Summary: If the world's other inhabitants all consumed natural resources like Finns, it would require the resources of 3.8 earths, according to WWF Finland.

On Friday, 5 April Finnish residents used up their share of Earth’s natural resources, according to WWF Finland.
 Over the past few years, Earth Overshoot Day has fallen in August. This means Finns overdraw on nature's budget four months earlier than the global average.
 "Our current overconsumption is totally unsustainable from the standpoint of nature. Finns draw on borrowed environmental resources for the rest of the year,” said  Liisa Rohweder , CEO of WWF Finland.
 Earth Overshoot Day signifies when people have consumed more from nature than the planet can renew.
 Energy and food production as well as transport are the main factors underlying Finland’s environmental overshoot, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Finns use up their share of planet's resources Friday


Summary: Springtime weather in Finland is exposing layers of excrement left behind by poo-petrators.

Scientists say dog poop alters ground soil nutrients while canine pee can corrode lampposts to the point of falling over.
 The annual springtime thaw is exposing residual excrement left behind by poo-petrators. But emerging dog poop layers are more than an odious nuisance. Dolloped around trees, it can lead to their demise, according to  Satu Talvio  of Helsinki city’s environment department.
 And while dog poop decomposes over time, it can alter ground soil nutrients.
 “Dog mess can spread disease to other dogs as pathogens stay intact in snow-covered faeces. Pet waste runoff also pollutes waterways,” Talvio explained.
 Bagged excrement
 Talvio said dog-owners should avoid biodegradable sacs for collecting pet waste since it gets incinerated. She suggested owners looking for a green alternative use old bread bags for picking up after their pets.
 “Poop is chucked in the incinerator, and thin plastic bags burn the best,” Talvio explained.
 Helsinki's sanitation department is now faced with dog owners abandoning their poop-filled biodegradable bags in nature. “This is probably the worst scenario for the city as poop decomposes before the bag,” Talvio said.
 Dog pee meanwhile produces nitric acid as it breaks down, affecting ground soil microorganisms, bacteria and fungi. Pee also alters pH levels. Finnish soil generally has a pH level of 6, but in pee-soaked areas it’s around 3 or 4, impacting local vegetation.
 “Dog parks are usually confined gravel-covered areas,” explained  John Allen , an environmental scientist in Helsinki. “They have a pole for the dogs to aim at to insulate the urine from the rest of the area,” he added.
 Story continues after photo.
 Acidic dog urine has nearly caused the base of this post to crumble. John Allen
 But the effects of dog pee are also visible to the naked eye in the form of brown grass, grey tree trunks and corroded lampposts.
 “Daily dog pee showers significantly shorten lampposts’ use,” Allen explained.
 Finland is home to about 700,000 dogs, according to Statistics Finland. The city of Helsinki estimates that some 30,000 of them live in the capital.
 However most dog owners in Finland dutifully pick up after their furry companions, according to Talvio.

Dog poop strains Finland’s urban environments


Summary: A new law will tighten benefit restrictions for people moving abroad, Britain reportedly pulls diplomats from Finnish cities and a Finns Party video goes viral.

From 1 April, Finnish citizens living abroad will no longer be eligible for the full range of benefits provided by benefits agency Kela.
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat writes  that the period of benefit eligibility used to be one year for citizens of Finland moving to live in another country; now the social security institution Kela will revoke a recipient's benefits after just six months of living abroad. Even a brief stint of work in another EU country may also lead to benefit revocation, although the right is reinstated once the worker returns to live indefinitely in Finland.
 HS reports that tens of thousands of Finnish citizens will be affected by the change as they travel across the border, some numerous times a year.
 "It's a real puzzle especially when migrating outward from Finland," said Kela lawyer  Antti Klemola . "Kela will no longer decide on the right to social benefits as a separate ruling; instead the right will now be decided case by case when applying for assistance."
 On the other hand, employees or researchers sent away on a work assignment may still receive Kela benefits for as long as five years during their stay. Students leaving to study as well as their family members will still be entitled to Kela benefits.
 Klemola said in HS that the six-month benefit residence period includes some wiggle room created by EU legislation. Negotiations are usually conducted with the authorities of the country in question.
 "For Finnish pensioners who winter in Spain, for instance, Kela will use EU law to determine whether Finland or Spain is the customer's country of residence. That is, where they have the strongest ties."
 Kela pays out pensions within the European Union regardless of the recipient's country of residence.
 Consulates cut back, sell silverware (?)
 Britain's fraught exit from the EU is causing ripples across the world already, including at Britain's diplomatic operations in Finland,  regional paper Turun Sanomat  wrote in an April Fool's Day joke article.
 According to the paper, consular services offices in the small towns of Raahe, Kokkola and Kristiinankaupunki are being shut down outright, while the Turku office will keep serving expatriate Brits but with less resources than before. The consulate's silverware, vases, furniture, candelabras and other precious items will be auctioned off on Monday.
 "We find this very unfortunate, but we have to work with what we've got," TS quotes Foreign Affairs publicist  Christine Keeler  as saying. "UK funds are being directed toward developing ties with non-EU countries ahead of Brexit."
 The public is invited to view the items on sale at Turku's volunteer fire department building or "WPK house" on 1 April, where the auction will commence at 12 noon, the paper reports.
 Online error boosts right-wing election vid
 Meanwhile national broadcaster Yle publicly apologised to Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho  for accidentally removing his pre-election interview clip from the online Areena service over the weekend.
 Aamulehti reports  that an update to Yle's publication platform caused Halla-aho's video and several dozen other programmes to be temporarily unavailable on the website.
 The problem was fixed by Sunday evening, with Yle head of communications  Jere Nurminen  saying in AL that the view counter for Halla-aho's video did not reset. The party chair's interview jumped right to the top of the list of most viewed election content at over 100,000 views after he tweeted about the glitch, beating out Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's election interview by some 10,000 views.
 Yle CEO  Merja Ylä-Anttila  offered her apologies for the error via Twitter.
 Edit: Clarified Kela benefits story.
 Edit: Yle News was clearly fooled by Turun Sanomat's article on UK consulate office closings. Touché, TS.

Monday's papers: Expat benefits, Brexit culls consulates, Yle technical glitch


Summary: The disruptions to traffic were announced by national rail service VR late Monday morning; at one point only a few trains appeared to be running on schedule.

Many train routes around Helsinki - including local and long distance trains - came to a standstill on Monday morning, due to technical issues, according to Traffic Management Finland, the firm which manages the trains operated by national rail service VR.
 However, at 11.45am Traffic Management Finland said that the technical issues had been addressed but that passengers should be prepared for further cancellations and delays.
 The firm said it was not sure when trains would begin running, saying that it would provide more information as it becomes available.
 Passengers and others are advised to check  VR's website  for updates.

Most Helsinki trains back on schedule, VR says


Summary: Overall traffic fatalities are trending downwards, but young men were three times more likely to die on Finnish roads than the rest of the population.

The Finnish Road Safety Council  found in a study  that young men aged 15-24 were three times more likely to die in traffic accidents than others last year.
 "Young people are unfortunately disproportionately represented in car crash figures," said the council's education manager,  Satu Tuomikoski .
 She said that road accidents involving young men usually include the same handful of elements.
 "These crashes usually involve speeding, neglect of safety belts, inebriation from alcohol and existing traffic violations despite the perpetrators being fairly new to driving," Tuomikoski said.
 She added that only a small portion of young people behave dangerously in traffic, and most young adults are stringently against driving under the influence.
 Over the long term, overall traffic-related deaths have gone down in Finland. In 2018 there were 42 road deaths reported for victims aged 15-24, while in 2009 there were 74 such deaths. Four out of five victims were male.
 Tuomikoski said that education is the best way to ensure safety on the roads, starting with early childhood education and running through to basic schooling and the national driving test itself.
 "It's also down to attitudes. Knowing traffic law is paramount, but so is controlling one's personal behaviour while driving. Young people's brains are still developing, which makes driving all the riskier for them."
 Fatal crash over weekend
 Three people were killed and three others injured in a car crash near Kitee in Eastern Finland early Sunday. A passenger car veered into oncoming traffic and collided with a minivan around 2am, killing the driver of the car, according to police.
 Police suspect that the driver of the car, a 21-year-old Joensuu man, was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident and was driving well above the 80 km/h speed limit.
 The other victims were passengers in the minivan, a man aged 42 years and a woman aged 32. A 42-year-old man from Joensuu and two 18-year-old local women were also injured.
 Police are investigating the accident as aggravated reckless endangerment, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated drink-driving.

