (FRC) said last month that the camp held some 74,000 people, 90 percent of them women and children. An estimated 10,000 are foreigners.
 The UN has called on western countries to help bring their citizens home from the remote desert camp near the Iraqi border. The International Red Cross recently described conditions there as "horrifying".
 Eight FRC aid workers are among the staff of a 30-bed Nordic field hospital that opened at the site last month.
 "More than 64,000 people have come to the al-Hol camp since December. More than half of these people are children. The bearing capacity of the camp has already been exceeded, and trying to meet people’s needs is an immense challenge," the FRC's head of international disaster aid,  Tiina Saarikoski , said last month.
 On Thursday, a German court ruled that three children and their mother, originally from northern Germany, must be located and repatriated from al-Hol.

Finnish PM meets with relatives of women and children at IS camp


Summary: The eight convicts were sentenced to prison terms ranging between two and four and a half years.

Oulu District Court on Friday handed down its last rulings in a string of sexual crimes committed in the northern city last year by foreign-born men. Eight men were convicted of raping and abusing the same female victim.
 The girl was aged 12-13 at the time of the assaults, which mostly took place in the summer and autumn of 2018.
 All eight men were sentenced to prison, the last two on Friday.
 They were  Qayssar Mohsin Sbahi Aldhulaiei , 26, and  Abdo Ibrahim Ahmed , 33.
 Aldhulaiei was sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated rape, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and assault.
 Ahmed was sentenced to four years and two months for aggravated rape, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and possession of child pornography. He was found to be in possession of a video showing an unidentified child, who was not the same as the victim in the eight cases. His crimes took place in 2017 and 2018.
 The two men were each ordered to pay the victim 23,000 euros in damages.
 They denied being guilty of sexual crimes. One claimed that he thought the victim was 17 and a half years old, but the court did not find this believable.
 Similar patterns
 Prosecutors say that the eight cases followed similar patterns, but that not all of the perpetrators knew each other.
 The men contacted the girl via various social media channels and lured her to apartments or hotels, where they individually inflicted sexual violence on her and forced her into various acts.
 Prosecutors point out that even attempting to lure a child for sexual purposes and sending sexually-tinged messages to a child are crimes and may be harmful to the victim.
 Of the eight perpetrators, the longest prison term went to  Hassan Mohamud Mohamed , 38, who was sentenced earlier this week to four and a half years in prison for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and aggravated rape in 2017 and 2018.
 The trials have been going on since April, with sentencing beginning in May. The first five convicts were sentenced to 2-4 years imprisonment, along with fines ranging from just over 8,000 euros to 23,000 euros each.
 Oulu police say that all eight came to Finland as refugees or asylum seekers. Some have already been granted refugee status or Finnish citizenship, while others' applications are still pending.
 The prosecutor says that so far six of those convicted have expressed dissatisfaction with their sentences and that some have already filed appeals.
 Tougher sentences
 Terttu Utriainen , a professor emeritus of criminal law from the University of Lapland, says that in general these sentences have been tougher than in the past.
 "Previously suspended sentences have usually been handed down for sexual crimes. Apparently the penalisation practices are becoming tougher," she told Yle.
 Utriainen notes that a convict with no previous criminal record is usually released after serving half of his or her prison term.
 "And convicts who do not hold Finnish citizenship can be deported when they have carried out their sentences," she adds.

Oulu court hands down last sentences in string of 2018 sex crimes


Summary: The Social Affairs Minister said Finland must first decide whether the cash benefit would apply to everyone.

Minister of Social Affairs and Health  Aino-Kaisa Pekonen  told local news conglomerate Uutissuomalainen on Saturday that a no-strings-attached basic income model would not be a part of the government's social welfare overhaul.
 Pekonen said that while her party, the Left Alliance, supports basic income for citizens regardless of their means, it is unrealistic that the scheme will be pushed through during one government term, especially with regard to the current economic situation.
 When MPs return from their summer break in early September they will revive discussions on revamping Finland’s social safety net, which will include deciding whether a possible basic income model would be means-tested to alleviate financial burdens or designed as a cash benefit given to everyone, no strings attached.
 "It’s an enormous question that divides a lot of parties. The current administration isn't even unanimous on universal basic income," Pekonen told Uutissuomalainen.
 Initial findings from Finland's  two-year basic income experiment  that concluded at the end of 2018 found that giving 2,000 unemployed people 560 euros tax-free every month did not increase participants’ employment, but recipients did report higher perceived wellbeing than that of those in the control group.

Minister: No-strings-attached basic income in Finland "unrealistic"


Summary: More than 100 million euros flow through the Finnish sex trade annually, according to Statistics Finland.

Hundreds of people sell sex every single day in Finland. The selling and buying of sex is legal, unless the trade involves pimping or victims of human trafficking.
 Earlier this week news emerged that  three Finns were suspected of pimping and money laundering in Spain.  The men are suspected of having laundered up to 40 million euros gained from criminal activities since 2010.
 EU criminal justice agency Eurojust said the operation included human trafficking in a scheme bringing women, mostly from Nigeria, to Finland and Sweden to work as prostitutes.
 Detective sergeant  Kenneth Eriksson  from the Helsinki Police Department said the anonymity of the internet makes it difficult to catch pimps, who can easily manage prostitutes from outside of Finland.
 "It's very rare for a pimp to accompany a prostitute. Pimps arrange apartments for girls online and a third party manages contact between the pimp and girls,” Eriksson said, adding that this type of arrangement can make it impossible for officials to determine if someone is selling sex against their will or not.
 Sex-buying ban
 To combat trafficking, Sweden enacted a total sex purchase ban twenty years ago.
 “Sweden banned the buying of sex in 1999. The law has significantly helped law enforcement investigate trafficking cases. It has also sent the message that it’s not worthwhile to practice trafficking or pimping in Sweden,” said law professor  Johanna Niemi  of Turku University.
 But the reality may not be so simple, according to  Jaana Kauppinen , executive manager of Pro-tukipiste, an NGO that works with sex and erotica workers as well as victims of human trafficking.
 She said that further criminalising the purchase of sex could make it more difficult for human trafficking victims to come forward as they, too, would be seen as engaging in criminal activity.

Finnish sex trade tops 100 million euros


Summary: Elected officials in Finland are increasingly coming under fire from the public for blocking critics on social media.

The discussion around politicians blocking critics on social media is heating up in Finland.
 Earlier this week a federal court in the United States ruled that President Donald Trump couldn't block his critics on Twitter because his account was seen as a public forum, a virtual town hall where citizens can engage with his comments.
 That same discussion is now developing in Finland, where media researcher  Jukka-Pekka Puro  said representatives of the Left Alliance and Greens have engaged in the most blocking of followers due to the high volume of inappropriate messages they receive.
 "I get that users will block accounts sending particularly aggressive messages. But it's not always easy to determine where to draw the line," Puro said.
 At the end of 2017, former Greens chair  Touko Aalto  blocked Centre party MP  Mikko Kärnä  for what Aalto called inappropriate comments.
 "Parliamentarians usually engage in civilised discussions online since they have to get along on the job. But that’s not to say that they have to put up with everything," communications professor  Pekka Isotalus  from the University of Tampere explained.
 Democratic participation at stake
 Problems arise from a democratic standpoint when powerful politicians prevent people from participating in public discussion by blocking users.
 In October 2018 Chancellor of Justice  Tuomas Pöysti  ruled that then-premier  Juha Sipilä  had the right to block users from his Twitter account because it was his personal and not official government account.
 Greens chair and Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  meanwhile unblocked newsstand tabloid Ilta-Sanomat’s editor-in-chief  Ulla Appelsin  from her Twitter account after taking up a ministerial post this spring.
 Media researcher Puro said politicians need to be able to withstand criticism.
 "The more powerful a politician, the more carefully they should weigh the decision to block someone," he explained.
 Puro said the time may be ripe for a non-politically aligned organ to issue social media blocking guidelines for elected officials.
 However in the future, political discussions may shift away from Twitter and onto Instagram due to the platform's popularity with young people, according to Puro.

Finnish politicians face heat for blocking social media followers


Summary: Polar air flows are cooling eastern Finland in particular this month.

July has been unusually cool in Finland, with highs barely reaching 20 degrees Celsius.
 In June, the mercury hit 32 degrees Celsius in the northern city of Oulu, whereas July's highs have hovered around 20 degrees.
 Yle meteorologist  Joonas Koskela  said recorded daytime temperatures of 10C in Kuhmo and Ilomantsi in eastern Finland on Friday are considered especially nippy for this time of year.
 Air flows from the North Pole and Arctic Ocean are cooling down eastern Finland, according to Koskela. The rest of the country has also experienced chilly conditions, particularly at night.
 "Last night there was frost in parts of western Finland and Lapland. That's not good for crops, especially strawberries," he said.
 Finland should gradually warm up over the course of next week, though no radical change in conditions is expected.
 While July, the  most popular summer vacation month  in Finland, has been unseasonably cool, June was warmer than average, with 11 days of temperatures in excess of 25 degrees Celsius, a uniquely Finnish threshold for describing weather as "hot".