Young men over-represented in road fatalities in Finland


Summary: An Yle investigative report has found alleged links between a Finnish Islamic leader and an Isis combatant.

A man who left Finland to join the terrorist group Isis was the son-in-law and business partner of the imam of the Oulu-based Islamic Society of Northern Finland, Yle's investigative journalism programme MOT reported on Monday.
 As part of a programme on terrorism fundraising in Finland, MOT journalists found that those who have left the country to join Isis earned money through a variety of illegal and legal means, ranging from tax fraud to running pizzerias.
 One of them was  Taz Rahman , a Bangladeshi-born man who joined Isis and was later reported to have died in Syria.
 He had co-owned a business with Oulu Imam  Abdul Mannan , who is also from Bangladesh.
 According to leaked Isis documents, Rahman joined Isis in the summer of 2014 and went to Syria with his wife, the imam's daughter.
 Before his departure, Rahman ran two companies in Finland. One was a pizzeria that still operates in Helsinki. His former business partner declined to be interviewed, saying only that Rahman had failed to pay money he owed.
 Rahman's second business was registered as a food kiosk at the address of the Oulu mosque, located in a nondescript building a couple of blocks from the Lutheran Cathedral in central Oulu.
 Mannan, who is an Islamic instructor, served as a deputy city councillor for the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2017. According to the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, Mannan moved to Oulu from Bangladesh in 1992 to study geology, earning a doctoral degree from the University of Oulu in 2002.
 "He's solely responsible"
 Interviewed in English by MOT, Mannan denied several times that he personally knew anyone who had been radicalised.
 "I know each and every person. We don't have any extremists here," he said in the interview, to be broadcast on Yle's TV1 on Monday evening, and already  viewable on its Areena web service .
 Asked if he knew Rahman, Mannan replied, "I told you that I don't want to answer these things, please."
 Pressed on the issue, he said, "He is my relative, my daughter's husband, that's all."
 MOT reports that Rahman and Mannan's daughter went to Syria together in 2014, and that they had children together.
 Mannan said he did not know that they were going before they left.
 "It's the person, individual case, who is responsible for this. So if someone takes some decision for his own and without consulting us, so he's solely responsible for that," he said.
 In May 2017 Isis announced Rahman's death and published a photo of him, saying that he had worked as physical therapist for the group.
 Repeated vandalism
 Mannan said he does not know whether his daughter is still in Syria, and has not heard from her in nearly two years.
 "I told police; it is their responsibility to find out. Not only her, there might be some more Finnish nationals, so they are trying," he said.
 "All of them are members of this society," he added. "So when they come back, they will be treated in a nice way. They will be rehabilitated and [we will] let them live a normal life. I hope it will work."
 In January, Mannan told Yle that the  mosque had been vandalised  for a ninth time within a year when a smoke bomb was thrown in, breaking a window.
 The Muslim population of Oulu is estimated to be over 3,000. Some 1,000 people from more than 20 countries attend events at the mosque.
 2 April 2019 at 9:53am: Edited to reflect that Rahman joined Isis in the summer of 2014 and went to Syria with his wife, the imam's daughter.

MOT: Oulu imam's son-in-law and business partner died in Isis ranks


Summary: Finland's President Sauli Niinistö is heading to St Petersburg, Russia next Tuesday.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg next week, as he attends the International Arctic Forum.
 Niinistö is scheduled to address the plenary session of the forum on Tuesday 9 April, the first of a two-day "Arctic: Territory of Dialogue" event.
 In a press release issued on Monday, the Finnish president's office said Niinistö would hold a bilateral meeting with Putin in connection with the forum, but did not elaborate on specific topics the leaders planned to discuss.
 The aim of the forum, which is being held for the fifth time, is to support sustainable development in the Arctic, according to the president's office.
 Finland is nearing the end of a two-year stint as chair of the Arctic Council, a position it will hand over to Iceland next month.
 Niinistö has participated in Arctic Council forums, most recently in 2017 in Arkhangelsk, Russia and in 2013 in Salekhard, Russia.

Finnish president to meet with Putin at Arctic Forum in Russia


Summary: Espoo and Helsinki have launched the summer bicycle season – while Turku has successfully run them all winter.

In a sure sign of spring, city bikes are once more available for hire on the streets and sidewalks of Helsinki and neighbouring Espoo. As the season begins, Helsinki has about 150 bike stations.
 The shared-use service will expand significantly in May, when the city opens 88 new stations, mostly in northern and eastern Helsinki, which were previously city bike deserts.
 Espoo has set up two new cycle stations in Otaniemi, home of Aalto University. That brings Espoo's total to 107 stations and nearly 1,100 bikes.
 Last year, some 48,500 people rode Helsinki and Espoo bikes between April and October. They clocked up 3.2 million trips totalling 6.3 million kilometres. Each bicycle was used an average of nearly seven times a day, with the typical trip lasting about two kilometres.
 Riders can purchase a daily, weekly or seasonal pass through the  HSL website  or app.
 This year Helsinki has also set up about 50 docking stations for shared-use  scooters and e-scooters .
 Vantaa and Oulu launch in June
 Just north of the capital, Vantaa will roll out its  brand-new city bike service  on 3 June. However the city's 1,000-bike system is not compatible with the Helsinki-Espoo scheme, so Vantaa bicycles cannot be dropped off in other municipalities, or vice versa.
 Vantaa will offer around 100 stations in Tikkurila, Aviapolis, Myyrmäki, Kivistö and Koivukylä.
 Meanwhile Turku in the south-west has become the first Finnish city to offer city bikes year-round. City officials say the first winter passed off without any significant problems, with residents and hardy visitors making about 10,000 trips per month in January and February.
 With northerly Oulu planning to launch a fleet of 600 pink Polish bikes in early June, and more modest systems set to roll out in Kemi, Kotka and Kouvola, Tampere will be the only major Finnish city not to hop on the bike bandwagon.

City bikes return to Helsinki and Espoo, pop up in Vantaa and Oulu soon


Summary: Industrial black plastic is difficult to recycle. Infrared technology developed in Finland may help to change that.

A technology company in northern Finland's city of Oulu has developed an infrared camera that is able to identify black plastic for recycling for the first time.
 The mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) camera is the product of tech firm Specim, which develops robotics and spectrographs, mainly for export.
 Due to its versatility and aesthetic features, black-coloured plastic is widely used in various industries, particularly in the electronics sector. Black plastic is also cheap as it is made by using low-value, multi-coloured waste plastic and production is easier to control, according to Specim's founder, industry specialist  Esko Herrala .
 "Black ABS [acrylonitrile butadiene styrene] plastic accounts for about half of all plastic materials," he said. "But it is actually very recyclable."
 The problem is that normal near infrared (NIR) sensors at recycling plants are unable to detect the black pigment, so black plastics usually go unrecycled worldwide and contribute to climate change.
 The new MWIR technology is able to perform this task, said Specim head of applications  Katja Lefevre .
 Plastic a headache
 Only one MWIR spectrum camera is currently in use in Finland. Specim exports 96 percent of its products, to countries including China, India and the United States.
 So far, however, no other companies in Finland appear prepared to begin using recycling systems and technologies even though recycled plastic is far cheaper than new, virgin plastic, according to Herrala.
 "Finland is a complete backwater when it comes to recycling, even though there is a lot of know-how. There needs to be more systems in place to ensure that plastic is recycled, not just incinerated as fuel," he said.
 Investment company Finnish Industry Investment Ltd. announced in February that it would be giving out some 75 million euros to circular economy initiatives such as recycling plastics.
 Before 2016 all household plastic in Finland was either burned or thrown into landfills. However, in that year the government mandated the separate collection of plastic waste for recycling.
 Finnish Plastics Recycling Ltd.  says that some 15 percent of household plastic is currently recycled in the country, which the company predicts will rise to 50 percent within five years.
 "I believe we could also invent a plastic that doesn’t require carbon black for the colour," the company's CEO  Vesa Soini  said. "And in the meantime machine vision could be a solution."

Finnish tech enables recycling of black plastic


Summary: The warmest temperature for the spring so far was measured at 14.1 degrees Celsius, and fires are popping up around the country.

Warmer weather brought along some springtime phenomena over the weekend, as emergency services have had their hands full with wildfires of varying intensity.
 The threat of grass fires is greatest in Uusimaa and Finland Proper, said Yle meteorologist  Matti Huutonen .
 Firefighters quenched several fires on Saturday. One in Kirkkonummi in southern Finland started after a controlled bonfire of dry sticks spread into the terrain, burning up a hectare of land; another garbage fire spread in Salo in the west, burning some 300 square metres of field.
 Other regions where flames erupted included Kustavi, Kouvola, Uusikaupunki, Nurmijärvi, Parainen, Turku and Kaarina.
 The heat was also up in the west-coast city of Rauma, where a meteorological measuring station clocked 14.1 degrees Celsius, the hottest day of the year so far.
 As ice and snow melts, rising water levels also begin to trouble the Finnish landscape. A flood warning is in effect for the region of Ostrobothnia.

Signs of spring: record high, grass fires, flood warning


Summary: One quarter of people in Finland invest in mutual funds, according to a financial interest group.

Interest group Finance Finland (FFI) reports that 39 percent of investors in Finland are blue or white collar workers. The organisation said that this "people's capitalism" has developed rapidly in the last few years.
 About a quarter of people in Finland have investment holdings, FFI's new study finds.
 CEO  Piia-Noora Kauppi  said that people are waking up to the need to shore up finances for a rainy day.
 "Thankfully party leaders agree that we need more measures that encourage savings and investments to counterbalance debt," Kauppi said.
 Kauppi said she hopes that the taxation of various forms of investment will not be amended in the coming parliamentary term.

Blue collar workers most likely to invest


Summary: Sinking property values, the end of paper banking codes and German discounter Lidl continues to challenge Finnish supermarkets.

Low interest rates and improved employment levels have not prevented property values from dropping across Finland, reports national daily  Helsingin Sanomat , picking up a study by brokerage firm Vuokraturva.
 Findings point to deepening polarisation in the real estate market characterised by residents abandoning suburbs for compact downtown areas.
 Poor job prospects are pushing down housing prices in many mid-sized towns, including Lahti, Pori, Vaasa and Mikkeli.
 Risky paper
 Most residents in Finland use paper banking codes for accessing their accounts online, but new rules from the European Banking Authority (EBA) say hard-copy codes no longer meet security requirements, according to business daily  Kauppalehti .
 Sanna Atrila  of Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority said banks in Finland have known about impending rule changes since 2017.
 Authorities estimate some two to three million people in Finland still use paper codes to do their banking.
 Food wars
 Food prices will rise in the coming years, although increases will be incremental thanks to growing competition, finds a study by Pellervo Economic Research PTT in agricultural newspaper  Maaseudun Tulevaisuus .
 Findings showed that supermarkets Prisma and Lidl continue to battle over the number one spot as the price-friendliest grocer.
 S-Group, which owns Prisma, commands 46.4 percent of the market while Lidl holds 9.6 percent. The K-Group is between the two with a 36.1 percent share.
 The study also showed that online grocery shopping has not taken off in Finland. Residents spent 18 billion euros on groceries last year, but only 60 million of these purchases were made online.

Tuesday's papers: Rural flight, paperless banking and food wars


Summary: While the birch and grass pollen season hasn't started, high levels of alder tree pollen will likely cause worsening symptoms for allergy sufferers this week.

Large clouds of nearly-invisible alder pollen are headed across Finland this week, according to forecasts from the University of Turku's aerobiology unit.
 Many experts are forecasting an very difficult pollen season in Finland this year. Around 10-20 percent of people in Finland, a country with about  5.5 million residents , suffer from pollen allergies.
 According to the Allergy Skin and Asthma Association's (official name  Allergia-, iho- ja astmaliitto ) research coordinator  Tiina Vitikainen ,this year's pollen season began earlier than previous years and the amount of pollen in the air is expected to be high.
 "Alder catkins (the pollen-rich flowers on alder trees) haven't reached their peak yet, but there are a lot of them. There can be four to five million pollen particles in a single catkin," Vitikainen explained.
 Allergy-prone individuals across southern and central Finland in particular will probably see an increase in symptoms as the week continues, according to Turku University's  pollen-tracking site .
 "Most people with allergies have likely already begun to notice the symptoms," Vitikainen speculated.
 Drugs, drops and sprays help
 Specialist physician  Péter Csonka  from private health firm Terveystalo said that now would be a good time for pollen-sensitive people to start taking medication.
 "Antihistamines help itchy noses and sneezing symptoms. Their [the drugs] effect doesn't last long but start to work within a couple of hours," Csonka said, but noted that antihistamines aren't useful as a preventative measure, however, because they provide few benefits.
 Nasal sprays and eye drops can also be useful to treat runny nose and eye irritation symptoms, he said.
 "It's good to begin using a nasal spray before your nose is stuffed up and eye drops before your eyes are all red," he said, adding that nasal cavity flushing method - often referred to as neti pots - can also bring relief.
 The Allergy, Skin and Asthma Association also has tips on how to reduce allergy symptoms, but the methods aren't medicinal in nature.
 Keep it clean
 The group suggests that people thoroughly clean their homes at least once a week.
 It also recommends the allergy prone not to hang their laundry to dry outdoors during the pollen season, which is effectively from early spring through mid autumn.
 People's symptoms tend to peak at certain times of the day, according to the association the best time for those with pollen allergies to head outside is in the morning and late evening.
 The allergy-prone should also avoid heavy cardiovascular exercise during the season, and the association also recommends people to rinse their hair before heading to bed at night to keep dust from the bedroom.
 The main plant species that cause allergic reactions in Finland include alder, birch, hay, mugwort and ragweed.
 Birch pollen causes the most problems for people in the country, but Csonka said that cross-allergies are also very common.
 He said that people with birch pollen allergies are also likely affected by pollen from other leafy trees, as well.

Unusually heavy pollen season getting underway in Finland


Summary: The basic income group could have avoided employment-promotion measures if they wanted to -- but they didn't.

The first trial period of Finland’s basic income experiment  did not appear to have any statistical impact on employment , but it also did not seem to prevent recipients from making use of programmes designed to help them find work, according to a new report out by the government's institute for economic research VATT.
 In the analysis released on Tuesday, VATT said that by nature, the basic income experiment contained elements that could undermine employment measures and make people passive.
 It noted that participants in the programme could, if they wanted, avoid all of the employment-promotion measures offered to them, as well as the responsibilities imposed on jobseekers. The report noted if factors that have a positive impact on employment are removed from the trial, it could reduce the experiment’s employment effect.
 The authors noted that the body of international research into basic income particularly emphasises the threat of activation measures, among other factors. One of the most effective means of boosting employment has been found to be personal meetings between participants and employment officials.
 Basic income group did not become passive
 Removing this element could weaken the employment effect of the trial, if basic income recipients did not participate in employment promotion activities. However authors of the VATT report found that this was not the case.
 "In light of these results, the programmes offered by labour force professionals did not appear to be very unpleasant [to participants]. The basic income group participated in them in almost the same way as others, although the unconditional basic income offered them every opportunity to avoid the obligations of seeking employment," said chief researcher  Kari Hämäläinen .
 A previous analysis of the basic income experiment by the benefits agency Kela found that the no-strings-attached monthly payment of 560 euros did not have any significant impact on getting people into work.
 The model was trialled from 2017 to 2018 and  involved 2,000 randomly-selected individuals  who received the tax-free monthly payment.
 "The trial was successfully implemented. The random nature of the selection ensured that we were able to reliably assess it using register data. Hopefully the incoming government will also use randomised experiments to develop the social benefits system," said senior researcher  Jouko Verho .
 Edit: Updated at 2.20pm on 3 April to correct job titles and to remove reference to VATT as a think tank.