Arctic winds chill Finland in July


Summary: Finland is represented in the annual military parade along with other members of the European Intervention Initiative.

Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  meets on Sunday with his French counterpart  Emmanuel Macron  in Paris as the country celebrates its national day, known as Bastille Day.
 Finland is represented in the traditional military parade on the Champs-Élysées, along with the other countries that have joined the French-led European Intervention Initiative.
 Four service members from the Finnish Defence Forces are marching in the parade, carrying a Finnish flag, along with some 4,000 others.
 The EII plan, proposed by Macron two years ago, is intended to boost European defence cooperation. So far 10 EU countries have signed on, including the UK, Germany, Estonia and Denmark. Finland, the only non-Nato member,  joined last November .
 Talks and lunch
 After the procession Niinistö will join a lunch hosted by Macron and meet with him one-on-one.
 The two met in Helsinki last August during Macron's  official visit to Finland  and again in Paris last November during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
 France's national day commemorates 14 July 1789 when a crowd stormed the Bastille Fortress to release political prisoners. Although only a few people were being held, it was key event in the French Revolution.

Presidents Niinistö and Macron meet in Paris


Summary: July is peak vacation time in Finland. Here are 10 fast facts for the beach (bundle up) – and suggestions for further summery reading.

Three times more people in Finland take holidays in July than any other month.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 The average Finnish household spends 1,300 euros during a month of vacation, or about 65 euros a day.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 The weather is statistically optimum during the school holidays (June through early/mid-August). If the dates were shifted to later as some suggest, there would be more rainy days on average.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Strawberries symbolise the Nordic summer. Studies indicate they can slow ageing and support coronary health.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Did you know that there are about 200 seeds on the surface of each strawberry?
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Even in the shade, your skin is exposed to half the UV radiation on a bright day.
 Sunblock is always recommended, but especially if your shadow appears longer than your body.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Ice cream was first made from snow and fruit juice in China 3,000 years ago.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Each year, the average person in Finland eats over 12 litres of ice cream – more than a bucketful.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Can you swim? One in three adults in Finland cannot.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 If you can swim 200 metres, 50 of those on your back, you're officially classified as being able to swim.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 One in 10 people in Finland owns a summer cottage. Only six percent of them are under 40, though.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 Some 130,000 lightning-bolts strike the country each year, but only six people have been killed by lightning since 2000.
 Nella Nuora / Yle
 What's the world's shortest joke? The Finnish summer. That's why the locals treasure each day of it.

Finnish summer: Short and sweet


Summary: Weekend pop festivals attracted throngs from Oulu to Vantaa.

The annual Seinäjoki Tango Festival attracted more than 100,000 people this year, its 35th anniversary. The five-day dance and music extravaganza ended in western Finland today.
 This year's tango royalty was chosen on Saturday night, with  Pirita Niemenmaa  crowned as Tango Queen and  Johannes Vatjus  as Tango King. Niemenmaa is a Seinäjoki local while Vatjus is from Haapavesi, further north in Ostrobothnia. Both were first-time finalists.
 Domestic acts pull in big crowds
 Other weekend festivals also drew large crowds.
 The sixth annual Tikkurila Festival in Hiekkaharju, Vantaa, had a record attendance of more than 35,000 over three days. for an all-Finnish pop, rock and hip-hop lineup. Saturday, featuring stars such as  Anssi Kela ,  Apulanta ,  Elastinen  and  Evelina , was sold out.
 Further north, the Suomipop festival in Oulu was also all-domestic, including many of the same acts. It attracted about 22,000 fans.
 Tampere's Sauna Open Air heavy metal fest pulled in 14,000 people to Ratina Stadium over two days. Headliners included veteran bands Whitesnake and W.A.S.P. as well as Finnish cult favourites Amorphis and Sonata Arctica.

Tango royalty crowned in Seinäjoki, metal giants rock in Tampere


Summary: A month after taking office, the Finnish foreign minister is negotiating on behalf of the EU in the Horn of Africa.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  will brief the EU's Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in Brussels on Monday. He will report to fellow foreign ministers on the situation in Sudan and neighbouring countries, which he  visited last week , negotiating as an EU envoy at the request of foreign policy High Representative  Federica Mogherini .
 Haavisto will also outline Finland's foreign and security policy priorities during its EU Presidency term over the next six months.
 “One of Finland's objectives is to enhance EU participation in conflict prevention and mediation, to prevent and combat hybrid threats, to strengthen the EU Arctic policy and to put climate change mitigation at the core of such policy. Finland also strives to ensure that respect for international law and the promotion of universal human rights, democracy and the rule of law will be at the forefront of the entire external action of the Union,” Haavisto said in a statement.
 The FAC will discuss the situations in Iran, Iraq, the Central African Republic and Sudan as well as migration issues.
 Iran situation "explosive"
 A Foreign Ministry statement describes the regional situation involving Iran as "explosive", and urges "all parties [to] focus on easing it".
 Ministers will discuss the future of the tottering Iranian nuclear deal, formally titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and encourage Tehran to stick to it despite the US pullout from the deal.
 The ministers will discuss a payment channel called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), set up earlier this year by France, Germany and the UK to ease trade with Iran. It finally became operational in late June.
 The aim is to support the nuclear programme agreement by facilitating trade in key humanitarian items such as food and medicine. The ministry says Finland is still considering whether to join INSTEX. Russia has also expressed interest in joining.
 Later this week Haavisto is to visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAR.
 In 2005-07, Haavisto served as EU Special Representative for Sudan and Darfur and as a UN Special Advisor in the Darfur Peace Process. He also led UN Environmental Programme teams in the Balkans and Romania.

Haavisto to brief EU ministers on Sudan, Finnish presidency goals


Summary: Finnish dailies ponder how fewer babies being born will transform society, what the public thinks of a joint EU military, and more.

Helsingin Sanomat examines the  long-term effects of "sharply and rapidly falling birth rates" in Finland . A dramatic slump in birth rates that began in Finland in 2015 is expected to make a big impact. For example, this coming autumn close to 60,000 children will start school throughout the country, but in just six years this number is expected to fall by 20 percent to just 47,500.
 The paper says  urban areas  will fare better with the  drop in children , thanks to domestic and especially international migration, but "the farther one moves out from built-up areas, the more the effects of the declining birth rate will be seen".
 The changing demographic will likely first affect early childhood education, and later primary education. While Finland seeks to improve its services, it also has to prepare for smaller class sizes that will influence funding.
 Terhi Päivärinta  from the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities tells HS that municipalities will have to make individual decisions about how to meet the problem. She says combined primary and secondary schools will likely become more common, as smaller schoolhouses are discontinued – a centralization trend that has already changed the landscape of the countryside.
 By the year 2030, the falling birth rate will hit the country's secondary and tertiary education institutions, the paper writes.
 Statistics Finland predicts that birth rates in Finland will continue to fall, and by the year 2050, the population will start to grow incrementally smaller. Already now, there are  six times more people over the age of 65  than there are children under three in Finland. The percentage of over-65s has almost doubled in the last 30 years, HS writes.
 Poll: More Finns support EU defence force than oppose it
 Next, the newspapers Maaseudun Tulevaisuus (MT), Verkkouutiset and Hufvudstadsbladet together commissioned a Kantar TNS poll of over 1,000 people that suggests that  more Finnish residents would be willing to enter into a joint European Union defence agreement than would be against it .
 Some 40 percent of the survey respondents supported  Finland being a part of a joint military , compared to 25 percent who would prefer to stay out of external conflicts.
 The survey also asked if Finland should come to the aid of EU member states that face a threat of war, and 64 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative. MT asked Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  to comment on the poll results.
 "If an EU country is the target of an armed assault, we would probably also declare a state of emergency," Rinne said. "[Finland] would probably be in a situation in which our troops and equipment would be needed here."
 Rinne said that he doesn't support a common EU defence.
 "There is no special factor that would require moving in the direction of a military union," he told the paper.
 Is a new cycling craze on the way?
 The Oulu-based paper Kaleva carries a  story on bicycle retailers , who hope that the success of  city bike networks  in urban areas will inspire more Finns to buy bicycles of their own.
 Bike sharing schemes have proven extremely popular in Helsinki, Turku and Oulu, for example, and Tampere is planning to launch its own service in 2020. For a small fee, people can use a city bike whenever they please for an hour and a half at time.
 Helsinki resident  Harri Pulliainen  tells the paper that he uses the city bikes daily for his work commute, and the use of his own bike has tapered off as a result.
 "If you buy a nice bike, it's just stolen right away," he tells Kaleva.
 But bicycle manufacturers in Finland aren't threatened by the city bike boom, as they believe that more people will be inspired to take up the hobby.
 "The way I see it at this point, city bikes are doing a better job of promoting cycling than creating competition," says Helkama sales director  Harri Halme .
 Founded in 1905, Helkama has manufactured bikes at its production facility in Hanko since 1953. Other Finnish bicycle brands include Pelago, Solifer and Tunturi. Tunturi was acquired by the Dutch company Accell in 2015.
 Cheap petrol creates traffic hazard
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports that "village shop owner"  Vesa Keskinen 's campaign to  sell petrol for one euro a litre  last Saturday at his megastore in western Finland didn't break the all-time record he set in 2012 for sales, despite selling over 20,000 litres in just seven hours. For this reason, the entrepreneur is planning a second campaign selling a litre of petrol for the price of 52 cents (to celebrate his 52nd birthday) for later this summer.
 "I think a good time to schedule it would be 4 August, as it would coincide with the closing day of our Miljoona Tivoli amusement park," Keskinen told IS.
 The giant golden horseshoe that is the calling card of Keskinen's popular "Tuuri Village Store", a large commercial complex in western Finland, was listed in a  2008 Reuters story  focusing on ugly buildings and monuments.
 IS reports that cars waited in line for up to two hours to take advantage of the cheap petrol deal on Saturday, causing some tempers to run high and several traffic hazards.