Finland's basic income trial did not make recipients passive, govt research finds


Summary: The Ministry of Defence said that the airspace incursion off the southern coast of Finland lasted a few minutes and that the plane may have been Portuguese.

A Portuguese state-owned aircraft briefly entered Finnish airspace early Monday evening, Finnish authorities reported on Tuesday. According to preliminary information the plane appeared to be a model used for marine surveillance.
 The incursion reportedly took place above the Upinniemi peninsula in Kirkkonummi, on Finland's southern coast, at around 6.00pm on Monday. The area is roughly 40km west of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
 Finland's Border Guard is investigating the incident.
 The Ministry of Defence's communications chief  Niina Hyrsky  told news service STT that the airspace violation only lasted a few minutes.
 Hyrsky said the aircraft flew along the border but did not stray far into Finnish territory.

Portuguese aircraft suspected of airspace violation in Finland


Summary: Most medical school graduates choose to specialise or work in the more lucrative private sector, creating backlogs in the public health system.

Finland’s public healthcare system is in desperate need of more doctors, but it is having trouble recruiting them.
 At the end of 2018, some six percent of physician vacancies in public clinics were unfilled. Kainuu, in eastern Finland, had the most acute shortage, with 20 percent of positions empty. More than 220 full-time positions are waiting to be filled in Finland, with experts estimating that the country would need another 200 general practitioners to meet demand.
 The city of Tampere recently offered a health centre physician a monthly salary of 5,000 euros only to be bested by a private provider’s compensation package of 8,000 euros. Medical school graduates starting out their careers in health centres can expect to earn 3,340 euros. Overall, physicians’ average salaries in Finland are in the 6,500-euro range.
 Sote dents health centres' image
 Opportunities for professional development and specialisation , however, carried more relative weight than salary, according to a joint study by the universities of Tampere and Eastern Finland as well as the Finnish Medical Association (FMA).
 Kati Myllymäki  of the FMA said many young doctors perceive public healthcare as too demanding, with physicians pressed for time while increasingly assisting patients with multiple needs who were previously treated in hospitals.
 A quarter of all physicians at health centres are medical students completing their mandatory nine-month terms of service before moving on to their field of specialisation. In practice, this means that once they learn the ropes, they usually move on.
 Public healthcare centres’ image has meanwhile taken a hit recently in connection with the government’s failed social and healthcare reform programme.
 Eino Solje , who vice-chairs an interest group for medical students, told Yle that politicians have been giving public health care a bad reputation, further sapping budding doctors' enthusiasm for work in the public service.

Finland's public clinics face acute physician shortage


Summary: The city official said last week that the n-word and a derogatory term for Finland's Roma minority were normal terms that he intended to continue using.

The chair of the Kouvola city council in southeast Finland,  Jouko Leppänen , has apologised for the confusion and disappointment caused by Facebook comments in which he used racist slurs including the "n" word as well a derogatory term for Finland’s Roma minority.
 In defence of the terms that he used about one week ago, Leppänen had written that they were perfectly normal and even "beautiful" words that he intended to continue using.
 "It seems utterly inconceivable that in our country, because of coddling, we are forbidden to use terms such as [n-word] ...," the 61-year-old wrote two Saturdays ago, adding that the country's deterioration could be linked to "the suffocation caused by stupid rules and prohibitions" -- largely at the hands of liberals who had been given too much power.
 Yle reported last Monday that Facebook deleted the post because it apparently violated their terms relating to the use of derogatory language.
 However on Monday evening the National Coalition Party politician took to the social media site to write that he would no longer be using the expressions.
 "I no longer wish to explore the idea that I proposed in my writings because apparently it was a bad idea. It resulted in mortification, which goes against my nature and my aspirations and I see that I was stupid and thoughtless," Leppänen said in the update.
 Scandal hits parish and party
 Leppänen’s choice of words whipped up a furore among members of the Kouvola church council of which he is also a member. Council member  Jutta Hartikainen  called on the city council chair to apologise for his choice of words.
 "It’s not at all pleasant to work with someone who uses these kinds of expressions about certain segments of society. It was not appropriate language [to use] in a civilised society," Hartikainen told Yle last week.
 Taina Vainio , a coordinator of Kouvola’s multicultural centre Saaga also commented on the incident.
 "It was rather sad to read that the chair of a city council thinks that [the term] is normal language and that he intends to use it although efforts have been made to ban it using "liberal nonsense". It kind of makes you speechless," Vainio remarked.
 National Coalition Party communications chief  Kirsi Hölttä  also condemned Leppänen’s language, saying that his comments do not represent the views of the party.
 "The National Coalition Party’s fundamental position is that we must refer to all people respectfully. We think it is wrong to use [that word]," she added last week.
 Vicar of the Kuusankoski parish in Kouvola,  Kimmo Ylikangas  had come out in Leppänen’s defence last week, saying that he did not believe that the city councillor’s comments contained any racist motives.
 "I know Leppänen. He is a very sincere and just man. It is difficult to see him as a racist. Maybe it’s good to talk about how it is not appropriate to use such words, which can give the wrong impression. But I hardly think this would be a matter to be raised at a meeting," Ylikangas told Yle last week.
 Leppänen could not be reached for comment when Yle first reported on the matter last Monday.

"I was stupid": City council chair apologises for "beautiful" racist slurs


Summary: Police caught more than 5,000 motorists for speeding violations during a similar traffic enforcement exercise last year.

Police have issued advance warning of a nationwide speed monitoring operation due to take place on Wednesday, in which all 130 speed cameras along Finland's motorways will be activated.
 Mobile patrols as well as the entire fleet of specialised speed monitoring vehicles will also be deployed for the operation.
 The sting will begin at one minute past midnight on Wednesday morning and continue through to midnight the same day.
 The exercise will particularly focus on urban areas and on districts and roadways where road accidents have occurred and where motorists are known to exceed the speed limit.
 "Our hope is that by monitoring and providing advance information we can prevent traffic accidents. We hope that motorists will consider their driving habits and observe the importance of speed limits from their own perspective as well as that of other road users," police inspector  Kari Onninen  said in a statement.
 Police apprehended  more than 5,000 motorists for speeding  during a similar traffic enforcement exercise last year.
 The 24-hour traffic sting is part of an operation involving the European traffic police network.

Police warn of 24-hour mid-week speeding sting


Summary: The front man of the Brother Christmas charitable organisation faces charges over suspected fundraising offences but had other indictments against him dropped.