Monday's papers: Birth rate drop fallout, EU defence force support, city bikes and cheap petrol


Summary: Proponents of the initiative said municipalities should have more say when it comes to land use, among other things.

A citizen's initiative to reform Finland's mining law has received 50,000 signatures, meaning that the proposal now qualifies for consideration on the parliamentary floor.
 The initiative seeks to make major changes to Finland's Mining Act which came into effect in 2011.
 "On the local level, municipalities should have a better opportunity to have a say about land use in their area," says  Jukka Leppänen , chair of the Pro Heinävesi movement and one of the two authors of the initiative.
 He says the reformed law should also do more to protect valuable nature sites and waterways, as well as make provisions to ensure that more of the benefits stemming from minerals found in Finnish soil are returned to the municipalities and state.
 The citizens' initiative also demands mining companies be required to demonstrate sufficient collateral up front for dealing with any potential environmental damage, for example.
 "If we could create a fund system, for example, that would make it easier to clear up environmental accidents," Leppänen says.
 The reform bid also calls on MPs to change the process by which mining permits are granted. As the law now stands, parties can be granted operational permits before they have been cleared for permits associated with Finnish laws on environmental conservation. If the amendments included in the citizens' initiative are approved by Parliament, companies would in future have to secure an environmental permit first.
 "It feels as if there were clear, substantial mistakes in the renewed 2011 Mining Act, despite that fact that most of it hasn't even been executed yet in practice," Leppänen said.
 "Triumph of democracy"
 Just one week ago, Leppänen was unsure that the initiative would meet its 50K signature target within the six-month limit.
 "Support levelled out for a bit, but then we launched an effective social media blitz that got people on board. I feel a deep sense of gratitude. This is a triumph of democracy, in a way," he said.
 Finland introduced citizens' initiatives to the lawmaking process in March 2012.
 The new form of direct democracy allows one or more Finnish citizens to propose the amendment or repeal of existing legislation. If 50,000 Finnish citizens sign on with their support within six months of submitting the proposal, the Finnish Parliament is then obliged to discuss it in plenary session.

Citizens' initiative to reform mining law heads to Parliament


Summary: Increases in the prices of utilities, tobacco, rents, bank charges and house repairs were behind the inflation hike.

Finland's Consumer Price Index rose by one percent in the month of June, when compared to figures from the same month last year, according to Statistics Finland.
 The country's inflation rate slowed down slightly in June, compared to a May consumer price index (CPI) of 1.2 percent and an April rate of 1.5 percent.
 Increases in the prices of utilities, tobacco, rents, bank charges and house repairs were behind the year-on-year inflation rate hike, although price reductions were recorded for mobile phones, real estate, televisions and passenger cars in the same period.
 The slight drop from May's figures is largely explained by lower petrol prices, according to the number crunching agency.
 In order to come up with the EU's harmonized inflation figures, Statistics Finland collects 44,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets every month.
 At the beginning of June, the Bank of Finland  forecast  an overall inflation rate of 1.3 percent for this year, picking up to 1.6 percent in 2021. The central bank says that 2.5-percent annual wage growth will gradually push up prices on services and contribute to further inflation in the country.
 Neighbour country rates are higher
 Comparative inflation figures from other countries in June 2019 include a 1.8 percent inflation rate in Sweden, 1.9 percent in Norway, and a 2.4 percent in Estonia. Each of these figures also showed a slight decrease on previous months.
 The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices shows that the rate of inflation in the entire euro area was 1.2 percent in June. The European Central Bank, whose main aim is to safeguard the value of the euro, has set an objective to keep the annual inflation rate index to below two percent.

One percent inflation charted in June, slightly down from May


Summary: The researchers found that identifying faces from 40 metres away is twice as hard as from a distance of five metres.

A study conducted at Åbo Akademi University examined how well people are able to accurately identify people from long distances in real-world scenarios.
 The study found that correctly identifying an individual from a distance of 40 metres becomes twice as difficult as accurately identifying someone who's standing five meters away. The task is complete guesswork at around 100 metres, according to the researchers.
 Participants in the study were asked to identify four people, one at a time, at distances ranging between five and 110 metres. After physically seeing the person, participants were asked to identify the same individual from a series of photos of people.
 Unlike in previous research on the topic, the Finnish study prompted test subjects to identify living people in physical environments, instead of only using photographs or videos.
 The researchers said that identification rates could be even worse in real-life situations.
 "Our findings are extremely important. We are the first to have demonstrated that there is a certain distance at which the reliability of a witness's eyesight falls to a guess," researcher  Thomas Nyman  said.
 The data for the study was collected at the Heureka science centre in Vantaa. A total of 1,588 people aged 6–77 took part.
 In a press release about the research issued by the institution last year, Nyman said: "The results from our experiment at Heureka in 2017 showed that an increase in distance had a drastic negative impact on correct identifications."

Eyewitnesses very poor at identifying people at long distances, study finds


Summary: One firm says it has already reduced the amount of food it tosses out, while two others say they plan to do the same.

Consumers in Finland are increasingly considering  ecological impacts  when making their holiday travel plans.
 In turn, the cruise firms that shuttle passengers to and from destinations around the Baltic Sea are aiming to reduce the amount of food they throw out.
 Last autumn, Estonian-based cruise firm Tallink Silja announced it was working with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to cut down on the amount of wasted food on their ships.
 Since Tallink Silja launched the effort last year, the firm's restaurant chief  Jouni Pihkakorpi  said the company had already managed to cut the amount of thrown-out food by about five percent.
 "Attitudes have changed among the ships' guests and staff. Everyone wants to chip in," Pihakorpi said.
 Buffet line changes
 The eyes of hungry customers are often bigger than their stomachs, particularly while perusing the all-you-can-eat buffets at sea. Often, this results in a lot of uneaten food being left on plates and discarded.
 In order to change that, many of the items on Tallink Silja's buffet lines were presented in individual portions, rather than piled high on platters.
 "One concrete example how we've managed to reduce waste was to prepare smaller portions before we take the food to the buffet line, rather than putting out a ten-kilo plate of salmon," Pihakorpi said, noting that staff has received training on the efficient use of raw ingredients.
 Restaurant workers were instructed how to get the most out of the foods they prepare and how to waste as little as possible, he explained.
 Others get started
 Tallink Silja's competitor Viking Line also intends to reduce food waste on its ships by 30 percent over the next year, according to the firm's communications chief  Christa Grönlund .
 "We have started cooperating with an international company that specialises in [reducing] food waste. We weigh and record all of the food we throw out, which makes it easier to react and change preparation amounts as needed," Grönlund said.
 Cruise ferry line firm Finnlines has also made efforts to reduce the amount of food it throws out, according to  Marjaana Saurila , the company's marketing communications manager.
 "Meals are included in ticket prices on some of our routes and we have managed to sell many meals in advance, and that makes it easier to estimate the amount of food we need," Saurila said.

Baltic cruise ships aim to cut food waste


Summary: This summer has been exceptionally cool in Finland so far, but some say there are upsides to the low temperatures.