Known in Finland as Brother Christmas,  Ari Koponen  has been charged for violating fundraising laws as part of an organisation called Ari Koponen Events or the Brother Christmas Association. The prosecutor said that Koponen committed fundraising offences for a one-month period in 2016.
 Brother Christmas  became a social media phenomenon  for helping sick children by telling their stories and raising funds to help them and their families. Like his namesake Father Christmas, he sports a white beard and delivers the toys and gifts in well-publicised visits to hospitals.
 The prosecutor has also charged Koponen and two other members of the board of the Brother Christmas charitable organisation with fundraising offences believed to have been committed from the beginning of 2017 up to the summer of the same year.
 The charges focus on a period during which Ari Koponen Events or the Brother Christmas Associasion did not have a fundraising permit. All of the suspects denied any wrongdoing during the preliminary investigation.
 Koponen: "False allegations discredited"
 The prosecutor previously dropped other more serious charges, including aggravated accounting offences and three other fundraising infringements.
 The prosecutor’s office said that there is no evidence to suggest that the association’s funds were used for anything other than their intended purpose.
 For his part, Koponen said that he was pleased with the decision to drop the other charges under consideration.
 "We finally have incontrovertible evidence that not a single euro of the funds collected by the Brother Christmas Association went towards anything other than helping people in need. In addition some newspaper reports have suggested that I have even misled [people] about where the funds raised went and that I have provided inaccurate and distorted information about it. These false allegations have now been completely discredited," Koponen declared.

Popular Finnish do-gooder Brother Christmas facing fundraising charges


Summary: The press talks about the start of advance voting in the parliamentary elections, SDP picks for the next ruling coalition, and no ethics codes in Finnish firms.

Daily Helsingin Sanomat reports that  advance voting in the parliamentary elections begins on  Wednesday. In Finland, voters will be able to cast their ballot in advance until 9 April at any advance voting station in the country or abroad. Outside of Finland, however, the advance voting period is shorter, as it ends on 6 April.
 The paper offers some advice to prospective voters. Some form of photo ID such as a valid passport or driver's license is required at the polling station. Voters must go alone into the booth to mark their ballot. Children are allowed to accompany adults, but not dogs.
 Write only the candidate's number on the ballot, nothing else – or your vote may be rejected. HS also advises voters to write sevens with a line in the middle, as is the custom in parts of Europe and Latin America, to distinguish them from the number one. If you make a mistake, do not cross it out; ask for a new ballot instead.
 The official Election Day is on 14 April. On this day, voters must go to the appointed polling station stated on the ballot paper they should have received in the post. A justice ministry representative tells the paper that this is because election officials wish to count the number of votes cast at each station. Although in Finland the results are usually quite clear already by 10 pm on Election Day, official election results won't be confirmed until 17 April.
 The newly-elected Finnish Parliament will begin its work after the Easter holiday, on Tuesday, 23 April.
 Either NCP or Centre, with a side of Greens
 Business weekly Talouselämä interviews Social Democratic Party (SDP) chair  Antti Rinne , whose party has been consistently out in front in  recent voter opinion polls . If his party wins the highest proportional number of seats on 14 April, Rinne will be in charge of putting together the next coalition government to rule the country for the next four years.
 Talouselämä asks him the question that is on many peoples' minds:  Who does he plan to ask to join the SDP in government, if the party emerges a clear winner at the polls ?
 "I believe that if we are in government, then either the National Coalition Party (NCP) or the Centre Party would also be there. In addition, it looks quite clear that the Greens will be in the government. And then, if what I heard in Li's [Andersson] Yle interview is true, the Left Alliance's stance has changed a bit, and they would also join, if the NCP does not hold the prime minister position," Rinne told the paper.
 Rinne stresses that SDP success on 14 April is not a foregone conclusion, however. Talouselämä says he has reason to be cautious, as SDP voters are notoriously unreliable about showing up to vote. The publication points out that the Social Democrats also led public opinion polls in the 2017 municipal elections, but when the results were tallied, the NCP came out on top.
 Talouselämä says that even if Rinne were to win a mandate from the people, government formation is no easy task in Finland, nor is working with it once it has been created. It writes that every government in the last 16 years has suffered from "in-fighting or prime minister problems". The last government to serve out an entire term was Paavo Lipponen's coalition in 1999-2003, although the Greens walked out of that coalition before the term was out.
 Only one in three firms have ethical guidelines
 And the southwest newspaper Turun Sanomat writes about  inadequate ethical guidelines in Finnish companies .
 A Nordic Business Ethics Survey from early 2019 comparing Finland, Sweden and Norway has determined that only 35 percent of Finnish companies have ethical guidelines in place, compared to 69 percent of Norwegian companies and 64 percent of Swedish companies.
 The group behind the survey was shocked to see how many workers in Finland had no idea if their company even had a code of conduct. If they knew of one, they did not know its content, TS writes. The survey also discovered a paucity of training in this area, with only one-third of respondents saying they had participated in a company function in which these matters were outlined.
 The survey also found that 28 percent of respondents in Finland did not know the procedure for reporting unethical practices in line with organisational guidelines. The paper suggests that this is a worrying phenomenon in light of recent  impropriety in the financial sector , for example.

Wednesday's papers: Advance voting begins, Rinne's potential coalition partners, ethics codes


Summary: The defendant blamed human error for the release of victims’ names in the verdict.

The Helsinki appeal court has fined a Helsinki district court judge for  negligent breach of professional secrecy  for his role in revealing the identities of victims in the case of a former television presenter  who secretly filmed sexual encounters with 29 women  without their consent.
 As a result of the judge’s error, the media received the sealed verdict, which contained the names of the victims who had been secretly recorded by ex-VJ Axl Smith.
 The appeal court found that technical problems present in the system used by the district court to draw up the verdict made it possible for the judge to believe that the confidentiality markings were intact. It also determined that the judge tried to correct the error as soon as he became aware of it.
 The court ruled that a reasonable penalty for breach of professional secrecy would be a 25-day fine, totalling 1,450 euros in the judge’s case.
 Judge decided to conceal names
 In early 2017, the district court had previously sentenced former MTV entertainment presenter Axl Smith for recording his sexual encounters without his partners’ knowledge or consent and for sharing the recordings with several people. At the request of several media outlets, the judge released the verdict in February 2017.
 In the appeal court hearing, the judge denied committing any offences and said that attributed the disclosure of some parts of a lengthy verdict to human error. However the bench admitted to responsibility for the confidentiality markings.
 At the end of Smith’s trial, the judge had ordered that the victims’ names and identifying information should remain sealed.
 The deputy chancellor of justice decided to bring charges against the trial judge on behalf of seven of Smith’s victims in the sex tape case.
 As the judge’s employer, the state was ordered to pay four victims 1,000 euros each as compensation for the suffering caused by having their identities exposed.
 Meanwhile the previous sentence handed down to Smith in the lower court  remained unchanged in the appellate court . In November 2017, the Helsinki appeal court upheld Smith’s conviction and sentenced him to a suspended jail term of 14 months.
 He was found guilty on 30 counts of voyeurism, four counts of defamation and two counts of dissemination of information that violated the victim’s privacy.

Judge fined for exposing illicit sex tape victims' identities


Summary: The Finnish Tax Administration has renewed its pre-completed tax return, mailed annually to Finnish taxpayers in late March or early April.

Finland's tax authorities have revamped their pre-completed tax returns, replacing the traditional folding layout with standard A4 sheets of paper.
 The new stripped-down return does not have empty spaces to fill in, for example, like the old form. In addition to the figures listed in the tax assessment part of the mailing, the majority of the return's recipients receive a tax decision and a notice of assessment along with the return.
 The Tax Administration Vero says that if there is no need for corrections or additions to the return, taxpayers needn't do anything. For recipients who wish to make corrections, the deadline is either 7 May, 14 May or 21 May.
 Electronic filing encouraged
 Vero is promoting a paper-free environment, and so it is asking taxpayers to make any possible correction online with its  MyTax service . Individuals can log on to the service with online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a Katso ID.
 The pre-completed tax return also did not contain a return envelope for the first time, but Vero says customers can request one if necessary. If taxpayers opt for a paper filing, the column on the right indicates the number of the form required for correcting each pre-completed entry, Vero says. The tax authorities also ask that any corrections filed on paper arrive by the due date listed on the return.
 The Tax Administration recommends that customers save the notice of assessment ( verotustodistus ) sheet for future use, but points out that an electronic version of both the tax decision and the notice of assessment are also available in MyTax.
 In 2018 some 1.45 million Finns made corrections or additions to their pre-completed tax return. 60 percent were filed via the online MyTax service. If corrections are made, taxpayers will get a new decision reflecting the changes and notifying them of possible refunds or additional taxes due.
 Refunds and back taxes as early as August
 Vero reminds taxpayers that the dates for tax refund payments and settlement of outstanding taxes will be earlier this year than in years past. Starting in 2019, refunds will be paid and back taxes will come due in the period between July and December.
 Finland's Tax Administration says that most individual taxpayers will receive their tax refund on 6 August this year, while most individual taxpayers will be required to pay their 2018 back taxes by 1 August 2019.