Halfway through the month, temperatures during July have stubbornly remained more than three degrees Celsius below long-term averages. Visitors and residents alike have likely noticed Finland's wet, chilly weather, particularly compared to last summer.
 "This can safely be called an unusually cold start to July," said  Niina Niinimäki  from the Finnish Meteorological Society (FMI).
 July has been  unusually cool , with highs barely reaching 20 degrees Celsius.
 July of last year saw the  highest-ever temperatures recorded  by the FMI. Midway through the month, weather stations were regularly reporting temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius across much of the country.
 However, some say there are a number of positive aspects to the current chill Finland is experiencing.
 Exercise, training easier
 Those who enjoy regular exercise, like endurance athletes, get more out of their training sessions when it isn't sweltering hot.
 Cross-country ski coach for the Finnish national team  Ville Oksanen  said that heart rates tend to spike when it's too warm.
 While Central European skiers are forced to hit the track in blistering heat, Finland's female skiers are able to train in the brisk air of Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, where temperatures hovered around 16 degrees on Monday.
 Story continues after photo.
 Women's national cross-country skiing team coach Ville Oksanen. Anu Karttunen / Yle
 "It's been way too warm in Central Europe these days, it might affect the training regimen," said Oksanen. "Although they do have mountains where they can train in cooler environments."
 On the other hand Oksanen said he prefers "summer to be summer" and that he likes cold winters, too.
 Lower heatstroke risk
 The chilly summer has also been a relief to many pensioners and chronically ill patients. Excessive heat doesn't just make things uncomfortable for seniors, it can be life-threatening. Last summer,  when temperatures were far higher , nearly 400 heatstroke-related deaths, mostly of the elderly, were reported across the country.
 Cousins  Toini Inkeröinen , 90, and  Elsa Kiviniemi , 93, said they were enjoying the this summer's cool temperatures in Rovaniemi.
 "You get dizzy and sweaty and you're too tired to do anything," Kiviniemi explained.
 Story continues after photo.
 The elderly face serious health risks when it gets hot. Pixabay
 Now, with the lower temperatures, the elderly and others sensitive to the heat can freely enjoy simple activities like taking walks outdoors.
 "There's a nice little jogging track that the city built for us old folks," said Inkeröinen. "It's only 300-400 metres long. Sometimes we walk farther and have a rest on the bus station benches."
 Cows produce more milk
 High heat is also no friend of domestic animals. A year ago the heat wave forced some dog-owners to walk their canines at night, after the air and asphalt had cooled down.
 Cattle also do better in cool conditions; cows produce 10-15 percent more milk when it's cool outside, according to Rovaniemi farmer  Matti Pöykkö.
 Story continues after photo.
 Research cows in Minkiö, Jokioinen. Riitta Tapiomäki / Yle
 "I'd say about 10 degrees Celsius is optimal for a cow," Pöykkö said. "When it's hot they stay inside in the shade and try not to move or eat much."
 In fact, Pöykkö said the summer has been unusually good to him.
 "There'll be so much to harvest that I wonder if I'll get to it all. Which is great after a few more difficult years. But I do wish us humans could get some heat after enduring the long winter."

Bright sides to cold summer: Saved lives, happier animals, better sleep


Summary: Finland's press examines disregard for forest fire warnings, heated feedback to a study, and long lines for health care.

Helsingin ja Uudenmaan sairaanhoitopiiri

Kuopio-based newspaper Savon Sanomat carries news that  one-third of all forest fires in Finland last year would have been avoided, had people minded issued forest fire warnings  and not started fires near wooded areas.
 This is the conclusion of a nationwide report from the Emergency Services Academy of Finland that analysed each of last year's rescue unit emergency calls.
 So far this year, there have been 1,750 forest fires in Finland, close to half of the number that were reported last summer when conditions were very dry and warm. In 2018, fires scorched more square kilometers in Finland than they had since 2006.
 The paper outlines that the report found that most forest fires originated from campfires or grills. Firefighters interviewed in the story advise people to not start fires at all when warnings have been issued, and to douse all open fires with water, instead of allowing them to die out on their own.
 Controversy over Finnish complicity in Nazi atrocities
 The tabloid Iltalehti covers  heated tempers  over a National Archives investigation into Finnish soldiers fighting for the Nazis during World War II. Two military colonels published an  article  in the periodical Suomen Kuvalehti in June, saying that  the study released earlier this year  had labelled 1,400 SS men as war criminals on flimsy evidence, smearing Finland's international image.
 The director of the National Archives,  Jussi Nuorteva , responds to the criticism in IL, saying that the two men presented an "uncommonly biased" critique and "painted a patchy and peculiar picture" of the study.
 "It is important that the Finnish state dares to explore difficult questions from its history, while taking international context into account," he tells IL.
 Based on the content of 76 Finnish soldiers' war-year diaries, the National Archives study concluded that the SS volunteers from Finland were very likely to have been aware and partly involved in the killing of Jews, civilians and prisoners of war in German ranks in Eastern Europe in 1941-43, the paper writes.
 Call Medical helpline before seeking treatment
 And the country's most widely-read newspaper Helsingin Sanomat carries a report on  doctor shortages in the capital city area . There are currently 50 physician vacancies in Helsinki's health centres alone.
 Emergency departments are the worst hit by the deficit, as no amount of money seems to attract new talent to the taxing jobs. The Helsinki University Hospital network HUS estimates that about 300,000 patients visit its emergency clinics at the Haartman, Jorvi, Malmi and Peijas hospitals each year. One-fifth of these people – who wait in line an average of four hours at the Haartman location to see a health care professional, for example – are actually in the wrong place, the paper writes. They should be turning to their local health centre or a specialized clinic instead.
 HUS operative director  Maaret Castrén  recently contributed an opinion piece to HS, saying that  doctor shortages  and long lines at emergency clinics have reached the point in the capital city area that they are now endangering patient safety.
 "Patients that can't be treated elsewhere should not be pushed onto the emergency departments. This is what is happening because the doors are always open," she tells the paper.
 Castrén recommends that people with acute medical issues first call the toll-free medical helpline at 116 117, before visiting an emergency clinic. Medical professionals answer the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can instruct patients to the correct care facility.

Tuesday's papers: Third of forest fires could be avoided, SS report criticism and doctor shortages


Summary: Finns prefer to buy used cars over new ones. Retailers of new, lower-emission models say a tax overhaul is long overdue.

The import of used cars has hit a new record in Finland, with 21 percent growth noted already in the first half of 2019.
 "We have estimated that some 46,000 used cars will be imported this year. Last year already broke all previous records and now we are on our way to another all-time high," says  Tero Kallio , head of Finland's Automobile Industry Association.
 According to figures from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, private consumers, companies and car retailers imported over 20,000 cars in the first six months of 2019.
 The most popular brands were Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and BMW, which alone accounted for half of the total used cars brought into the country.
 Nearly half of the imported cars ran on diesel fuel, but diesel's percentage of the total is gradually falling. The share of hybrid-powered used cars being imported so far this year is three times higher than one year earlier, leading their share of the total to rise to 13 percent, while the number of imported  electric cars  has doubled. Used cars that only run on petrol now make up 36 percent of total imports.
 Most from Sweden and Germany
 The average used car that is imported to Finland is between six and seven years old.
 Private consumers import about 40 percent of the total, while companies and retailers account for the rest. Half of the imported cars purchased by companies and retailers are either intended for their own use or for resale to other companies or consumers. The other half are cars that companies and retailers buy on behalf of private consumers, meaning that they handle all of the required shipping and paperwork.
 "Sales of imported cars have risen to 15 percent of our total sales here at Kamux. This is up from previous years," says  Tommi Iiskonmäki , Finnish country director at Kamux, a Finnish-owned chain specialising in the sale of used cars.
 Some 80 percent of the cars that Finns import from abroad originate in Sweden and Germany. Sweden overtook the long-time leader Germany last year, thanks to a low Swedish krona exchange rate. Swedes are also increasingly buying an unprecedented number of new cars, a development which has brought more used vehicles to the market.
 Money that could have stayed in Finland
 The import of used cars is boosted by Finnish car tax laws, which impose a higher taxes on new car purchases. The  sale of new cars in Finland has been in decline , and retailers have long been campaigning for vehicle tax reform. Among other things, they argue that better new car sales would allow Finland to better meet its emissions targets and inject more money into state coffers.
 The  government programme  of Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's coalition has committed Finland to ambitious fossil fuel reductions, but makes no mention of possible car tax reforms.
 The Automobile Industry Association's Kallio estimates that Finland will spend 800 million euros on cars from other countries this year.
 "The average price Finns pay to import a used car is 18,000 euros. On top of that, there is the car tax, which is 5,000 euros on average, for a 23,000 average total," he says.
 What he finds strange is that the cost of a used car in Finland is often cheaper – around 4,000 euros on average. He says that the total cost of imported used cars frequently approaches the price tag of many new vehicles available in the country.
 "An imported used car is increasingly seen as an alternative to a new, smaller – meaning lower-emission – domestic model," Kallio says.

Import of used cars continues at record pace


Summary: Roots aren't always a source of pride since we don’t choose our history. But heritage should never be a source of shame either, Yle's columnist writes.

I remember the first time someone called me 'Somali' in Finnish.
 Something about how the word was spoken made me uncomfortable. I wanted to say something but I didn’t know how to respond. Of course I am Somali, but I hadn’t yet internalised that I was supposed to feel shame. And that’s why it felt uncomfortable; the word carried an apology-seeking undertone. But at the time I was just a kid growing up in Finland.
 My grandparents did their part by reclaiming territories belonging to their ancestors. Some of the land was regained, but all of it wasn’t. My grandfather was exiled in Mogadishu when his home became part of Ethiopia. Life went on and my grandparents lived out the rest of their days in an independent state that came to be known as Somalia.
 My parents, both of whom were born into colonialism, started their family in an independent state, though civil war later expelled them.
 With my background, discussions around “Finnishness” as a characteristic—that is, who is Finnish enough by some imaginary measure—strike me as absurd. The suggestion that I should be ashamed of my heritage because it extends beyond the boundaries of "Finnishness" repulses me. I know that this particular stigma does not slander all nationalities in the same way. Sometimes foreign blood is a source of pride in Finland, but this honour unfortunately does not apply to people of Somali origin.
 I am not a foreigner in this country. I am a local with my own history and roots reaching far beyond Finland’s borders. Roots aren’t much to boast about as we don’t have the power to choose our own history. But where we come from can never be a source of shame.
 People are complicated. My history and roots aren’t the only conflicting things in my life. I am too old to be a millennial but too young to feel like a bona fide Gen-Xer.
 My goal isn’t to fulfil some idealised version of what it means to be Finnish or have a superficial generational experience. I’m just living my life.
 I’m too Finnish to be Somali as I’ve grown up here. For a Finn, I’m too Somali to fit into the narrow blond-haired, blue-eyed Finnish female ideal.
 In relation to others, I often feel like I’m too much of one thing and not enough of another, but not enough of anything to fit neatly into a box. I know who I am and I’m okay with it. I don’t need terms to tell me what or who I am. Pigeon-holing is a pressure that comes from outside.
 I fluster people just by being me, so I suppose I too should be bewildered or at least look like I’m confused about who I am.
 Over the years, the word 'Somali' has bounced around me in schoolyards, public spaces, in political rhetoric and made news headlines.
 The word rarely carries a neutral or positive tone. For some Finns, Somali, my actual heritage, is a swear word. This hurt me when I was younger and I couldn’t relate to the Finnish word ascribed to my identity.
 Today I’m not allowing my very existence, my Somali background, to be discussed as if I were a passive bystander.
 I find it especially disturbing when the word is hijacked by ethno-nationalists to amplify their version of the Finnish ideal—a prototype more fragile than ice floating atop a moving stream.
 ”Somali—aren’t you even ashamed?” a white Finn once asked me at the bus stop. I wasn’t ashamed, but I did feel embarrassed on behalf of my interrogator’s ignorance.
 Maryan Abdulkarim
 The writer, originally from Tampere, now lives in Helsinki and works in media and culture.

Somalian: A column by Maryan Abdulkarim


Summary: Finland's foreign ministry said Tuesday it did not have any more details and that Iraq has not been in contact about the matter.

Iraq has announced that it has deported hundreds of children, including ones with Finnish citizenship, who may have family links to the terrorist group Isis.
 Iraq's Foreign Ministry did not specify how many of the deported children were Finnish citizens, nor where they were located.
 "The Foreign Ministry has participated in making 473 deportations of children of various nationalities, including: Russian, Tajik, Azerbaijani, German, French, Georgian, Belarusian, Finnish, Ukrainian and Turkish nationalities,"  Iraq's foreign ministry said  in a press release issued Monday.
 Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs told Yle that it has not received any information about the announcement, and that Iraq has not been in contact with them about the issue.
 The Iraqi ministry's press release encouraged the ministries of all the affected countries to repatriate their citizens – even if they may have family links to Isis combatants or have served prison sentences as minors.
 Iraq's foreign ministry said the country had deported 33 Russian children to Russia on 10 July.
 It remained unclear early Tuesday afternoon whether the deported Finnish minors were linked to the Finnish nationals living at the al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria for family members of Isis combatants.

Iraq claims it deported Finnish children with family ties to Isis


Summary: More than 80 percent of respondents in Finland said they think science benefits people like themselves.

An international survey has found that Finnish residents are highly trusting of scientific research, often even when it contradicts their personal religious faiths.
 The majority of study participants in Finland, 59 percent, said they considered scientists to be very trustworthy.
 "Finland's results reflect a traditional respect for education and science, and also a general trust in national institutions," said professor of communications  Esa Väliverronen  from the University of Helsinki.
 He said the main issues holding back people's trust in science in developing countries, for instance, were poverty, inequality and general distrust of their government.
 The  Wellcome Global Monitor  survey queried more than 140,000 people around the world last year. The poll was conducted across 144 countries commissioned by Wellcome Trust, a London-based research charity organisation.
 Elsewhere in the world, respondents in the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan were the most trusting of scientists (66%), while those queried in the central African country of Gabon had the least trust in science professionals (13%).
 Differing views
 Respondents who confirmed they were followers of a religion were asked whether they experienced a mismatch between their own religious beliefs and scientific data, and if so, which views they preferred.
 About 60 percent of those respondents said science conflicted with their religious views. However, only one-fifth (17%) of those said they trusted religious teachings over science when asked to decide between the two.
 Compared to most other countries in the survey that figure is rather low, according to Väliverronen. In Sweden, 30 percent of the religious respondents said they preferred their faith over science. The ratio was signficantly higher in Norway and the UK (40%), Turkey (51%), the US (60%) and Pakistan (95%).
 "About a decade ago there was outrage over the fact that some people don't believe in evolution. But based on this research it seems religion plays almost no part in Finnish attitudes to science," said Väliverronen.
 Access to facts
 The Wellcome Trust survey also found that Finnish respondents actively acquire science-related news and information; 65 percent of respondents said they had looked for scientific data online in the past month. Globally the figure was less than one third, with health-related searches being most common.
 The survey report's authors added that not all countries have easy access to sources of information, most notably the internet.
 Internet access and science education in Finland  are at a high standard worldwide , and residents are aware of their own scientific competence, according to the survey. Sixty-six percent of the Finnish respondents said they were reasonably or very well versed in science, while "over half (57%) of the world's population don’t think they know much – if anything – about science," the report stated.
 Respondents from the United States tended to overestimate their science skills, while people from Singapore and China underestimated their abilities.

Trust in science high in Finland, survey finds


Summary: Poppers is a slang term for inhaled alkyl nitrate, a recreational drug often sold at sex shops.

Lääkealan turvallisuus- ja kehittämiskeskus

Finnish Customs is investigating a long-running case of alkyl nitrate products commonly known as poppers having been illegally imported over the course of several years.
 Bottles of the liquid drug inhalants have been sold at erotic shops and websites to customers who often use it for its mild euphoric and muscle-relaxing effects, according to officials.
 During the pretrial investigation Customs also questioned several individuals suspected of narcotics offenses and smuggling, but the agency did not specify the number of suspects involved. Officials believe the suspects used adult entertainment businesses to move their product.
 According to the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea), ordering poppers from another country is prohibited without a proper permit. The agency has classified alkyl nitrate as a medication since 2013.
 In early 2019 Customs seized around 2,500 bottles of the drug in southern and western Finland. The agency said that about 40,000 poppers products had made their way into Finland since 2013 and sold for a total of about 600,000 euros, and that it had secured nearly that amount of money from the suspects in confiscated assets.
 The pretrial investigation is nearly concluded, and the charges will be considered by prosecutors in Helsinki and Western Finland before the end of the year, according to Finnish Customs.
 Potentially fatal side effects
 Pharmacist Veli-Matti Surakka  writes in an article at Addictionlink.fi  that alkyl nitrates "no longer have significant therapeutic uses," although angina pectoris sufferers were treated using the chemical after it was synthesized in the 19th century.
 "Poppers are thought to increase nitrous oxide levels in the body, which is responsible for the primary effects," Surakka writes. "It causes blood vessels to dilate, causing a mild sense of drowsiness. The effects are almost immediate and wear off in a matter of minutes, although this can vary between preparations."
 Due to their effect of relaxing the smooth muscles in the body, including the vaginal and anal sphincters, poppers are used to facilitate sexual encounters as well to achieve a brief euphoric "high".
 Due to their dilating effect on blood vessels, "use [of alkyl nitrates] with anti-hypertensive and erectile dysfunction medicines ... is dangerous as they may cause life-threatening hypotension."
 The side effects and risks of alkyl nitrate are mostly limited to blushing of the skin, headaches, heart palpitations and mild allergic reactions. Poppers are not addictive, but alkyl nitrate can be fatal if ingested orally and does not deliver the desired effects.
 Surakka writes that in the 1960s amyl nitrite was sold in ampoules, which made a popping sound when they were opened, hence the slang term "poppers".
 "As legislation was tightened, existing poppers were reformulated to avoid litigation. Indeed, even today, the substances are sold as room fresheners in an effort to abide by the regulations."

Tens of thousands of 'poppers' smuggled into Finland, officials say


Summary: Telenor said the transfer of 54 percent of DNA shares, in a deal worth some 1.5 billion euros, will be complete in August.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has approved the transfer of more than half the shares of Finnish mobile operator DNA to Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor.
 The commission said the sale was not a threat to competition in the telecom sector.
 Telenor will buy 54 percent of DNA shares from two other firms - Finda Telecoms and PHP Holding, which own 28.3 and 25.8 percent of the firm, respectively. The Norwegian telecoms giant initially announced the deal  in April .
 "Our acquisition of a majority stake in Finland’s DNA has been approved by the European Commission, and we expect completion of the deal in August," Telenor announced in a press release issued Tuesday.
 Telenor said that once the deal is complete, it plans to launch a required tender offer for the remaining shares in DNA.
 Helsinki-based DNA provides mobile and fixed telecom service and is the third largest operator in Finland with 2.9 million subscribers and a 28 percent market share, according to an earlier Telenor release.

EU Commission approves majority sale of DNA to Norway’s Telenor


Summary: The dormant mine in northwest Finland was active for 45 years before its last owner declared bankruptcy in 2015.