New format pushes taxpayers to file annual returns online


Summary: Hundreds of migrant families are now undocumented because of a rule change. Interior Minister plans further reforms to bar their right to municipal residency.

The Interior Ministry is planning new rules that would strip  undocumented migrants  of the right to reside in municipalities and restrict their right to public services. The move follows Finland’s decision to stop granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds, which one NGO says has increased the number of undocumented people in the country.
 The Helsinki Deaconess Institute has issued a warning about a new group of people in Finland who do not have residence status. According to the charitable organisation, changes to Finland’s asylum policy have effectively stripped a number of people of their right to reside in the country.
 In 2016, Finland stopped granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds. The new system meant that international protection could only be granted temporarily, if applicants did not meet the requirements for asylum or subsidiary protection, but could not return to their countries of origin because of the poor security situation or some kind of natural disaster.
 According to the non-profit, the reform suddenly changed the status of a large group of people legally living in Finland for a long time, effectively making them undocumented individuals. The organisation estimated that the group includes dozens, even hundreds of families with children.
 "They have settled in Finland. Many of them have jobs and are studying," said Deaconess Institute executive vice president  Marja Pentikäinen  told Yle.
 Municipal residents with no right to live in Finland
 According to Pentikäinen, the new circumstances have placed many people in an unusual state of limbo. Although undocumented individuals generally do not have the right to stay in Finland, they may still have residency status as registered residents of a municipality. In other words, they can simultaneously be Helsinki residents who do not have the right to live in the country.
 The Deaconess official said that the situation has raised questions among the people affected as well as among officials. “How should people operate? Which law takes precedence and which doesn’t? All municipal residents have the same responsibilities and rights, for example to local government services,” she commented.
 The organisation is calling for the restoration of humanitarian residence permits and for an easing of Finland’s work permit practices.
 "This puts many people in a hostage situation: they cannot return to their countries of origin because there is no repatriation agreement and therefore they remain here as undocumented migrants," Pentikäinen explained.
 Wheels turning to remove right to municipal residency too
 On Tuesday, Yle asked Interior Minister  Kai Mykkänen  to respond to the concerns expressed by the Deaconess Institute. He said that he would not consider restoring residence permits granted on humanitarian grounds.
 "I would not restore it. Residence permits on humanitarian grounds are granted to fewer than one in ten of the people who applied for asylum in 2015 and the years before that. It was not a major issue. The bigger question is, what to do about the growing number of people whose asylum applications are rejected because we received many more asylum seekers than in the past," Mykkänen said.
 "We must be able to grant residence permits to the people who need them the most. If we have several different classes of residence permits which are granted without a sound basis, then Finns would not support it as a means of helping people fleeing persecution," he added.
 Yle pointed out to Mykkänen that there are currently people in Finland who previously had humanitarian residence permits and who are currently undocumented because of the rule change, although they are registered residents of local municipalities. The minister was asked what advice he would give to officials and individuals who are now confused about the current situation.
 "Immediate treatment for urgent health care needs must be guaranteed to everyone – we have clarified our position on that, even in the parliament. When it comes to residency in a municipality, we have actually launched legal reforms to review this contradiction so that while there would be no legal right to residence, people would still retain their municipal residency," Mykkänen explained.
 "We should eventually get to the point where even the right to live in a municipality will end once there is no legal right to residency in the country," he added.
 No right to public services
 Mykkänen said that the immediate consequences of the termination of municipal residency status would be a loss of the right to public services.
 "Then there would be no right to public services that are not linked to urgent and immediate care or assistance in acute cases. The starting point is that wellbeing services funded with taxpayer money is meant for those who have a legal right to residency here," he declared.
 Mykkänen stressed that Finland’s commitment is to helping people genuinely in need of international assistance.
 "The rules should be clear. For Finland to help those genuinely fleeing persecution, there needs to be a clear line drawn [to make it clear that] it is not possible to delay departure [from Finland] in the event that all legal avenues and permit processes have been exhausted and there are no grounds for a residence permit. Then it is clearer what services [people] can get and what they can’t."

Interior Minister aims to strip undocumented migrants of municipal residency, right to public services


Summary: Two party chairs said women should be required to serve in the military, while two others said global climate change is overhyped.

With less than two weeks away to parliamentary elections on 14 April, nine of Finland's minor parties made their stances known in a debate hosted by public broadcaster Yle on Tuesday evening.
 According to opinion polls, none of the parties appear to have any chance of getting into government. Yle's most recent political party poll found there was about 3.1 percent voter support for all of the minor parties combined.
 That same  poll  found that the combined voter support for the top three major parties last month - including the Social Democrats, National Coalition Party and the Finns Party - was 51 percent.
 Given their positions, if the minor parties somehow did ascend to government the country's policies and laws would look quite different than they are today.
 The parties that participated* in Tuesday's debate included:
 Feminist Party Citizens' Party Finnish People First Pirate Party Animal Justice Party of Finland Liberal Party Communist Party of Finland Communist Workers' Party Independence Party
 Climate change
 Global climate change is one of the top concerns among voters, according to several recent political surveys. In response to a straw poll question on whether climate change is a looming threat, seven party representatives answered yes, while two others said no.
 Chair of the anti- immigration party Finnish People First,  Marco de Wit , characterised the concept of global climate change as "propaganda." The EU-sceptic Citizens' Party's  Sami Kilpeläinen  agreed.
 "Each and every one of us can certainly do something to slow down climate change, but the threat [of climate change] is exaggerated," Kilpeläinen said.
 The chair of the Feminist Party,  Katju Aro , disagreed.
 "We must stop global warming temperature [levels] at 1.5 degrees (Celsius) and cut our carbon output by 2030 at the latest - that's completely clear. We still have a lot to do," Aro said.
 Tea Törmänen , chair of the Liberal Party, said that Finland should take advantage of climate change as a business opportunity, saying the country could sell its technical expertise in areas like nuclear energy abroad.
 Meanwhile, the Pirate Party's  Petrus Pennanen  said that half of the carbon emissions in Helsinki were due to the use of fossil fuels for its district heating system and said it could be powered by small-scale nuclear power plants.
 Fundamental outliers
 In the unlikely scenario that the Communist Workers' Party was voted into government, the party's chair,  Mikko Vartiainen , said it would likely be difficult to find other parties with similar values with which to cooperate.
 "No parliamentary group has the same goal as us, that is, to overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism," Vartiainen said.
 The ideological differences between the various parties were sometimes major, particularly when it came to the topic of national defence.
 Regarding international military assistance from outside the country, the Citizens' Party's Kilpeläinen said that he would not support having foreign soldiers on Finnish territory "under any circumstances."
 He said that the party would like to stop Finland's international defence cooperation with Nato as well as Sweden.
 Both representatives from the Independence Party and Finnish People First said that they would like to put a stop to international military cooperation.
 A straw poll on whether or not the representatives would consider Finland as part of the West in the face of a world conflict resulted in six parties answering yes. The Independence Party, the Citizens' Party and the Finnish People First party all said no.
 Health care reform
 Last month Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's centre-right government collapsed in the final weeks of its four-year term after long-planned reforms of the country's health and social care system (colloquially known as  sote )  failed .
 The Pirate Party's Pennanensaid he wasn't a believer in the reform's aim to significantly re-consolidate the country's health care system by region.
 "We already have five districts for specialised health care services in Finland - it's a good foundation on which to build. The municipality-based system can be developed further, but the state must be prepared to assist municipalities that can't manage on their own," Pennanen said
 Conscription and hate speech
 The topic of Finland's conscription system was raised by both the Feminist and Liberal parties, but in terms of equality. Currently only young men are required to serve in the military, but women are able to do so voluntarily.
 "We absolutely support gender-neutral conscription, our present system is really unfair," the Liberal Party's Törmänen said.
 The Feminist Party's Aro said she has has been the target of hate speech and the recipient of hate mail.
 "I have received a good deal of various [kinds of] hate mail. Our voters and supporters have too, some of whom are immigrants. I don't agree with the notion that forbidding hate speech is a form of limiting free speech," Aro said.
 However Kilpeläinen of the Citizens' Party said that the police have better things to do than enforcing hate speech laws.
 "Hate speech is a fictitious concept. The powers of police are being used to control others. We already have defamation laws. Why are we even talking about hate speech?" Kilpeläinen said.
 Neither of the communist parties could come to agreement on the topic of hate speech.
 Mikko Vartiainen , chair of the Communist Workers' Party, said that there are already laws on the books prohibiting incitement to hate and violence.
 But chair of the Communist Party of Finland,  Juha-Pekka Väisänen , said thathe would be prepared to ban hate speech.
 _  The relatively newly-minted Seven Star Movement was also invited to the debate but the  party's  founder and chair  *Paavo Väyrynen  declined._