Finnish authorities have earmarked 16 million euros towards the cleanup and closure of a nickel mine that has been sitting dormant since 2015 for lack of a buyer.
 The Hitura nickel mine, located in Nivala, northwest Finland, began mining and refining nickel and copper in 1965. The last owner of the mine, Canadian-owned Belvedere Resources Ltd, went bankrupt at the end of 2015 and new operators for the mine haven't been found.
 The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY) branch in Northern Ostrobothnia reached the decision to close down the mine four years ago.
 Finland's Mining Act requires that decommissioned mines are restored, cleaned and landscaped, including its surrounding area, and that the restoration meets public safety laws.
 Activities associated with the mine's closure and reclamation must be completed by the autumn of 2021. The second phase has already begun, and includes tasks such as covering over the mine's tailing reservoir, emptying the recirculated water pool and smoothing the terrain. Sludges from the mine will be transported to another pool.
 All in all, the mine encompasses 60 hectares that need to be restored. Authorities said they believe the process will last another two years.

Hitura nickel mine cleanup effort to cost state €16m


Summary: Images of politicians used as target practice, VR suffers cleanliness lapse, and top rock band donates to Finnish kids.

Tabloid Iltalehti reports  on the continued fallout from the news that images of certain Finnish politicians were used as ‘target practice’  at a summer camp arranged by the far-right organisation Nationalist Alliance. Images released from the camp appeared to show attendees firing bows and air-rifles at a number of different targets, which had portrait photographs placed over them - although the faces were obscured in the published images.
 Leader of the Left Alliance and current Minister for Education  Li Andersson , whose image appears to have been one of those used, tells the paper that she hopes ministers and parliamentarians can continue to be in public without the need for personal bodyguards or security guards.
 “I think it is terrible, that such exercises are arranged,” Andersson told Iltalehti. “No one involved in politics should be concerned about their own personal security or physical integrity. If such a culture becomes more common, it is a real problem for Finnish democracy.”
 In a separate story, the tabloid also reports that  Jussi Halla-aho , leader of the Finns Party,  has begun an internal party investigation to discover what role  - if any - members of his party may have had in the controversial summer camp.
 “We will send a request for clarification to those members of the Finns Party who can be assumed to have participated in this so-called camp to get a proper picture of what has happened there and who has participated,” Halla-aho told Iltalehti.
 “Dust balls, debris and dirt”
 Main daily Helsingin Sanomat reports that the  level of cleanliness on national rail company VR’s trains has declined noticeably  since the operator changed cleaning contractors in June. According to HS, both passengers and staff have become frustrated by the apparent drop in standards since the contract moved from previous incumbent Sol to RTK at the beginning of last month.
 The paper details the experience of passenger  Riitta Lassander , who recently took an early morning train from Helsinki to the city of Joensuu in central Finland. Lassander described the “dust balls, debris and dirt” which were evident along the corridors of the train, and the “crumbs and various stains” in the restaurant carriage.
 Vesa Pippuri , chief operating officer of VR, admitted to HS that the transitional phase of moving from one contractor to another had produced challenges, but that feedback from both customers and staff has been very welcome.
 “There has been a certain rush at the start,” Pippuri told HS. “However, working together with the service provider, we are constantly trying to improve the situation.”
 Rock band's donation to children's charity
 Many papers in Finland cover the concert by American heavy metal band Metallica, which was attended by 55,000 people in the southern Finnish city of Hämeenlinna on Tuesday evening.
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports that in advance of performing at the sold-out gig, the  band donated 55,000 euros to the Finnish children’s charity Hope  - one euro for every member of the audience. The charitable rockers have a habit of  donating to a local charity whenever they perform .
 Eveliina Hostila , executive director of the charity, is pictured receiving the giant cheque from members of the world-famous band, and she told IS that the money will be used to support the hobbies of over 200 children for a full year.
 As if this was not enough to endear Metallica to their Finnish audience, the tabloid further reports that the  band included a Finnish language song in their set  - and not for the first time. Bassist Robert Trujillo - singing in Finnish - covered  Kuuma kesä  (Hot Summer) by Tampere rock band Popeda.
 According to IS, Trujillo also sang in Finnish during the band's last appearance in Finland, at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena in May 2018, covering Hassisen kone's  Rappiolla  track.

Wednesday's papers: Protection for politicians, dirty trains and Metallica rocks Finland


Summary: Cows could belch less methane and produce more milk by changing their gut microbes, according to researchers.

Methane emissions could be reduced worldwide by altering the microbes living in the guts of cows and thereby reducing the amount the animals belch, according to a team of researchers who took part in a joint  international study .
 The project, called RuminOmics, involved more than 1,000 cows from Finland, Sweden, the UK and Italy.
 Cows emit large quantities of methane through their burps as they chew their cud. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock-based methane is responsible for around 14.5 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global climate change.
 Research revealed a group of beneficial microbes that affect the metabolisms of animals with multiple stomachs, like cows. It was found that when cattle have these good microbes in their first stomachs – or rumen – they tend to belch less than those that don't, reducing the amount of methane they release into the atmosphere.
 Professors  Kevin Shingfield  and  Johanna Vilkki  headed the Finnish team from the Natural Resources Institute (Luke) along with special researchers  Ali R. Bayat  and  Ilma Tapio .
 In addition to reducing methane emissions, researchers said the right micro-organisms could also help increase cows' production of milk. This would also conserve resources as fewer cows would be needed to produce the same volumes of milk.
 Ecological livestock
 The researchers in Finland used a sealed room called a "whole room calorimeter," or metabolic chamber, to measure the gases emitted by 100 cows.
 "Finnish cows visited the respiratory chambers at the experimental farm, where they were monitored for feed efficiency, methane emissions, energy metabolism and performance, and sampled for analysis of rumen microbiome composition," researcher Vilkki  explained in a release .
 Story continues after photo.
 Luke will learn more when the research calves grow up (not pictured). Tarmo Niemi / Yle
 "Preliminary results show that rumen microbial community in calves "matures" earlier, and now we are monitoring the effects on phenotypes until adulthood," Tapio said.
 Two dairy cattle breeds were used in the study, but the researchers said they believe their results can be applied to beef cattle and other ruminant species, like goats and sheep.
 The feed eaten by cattle directly affects the content and function of their rumen microbiome, and the study suggests that future research and applications should factor in what the cows are actually eating.
 Vilkki said that predicting the impacts of hereditary microbes in different contexts "should result in a more efficient and more environmentally friendly ruminant livestock industry."

Finnish team assists in cutting methane emissions from cow burps


Summary: Finland's national air carrier cites an economic slowdown as well as rising fuel costs for a challenging start to 2019.

Finnair's operating profit declined to 47.2 million euros in the second quarter of 2019, a drop of nearly 20 percent compared with the 59.1 million euros profit that was reported for April to June last year. The result is the latest setback in a difficult year for Finland's national air carrier, which  reported a loss of 16.2 million euros for the first quarter of 2019 .
 However, Finnair also reported that sales increased by 10.4 percent to 739 million euros, led by a strengthening of the company's market share in both Asia and Europe.
 The number of passengers choosing the airline during this period also increased by 13.1 percent to 3.9 million, which the company says is a record high.
 Freight and travel services suffered
 "Overall, our passenger traffic developed well, and European traffic also grew as we expected. However, freight and travel services suffered as a result of a more difficult market environment," Finnair CEO  Topi Manner  told Yle.
 According to the company, the second quarter result was affected by a gradual slowdown in economic development in Finnair's main operating market. The increase of the cost of fuel compared to the same quarter last year was also a factor, the airline reported.
 Despite these recent setbacks, which also included an  AirHelp Finland report critical of Finnair's punctuality and reimbursement policy , Manner insisted that the company will continue to grow in the future. In Asian traffic, this means opening new connections in the second half of the year. In Europe, growth is reflected in Finnair's "route-specific optimization".

Finnair reports weakening profits in second quarter


Summary: The Finnish Ministry of Defence did not specify what type of aircraft had been involved in the incident.

Finland's Border Guard said it suspected that a Russian aircraft entered Finnish airspace on Wednesday morning.
 The airspace incursion reportedly lasted around two minutes over the Gulf of Finland, nearby the southern coastal city of Porvoo, which is about 50 km east of Finland's capital Helsinki.
 "The aircraft was headed west and was within about one kilometre of Finnish airspace," said  Kristian Vakkuri , senior advisor at Finland's Ministry of Defence.
 The ministry said on Wednesday afternoon that it would not comment on what type of aircraft was involved in the incident.
 Wednesday's incident marked the second time this year a foreign aircraft violated Finnish airspace.
 In April, Portugal's Air Force confirmed that one of its surveillance aircraft had  inadvertently entered  Finland's airspace. That incident took place above the Upinniemi peninsula in Kirkkonummi, on Finland's southern coast.
 Portugal said the maritime aircraft, a Lockheed P-3C CUP+, had been on a Nato-led Assurance Measures operation over the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia.

Russian aircraft suspected of airspace violation in Finland


Summary: Communities around the world vie for the accolades, which a UK-based group hands to exemplary parks and green spaces.

Teiden, katujen, lentokenttien ja urheilualueiden rakentaminen

Three public parks in the southern coastal city of Kotka have received the UK-based Green Flag Award, a distinction that is granted to well-managed recreational green spaces around the world.
 The  Sapokka Water Park , the  Katariina Seaside Park  and the  Karhula River Park  were recognized as quality areas by the UK-based group. The Green Flag Awards are handed out for a year at a time.
 Green Flags are handed to cities with green spaces that score high on accessibility and management.
 Tourism chief at Cursor, the regional development company for the region of Kotka and Hamina,  Kati Paasi , said the award is a golden opportunity for businesses in the area.
 "For instance, restaurants could sell picnic baskets with meals that customers could pick up and take to the park," she suggested.
 To date, a total five Finnish green spaces have received the award. Previously, the Pikku-Vesijärvenpuisto Park in Lahti and Tampere's Hatanpää Villa Park and Arboretum in southern Finland received the accolade.
 The award group's green-coloured flag is flown at each of parks it honours around the world, of which there are currently more than 2,000. Most of the group's accolades have been handed to parks and green spaces in the UK, but also in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and the UAE.
 Story continues after photo.
 Katariina Seaside Park in Kotka, Finland. Miina Sillanpää / Yle
 Strict criteria
 The first park in Finland to win a Green Flag was when the Häme University of Applied Sciences' campus park won the distinction in 2016.
 In order to be eligble, local officials need to apply to the group to be considered for the award. After the application is accepted, a two-stage judging process begins.
 "In this first stage the judges will assess the site-specific management plan and associated documentation, and a response to the judges’ feedback from the previous year," the award website stated.
 The first phase is worth 30 out of 100 points, while the second is more rigorous.
 Story continues after photo.
 Sapokka Water Park in Kotka, Finland. Miina Sillanpää / Yle
 "The second stage will comprise a site visit where the judges assess whether the management plan is in practice on the site, and how well the Green Flag Award expectations have been met, by observation and by questioning staff, volunteers and visitors."
 The judges for the three Kotka parks were the award's primary judge  Mary Atkins  from the UK and local Tampere judges  Sara Luhtaniemi  and  Titta Holmala-Kylmäkoski . The judges assessed the three locations in eight different categories, which together contained 27 quality criteria.
 Sustainable management, accessibility and opportunities for visitors to contribute to the area's wellbeing is also a priority.
 "One of the main points is how a regular citizens can use the park," said Holmala-Kylmäkoski. "We also scrutinise how true to nature and how safe the areas are."
 The Green Flag Award is coordinated in Finland by the Finnish Association of Landscape Industries.

Three manicured parks in Kotka receive Green Flag Award


Summary: Organisers aim to clean up lakes and rivers but also educate people about the impacts of littering.

A diminutive aluminum floating barge measuring five meters long by a few meters wide is Finland's newest tool in fighting litter floating on the country's inland waters.
 Using solar energy, the  Roska Roope  (Garbage Roope) boat sucks up debris and trash floating on the surface as it roams waterways, according to preservation group Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association.
 ”This is our 50th anniversary gift to Finland’s waters. It's also part of an education campaign as we want to make people aware that littering is a growing problem in inland waters,” says the association's secretary general  Aija Kaski .
 There's a metal-filtered trough in between the barge's floats, which catches debris and litter on the water's surface.
 Story continues after photo.
 The metal-filtered trough in between the boat's floats catches floating garbage. Mika Moksu / Yle
 Small garbage can become a big problem
 While there has been much news about micro-plastics polluting the sea, only recently has the topic become an issue of concern regarding Finland’s inland waters.
 Garbage tends to especially accumulate in waters near highly-populated areas. Despite the use of water purification systems as well as other anti-pollution techniques, small items such as cotton swabs often end up in waterways.
 Though  Roska-Roope  isn't able to collect all of the unwanted elements in the water, part of its role is to educate the public about the effects of litter.
 “For example, a yogurt container that ends up in the water will be ground into micro-plastics. Then, it ends up in fish -- and ultimately in people when they eat the fish," says Kaski.
 She said people play the most important role in keeping water clean.
 ”The biggest impact would be made, of course, if everyone would take care of their cigarette butts and other rubbish so that no waste would get into the waters,” adds Kaski.
 Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association is an environmental organisation for boaters and everyone travelling in and around Finnish waterways; it was established 50 years ago.

Solar-powered barge gobbles up trash in Finland's waterways


Summary: The foreign ministry said no Finnish citizen children with ties to the terror group had been returned to Finland.

Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs clarified details on Wednesday concerning a claim made earlier in the week by Iraq that it had deported underage Finnish citizens who may have relatives involved with the terrorist group Isis.
 On Monday, Iraq announced it had  deported hundreds of children , including ones with Finnish citizenship, claiming they could have family links to the terrorist group.
 There was some initial speculation that the child deportees referred to were linked to  Finnish nationals living  at the al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria for family members of Isis combatants.
 But according to information obtained by Yle from the foreign ministries of Finland and Iraq, the deportations of Finnish children which Iraq had referred to Monday appear to be related to a kidnapping case from 2016.
 Two children returned to Finland
 "The children were in the custody of Iraq officials," the ministry's current affairs communications director  Vesa Häkkinen  said on Wednesday. "The foreign ministry requested and received assistance from Iraqi officials in 2017 to return the children to Finland. The children have returned to Finland."
 In a text message to Yle, the Iraqi foreign ministry's communications chief Ahmed al-Sahaf said that Iraq had handed over two children to the Finnish consulate a couple of years ago.
 Häkkinen, meanwhile, said those children had no connections to the terror group.
 "It has nothing to do with Isis or deportations. Something of this nature has not taken place for two years," he said, saying that no Finnish children with ties to Isis had been returned from Iraq to Finland.
 Finnish authorities have still not received clarification on Monday's announcement from the Iraqi foreign ministry.
 "They have not been in contact with us," Häkkinen said.

Iraq's claimed 'deported' children were not related to Isis, Finland says


Summary: A real estate forecast also predicts that rents in Finland will rise at an annual rate of two percent over the next few years.

The most attractive cities for residential real estate investors in Finland are Rovaniemi, Kuopio and Oulu, followed by Turku and Jyväskylä - all of which are university cities, according to a forecast published jointly by the Finnish Landlords Association and the Pellervo Economic Research Institute.
 According to the forecast, the best returns on investment for rental properties in Finland are to be found in smaller university cities.
 Both organisations predict that long-term rental income will remain steady for the foreseeable future, but regional differences are expected to increase, especially in the value of housing.
 The high cost of real estate in Helsinki has contributed to the capital's low ranking of ninth on the forecast's index.
 Tourism raising Rovaniemi's popularity
 Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland, rose four places from last year's forecast, and is now the number one location with the best outlook for residential property investment.
 "Rovaniemi's absolute strength comes from the University of Lapland," explained  Tuomas Viljamaa , corporate relations manager at the Finnish Landlords Association, in a press release.
 "Increasing tourism creates positive prospects for the regional economy. The large number of tourists has brought a lot of opportunities for short-term rentals," the press release continued.
 According to Viljamaa, rental income in Rovaniemi has been good despite fluctuations in housing prices.
 Differentiation also visible in cities
 Traditionally, the potential increase in the value of a dwelling has been a significant consideration when investing in housing. Nowadays however the situation is different, as the value of the investment property is expected to fall in many popular locations.
 "The segregation between the housing and rental markets is also visible within cities," explained the Finnish Landlords Association's legal adviser  Tarik Ahsanullah .
 "A value increase of about four percent is predicted in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, while the value of capital appreciation at the edges of the capital city would be less than two percent. Even on the outskirts of the Helsinki metropolitan area, value appreciation may be negative."
 A total of 24 cities were included in the forecast, which analysed factors such as rental income, value of housing and regional factors. The forecast also predicts that rents will rise at an annual rate of two percent over the next few years.

Rovaniemi, Kuopio and Oulu most lucrative for residential investment


Summary: Survey finds most people don’t harbour hate, Kone's rumoured interest in Thyssenkrupp's elevator business and warm weather just might be in store.

Daily  Helsingin Sanomat (HS)  leads with a slightly tongue-in-cheek editorial entitled 'The Majority of People Don’t Hate Anybody.' Although there is much talk about hate speech these days, according to HS the majority of people living in Finland can’t or don’t want to name any one person who makes them cranky or angry.
 "This is good news," writes the paper, citing a survey carried out by communications agency Tekir and research consultants Kantar that interviewed people in Finland about who makes them cross. Respondents were allowed to name three people.
 HS says it wasn’t surprising that the list was topped by politicians, especially those who have recently been in the headlines. The most disliked on the list were former PM  Juha Sipilä  (Centre Party), current prime minister  Antti Rinne  (Social Democratic Party), and Finns Party leader  Jussi Halla-aho .
 Kone’s biggest deal ever
 Financial newspaper  Taloussanomat  reports that Finland-based global elevator firm Kone is reportedly considering a 16 billion euro business deal, which according to an analyst would be the most significant deal the firm has ever made.
 Taloussanomat writes that German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp is said to be preparing to sell off its elevator business, as was reported earlier in July, and that one of the purchaser candidates is Kone. Kone has not commented on the rumours.
 According to Taloussanomat, if Kone does acquire Thyssenkrupp’s elevator business, it would be one of the largest business deals in Finnish business history.
 All up to Barry
 Tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  reports that Hurricane Barry holds the key to what type of weather Finland will have for the rest of the summer: Will warm, sunny weather return or will cooler temperatures prevail?
 All of Europe is dependent on Barry, which has raged over the western states in the US and is currently gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, the powerful storm is moving through the northern parts of the US towards the Atlantic.
 “The hurricane will likely shake up the world’s greater weather picture. Next week may bring weather surprises,” predicts Foreca meteorologist  Jenna Salminen  in an interview with the tabloid.
 Europe may also see another heatwave as the Mediterranean and central Europe are forecast to receive another heatwave with more than 40-degree Celsius temperatures like those the region saw in June.
 So, far Finland has not been embraced by the sizzling temperatures this summer, and not long ago it seemed that the small Nordic country would not be affected by the hot temperatures. However, that looks set to change.
 “Now it looks as though the heatwave will also stretch into Finland,” Salminen tells the paper, saying it will bring warm, humid weather and thunderstorms.