Hate speech, climate "propaganda": Starkly diverse views aired in small parties’ debate


Summary: A young Finnish man has been recently transferred to Finland to serve out a terrorism sentence handed down after a conviction by a court in Denmark.

According to the Criminal Sanctions Agency (Rise), the first Finnish national convicted of terrorist offences abroad was transferred to Finland within the past year to serve his sentence here.
 According to information obtained by Yle, the individual is a 26-year-old man. The felon was slapped with four-year prison sentence for terrorism in Esbjerg, Denmark in March 2018. The man’s Danish defence attorney confirmed to Yle that he had been transferred to Finland to serve his sentence.
 Rise reportedly has information about another Finnish individual in another European country, who is being considered for transfer to Finland. However the country in question has said that it will not make a transfer proposal not has the matter come to the agency for consideration.
 The transfer of a prisoner requires agreement from both countries as well as the prisoner’s consent.
 Isis religious instructor
 The man who was recently moved to Finland was found by a Danish court to have joined the terrorist organisation Isis and provided religious teachings in the organisation’s Koranic school. The convicted man’s lawyer,  Mette Grith Stage  said that her client did not wish to remain in Denmark and that he had been sent to Finland several months ago.
 Stage said that the prisoner would not have been able to stay in Denmark after serving his sentence, because Danish authorities had issued a deportation order and slapped him with a lifetime entry ban.
 "He has no family here and he does not speak Danish. He wanted to return to Finland," Stage told Yle.
 The man was born in Finland and at the age of 13 moved to Manchester, England with his Somali-born father. The family’s mother did not move with the rest of the family.
 The man was a member of the same group of friends that included the individual responsible for the bombing of the Manchester Arena in May 2017. The attack claimed 22 lives and injured more than 500.
 The Finnish citizen travelled to Syria in 2013 and lived there until 2015. He returned to Finland from Syria for a short time, but moved to Denmark for university studies, having been previously banned from re-entering the UK. However he was arrested in Denmark in 2017.
 His trial revealed that during his time in Finland, he met with one of his Manchester acquaintances. The pair had been in Syria at the same time. Last summer the other Manchester associate was convicted for terrorist acts in Denmark.
 Lawyer: He has learned from his mistakes
 During his trial, the Finnish man disclosed that he had a wife and small child in England. His wife had also spent time with him in Syria and had returned with him to Finland for his short visit.
 The defence attorney told Yle that she did not know of the whereabouts of the man’s family. Stage said that she had urged her client to appeal his verdict in Denmark, but he refused, claiming that he did not want to wait in prison for the case to be heard.
 "He gave the impression that he had really learned from his mistakes. The man who was convicted here in Denmark is a very different person from the one who was in Syria. He no longer believes in that ideology," she declared.
 The Criminal Sanctions Agency did not say whether or not the man is still in prison. Sentencing handed down in a foreign court can be changed to correspond to Finnish standards. However this does not apply to sentencing handed down in other Nordic countries.
 All the same, it is possible for first-time offenders to be eligible for parole after serving half their sentence. According to information obtained by Yle, the man in question has no previous convictions in Finland.
 The sanctions agency only maintains information about requests for intra-EU prisoner transfers. Such transfers outside the EU are handled by the Justice Ministry.
 The ministry said that it has no knowledge of Finnish citizens convicted of terrorist offences outside the EU awaiting transfer to Finland.
 The Foreign Ministry has said that there are fewer than 10 Finns suspected or convicted of terrorist crimes worldwide. However it declined to provide precise figures.

First terrorism convict transferred to Finland from Denmark to serve out sentence


Summary: As advance voting in the 2019 general election begins, many voters told Yle they consider their choice of candidate a highly personal matter.

People in Finland like to keep their voting choices a closely-guarded secret, according to an informal Yle survey.
 The straw poll asked readers if they tell others who they voted for, and if so, what kind of responses they received. The question garnered 126 responses over the course of three days.
 Many respondents said they would not feel comfortable even telling their spouse about the candidate they chose.
 "Election confidentiality is a fundamental component of democracy. It's not right to divulge your vote, even if you don't put a lot of stock in a secret ballot,"  one person wrote.
 "Someday we might end up living in a society in which forces seek to silence voters with the 'wrong' political leanings. We can't create a custom or expectation that we have to openly share our personal voting decisions because it might lead to silence on the matter being interpreted as a vote they don't dare divulge ," wrote another.
 Professor of social psychology  Vilma Hänninen  from the University of Eastern Finland says there is something very intimate about sharing political affiliations in Finland.
 "It's quite similar to questions of religion. Both are seen as private affairs, and people don't care to speak about them," she said.
 Professor: Finns are consensus-seekers
 "It always bothered me when my mum never wanted to reveal whom she voted for. She'd just say 'voter privacy' and smile like Mona Lisa,"  one respondent recalled.
 Another reason people often avoid talking politics in Finland is the potential rift it might create between friends.
 "I learned my lesson after my friends and I got into a terrible row over the second round of a presidential election. We had such differing opinions that a couple of years went by before some of us ironed things out. Now we know to talk about politics in general, but never to reveal whom we vote for,"  one respondent shared.
 Hänninen says that as a rule, Finns seek consensus.
 "Perhaps in the aftermath of the Civil War, we want to stay in agreement. We aren't eager debaters, like you might find in other countries. In other places, there may be more of tendency to present opposing stances more clearly to encourage dialogue," she said.
 However, she said it still is important that people in democratic societies speak openly about politics.
 "It's not good that potentially controversial issues are kept out of our conversations. These shouldn't be things that lead to a communication breakdown. Open discussions about political stances would be extremely beneficial. Maybe that way, we could avoid having others talk for us," she said.
 "I've always got good reasoning behind my choices, so I find that people don't overreact to them, even when they don't agree with the party. This year, I plan to vote completely differently than I have in the past. My 70-year-old dad freaked out when I told him, but after he went on about it for awhile, he eventually calmed down,"  one reader told Yle.

Professor calls for openness as Finns cling to voter secrecy


Summary: Papers in Finland discuss an annual survey of public trust levels, authorities brace for possible election tampering, and Finnair's carbon pollution growth.