Thursday's papers: Majority don't hate, €16bn elevator deal murmurs, is summer coming?


Summary: The country's defence exports last year primarily went to the countries of Poland, Turkey and Sweden.

The value of Finland's defence exports was 128 million euros in 2018, representing an increase of 17 percent compared to the previous year, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Defence.
 The top three countries to which Finland exported defence equipment were Poland, Turkey and Sweden.
 Other countries that purchased military gear from Finland included Oman, France, Estonia, Switzerland, the UK, India and the United Arab Emirates.
 Last November the ministry announced it was no longer granting new arms export permits to  Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates , citing the alarming humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is involved in a military conflict.
 However, before the permits were stopped, Finland exported 9.7 million euros worth of military equipment to the United Arab Emirates during 2018, according to the ministry.
 The top military equipment Finland exported included precision rifles and accessories, armoured steel parts as well as armoured vehicles and components.
 The highest-valued permits were granted to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and France, according to the ministry.
 Finland issued 257 permanent defence export permits valued at 175.5 million euros last year. The majority of permits were granted to European countries, which accounted for 67 percent of exports.

Finland's defence exports grow by 17%


Summary: Locals hope the cost-effective Dutch model mixed-use road will make the journey to school safer for children.

Pyhtää, a community in the Kymenlaakso region, is the second municipality in Finland to adopt a Dutch model of a cost-effective mixed-use village road that gives pedestrians and cyclists the right of way, with motorists in second place.
 About 50 students from Pyhtää's Suur-Ahvenkoski school helped to transform the Pyhtäänkuja alley into a road.
 Alongside the 250-metre long road is a 1.5-metre wide lane for pedestrians and cyclists. Motorists can use the lanes in the middle that are three metres wide.
 Less expensive than traditional road
 The cost savings come in as the existing road has been transformed without having to redeem extra land or lay new foundations which would have potentially cost up to twice as much.
 Supervisor  Iikka Voutilainen  from Pyhtää’s technical services says that the total cost for the road works were under 10,000 euros.
 ”This is a good solution for the taxpayer,” says Pyhtää’s technical director  Janne Kaulio , who was involved in planning the road last winter.
 The Pyhtäänkujan road was fixed up and repaired at the beginning of the summer.
 New lanes were painted last week and signs erected to inform pedestrians, cyclists and motorists of the new traffic guidelines, where the speed limit is 30 km/h.
 Instructions on how to use the new mixed-use road. Olli Törönen / Yle
 The community of Pyhtää, which has about 5,000 residents, is hoping that the road that leads to the local school will be safer for children to travel along.
 “We’ll likely receive feedback when school starts,” says Vuotilainen.
 Finland’s first mixed-use road based on the Dutch model was opened last fall in Hattula, Kanta Häme.
 Earlier this spring, the Cycling Network (Pyöräilykuntien verkosto ry) chose Hattula as the cycling municipality of the year for 2019. One of the reasons was the Dutch model road, which was carried out by community initiative.

Finnish village gives pedestrians and cyclists the right of way


Summary: An amusement park worker says 'Houdini' would be a good name for the snake, which was found on Wednesday.

A metre-long Anaconda snake, which went missing from Tampere's Särkänniemi Amusement Park two weeks ago, has been found. The search effort resulted in the complete dismantlement of the park's Aquarium terrarium, where the snake had been housed before its escape.
 The snake, which was found on Wednesday night, has become a minor celebrity, according to Sarkänniemi’s director of development  Ville Aarresuo .
 The snake’s disappearance ended happily when the snake, which had been lost in the terrarium’s structure for two weeks, suddenly fell from the ceiling of the aquarium’s entryway where it was discovered by surprised visitors.
 "There were definitely a lot of screams of excitement,” says Aarresuo.
 Now that the snake has returned, many have suggested that it should be given a new name. One of the most popular suggestions has been Houdini, after Harry Houdini, the early 20th century master escape artist.
 ”I think that this is one of the strongest options for a name at this point,” says Aarresuo.
 The Anaconda, or water boa, is a nonvenomous snake usually found in South America and can grow to a length of more than four metres.
 The predominantly nocturnal species spends much of its life in water, floating with its nose just above the surface. When prey comes close, the Anaconda strikes by coiling itself around the body of its prey and suffocates it.

Lost and found: Amusement park's Anaconda snake went missing for 2 weeks


Summary: One of four Finnish men being held in Spain has been dismissed from his role with mobile payment startup iQ Payments.

One of the suspects in an international criminal investigation into the  operating of a sex services website and the laundering of millions of euros  is a significant shareholder and founding member of an award-winning Finnish technology company.
 According to Spanish police, the man is suspected of money laundering, which refers to the concealing of illegally obtained money through legitimate businesses.
 The CEO of iQ Payments,  Tuomo Parjanen ,told Yle that the individual has been dismissed from his role and that the company is not involved in any criminal investigation.
 "We have nothing to do with his (the unnamed shareholder's) private business. This came as a complete surprise to all board members and shareholders," Parjanen said.
 Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) back up Parjanen's statement by confirming that the investigation was not related to any Finnish company.
 Finnish and Spanish police suspect four foreign-based Finnish nationals of being involved in criminal activity in this case.
 One of the men was previously named in Finnish media as the administrator of  sihteeriopisto.net , a sex services website which served customers in Finland and Sweden for nearly two decades before it was shut down by Spanish authorities, Eurojust and Europol in March 2019. Another of the suspects is known by police to have previously run a brothel in Finland.
 Company premises searched
 According to Parjanen, the company was first informed of the investigation when the NBI searched the company's premises on March 26. Parjanen also provided a witness statement on that date.
 "As soon as we became aware of the matter, we took action, meaning we removed all his rights and obligations," said Parjanen.
 The suspected man's employment has been terminated and he has been dismissed from the board of directors. However, he is still a partner in iQ Payments.
 Images from the search of a property by Spanish police revealed Finnish passports.  Lehtikuva
 Yle is prohibited from publishing the name of the man because he is not a public figure and is only suspected of committing a crime at this time. Yle attempted but was unable to contact the man in custody in Spain.
 The NBI, which is leading the investigation in Finland, would not comment on the identity of the suspects due to the ongoing investigation.
 Huge international police operation
 On 26 March 2019, Spanish police arrested four Finnish men in Marbella on the Costa del Sol. Three of them are also suspected of pimping crimes in Finland.
 The arrests were part of an extensive international criminal investigation into pimping, membership of a criminal organisation and money laundering.
 The investigation was centred around the popular  sihteeriopisto.net  website as well as another sex-selling site.
 The Finnish suspects had been living on the Costa del Sol in Spain.  YLE/Arja Lento
 The suspected involvement of the iQ Payments shareholder in the case was also indirectly revealed in a video published by the Spanish police of the search of a home in Marbella. In the video, an iQ Payments shareholder credit card and business card can be seen on a desk.
 Moving to the Spanish coast
 The suspect is originally from the southern Finnish city of Turku, and was a founding member of iQ Payments in 2013.
 The company trades under the name PayiQ, and according to its own website is a "mobile ticketing platform for transport operators and city event organisers."
 The technology developed by the company has gained much praise, including being named 'Best Mobile Service 2018' at the Finnish technology and growth enterprise event Slush in Helsinki.
 By 2018, the app developed by the company was in use by several Finnish municipalities for the sale of public transportation tickets. The company has also received hundreds of thousands of euros in public support, including loans from the public funding agency Business Finland.
 The suspect had been living for the past few years in Marbella, where he continued to work for iQ Payments.
 The administrator of the  sihteeriopisto.net  website also lived on the Spanish coast.
 The sex services site had previously been hosted in Finland, but a tightening of pimping laws in Finland in 2012 led to the host moving first to the Netherlands and then to Spain.
 Police suspect the iQ Payments shareholder and the sex site systems administrator subsequently became acquainted in Spain, where it is believed they have a joint business venture.
 The NBI has not yet been able to question the suspects in Finland, because they are still being held in custody in Spain.

Co-founder of award winning startup embroiled in money laundering scandal