" Finns trust Wikipedia more than Parliament " reads the headline in the rural affairs newspaper Maaseuden Tulevaisuus this Thursday, as MT carries a story on the latest EVA assessment of public trust in the country's various institutions.
 According to the pro-business think-tank's annual poll, Finnish residents put the most trust in the police force (86 percent), with President Sauli Niinistö and the Defence Forces tied for second place (slightly over 80 percent each).
 Compared to the survey results from a decade ago, the public puts more faith in the president and the European Union than they used to, and have less even faith in the trustworthiness of politicians and the media. Only one in five in this latest poll trusted Finland's political parties, for example.
 Other institutions that have gained trust over the years include the court systems, small businesses and NGOs. The public broadcaster Yle, daily Helsingin Sanomat and commercial broadcaster MTV have all lost ground or maintained their previous levels of trust.
 The survey contains the response of 2,000 people, yielding results with a 2-3 percentage point margin of error. EVA has carried out an annual assessment of the values and attitudes of the public since 1984.
 Authorities prepare for election meddling
 The country's most widely-read daily Helsingin Sanomat reports on  Finland's preparations for expected election interference .
 The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) considers it likely that foreign states will try to influence the Finnish parliamentary elections on 14 April in some way.
 "We are preparing for a possible cyber attack on election day. Last year in Sweden, the election authorities' website that was tracking results was targeted by an attack," says  Jussi Toivanen , chief communications specialist at the Prime Minister's Office.
 Toivonen tells HS that the only pre-election harassment that has been flagged so far has been domestic in origin, including threatening behaviour online and at campaign stops.
 "A new development is that people come out to events to deliberately provoke candidates face-to-face and stream the interaction online. This is really bad for democracy, [particularly] if candidates begin having second thoughts about running because of this kind of pestering."
 The Finnish neo-Nazi organisation Nordic Resistance Movement has also been spreading false information online in the name of various political parties, but Toivonen tells HS their activity is "very marginal". Last week the country's Supreme Court placed a  temporary ban on the group's activities .
 A five-hour-long denial of service attack downed the website of the new political group Movement Now for 20 minutes on Monday, the paper reports. The group's IT specialist says it was a 'brute force' attack, where cyber attackers attempt to penetrate the same server by cracking passwords and exploiting security loopholes. The attack was traced to the IP address of a Russian operator.
 As a whole, however, electoral entities have not yet been subject to significant cyber attacks,  Jarna Hartikainen , head of situational awareness at Finland's National Cyber Security Centre tells the paper.
 Third-largest emissions growth in Europe
 And an article from the financial weekly Talouselämä (TE) looks at a recent ranking of airlines in terms of their carbon emissions and finds that  national carrier Finnair had the third-highest growth in emissions in Europe last year , with air traffic emitting 11 percent more carbon pollution in 2018 than in 2017.
 Finnair's global CO2 emissions weighed in at 3.2 million tonnes last year, surpassed by only one factory in Finland, the SSAB steel mill in the northwestern coastal city of Raahe, which emitted 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018.
 Finnair's media relations director  Päivyt Tallqvist  doesn't deny the uptick, saying it is attributable to Finnair's strong growth. She tells the periodical that the airline is nevertheless constantly seeking to cut emissions with new technology and optimized routes, altitudes and speeds.
 TE reports that the Technology & Environment research group which released the  figures  says "aviation's runaway emissions" can be attributed to lax government regulation compared to other transport.
 "National carriers and low-cost airlines all benefit from paying no fuel tax and VAT while the rest of us must pay our way. Governments and the EU need to wake up, starting with a tax on kerosene and clean fuel mandates that force airlines to switch to zero-emission jet fuel,"  Andrew Murphy , T&E's aviation manager is quoted as saying.

Thursday's papers: More trust for Wikipedia than Parliament, election meddling, Finnair emissions


Summary: The Portuguese Air Force confirmed Monday's brief airspace incursion, saying it regretted the incident and that it was not premeditated.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

Portugal's Air Force confirmed that one of its surveillance aircraft had "inadvertently entered Finland's airspace" on Monday evening, according to the Portugal News, the country's biggest English-language newspaper.
 Finland's defence ministry reported that the  incursion  took place above the Upinniemi peninsula in Kirkkonummi, on Finland's southern coast, at around 6.00pm on Monday.
 Portugal's Air Force 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, according to the paper.
 The aircraft had carried out a "route correction and failed to prevent the radius of return exceeding about 0.3 nautical miles (500m) the limit of the air space," according to the  Portugal News .
 According to news service APTN, the aircraft had flown to the area from Poland.
 Unlike Poland and Estonia, Finland is not a member of Nato, but does cooperate in peace-support operations and has participated with the military alliance in some of its  exercises .

Portuguese Nato plane's incursion into Finnish airspace was "inadvertent"


Summary: Jan Vapaavuori said he's serious about a contest to come up with a coal replacement –  but preferably not biomass or nuclear –  to heat the capital city.

The Mayor of Finland's capital launched a campaign on Wednesday aimed at tackling climate change called the Helsinki Challenge competition. During a Helsinki Symposium at City Hall, Mayor Jan Vapaavuori promised one million euros to whoever can devise an energy production method that would replace coal burning for heat in the capital city.
 The mayor tweeted: "Helsinki Challenge: A million euros to the person who can develop a solution to replace coal burning in the heating of Helsinki in the most sustainable way possible, using the least biomass. #HelsinkiSymposium"
 The Finnish capital has pledged to stop using coal for heating by the year 2029, as Finnish law prohibits using coal for the production of electricity and heat after this date.
 "I'm completely serious. We've got 10 years to give up the use of coal, and in a city the size of Helsinki, this is a very large challenge," Vapaavuori said.
 Vapaavuori said the solution could be worth tens, if not hundreds of millions of euros. He said the heating should also take place utilizing as little biomass as possible.
 "The city feels it is sensible that an unsustainable fuel like coal is not replaced with another questionable fuel like biomass," the mayor proclaimed.
 Official contest opens in autumn
 The Helsinki Challenge will be officially launched in the autumn. Vapaavuori foresees that an international panel of experts will be selected to act as the competition's jury.
 Vapaavuori said it is unlikely that one solution alone will be able to replace coal as a city heating source. A combination of existing technology, improved energy efficiency and something new will likely be the best choice.
 The mayor also indicated that nuclear would not necessarily have a role in the new solution, either.
 "If I knew what I wanted, I wouldn't have had to launch this kind of competition. We are giving the challenge a global reach for just this reason, because there isn't an easy solution to this," he said.
 Vapaavuori says that the competition was also introduced because the city doesn't want to end up using a poor temporary solution. He said that new production facilities that rely on biomass products such as wood pellets create zoning and logistics problems.
 "We know how hard it is to plan new plants within existing city structures. We know what a big operation it will be if tens or hundreds of lorry loads of fuel are trucked in every day. We want to avoid all this," he said.
 Helen already investing in alternatives
 Helsinki's city-owned power utility Helen, says half of its energy is currently produced with coal, but says it has plans to close its coal-fired Hanasaari power plant by the end of 2024. Taking the plant off the grid will remove 400 MW of heat production capacity, Helen says.
 The company reports that it had already built 114 MW of alternative energy production in the form of a new wood pellet-fired heating plant in Salmisaari, and a new underground heating and cooling plant under the Esplanade Park in the city centre. Helen has also installed  several solar facilities .

Helsinki Mayor pledges €1m for idea to replace coal-fired energy plants


Summary: The ministry says the next government should stimulate the economy, as annual growth is set to drop below 1.5 percent.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Finland's ministry of finance has raised its forecast for the Finnish economy to 1.7 percent growth in 2019. The ministry said the growth will be sustained by domestic demand, as private consumption will continue to swell.
 "A higher employment rate and accelerating growth in earnings will sustain the growth of disposable income. Modest inflation will contribute to continued rapid growth in real income," the forecast says.
 Finance ministry employees nevertheless predict a slowdown in the next few years to an annual growth rate of less than 1.5 percent.
 Finnish economic growth is held back by an international environment that the finance ministry describes as more challenging than in the past. By 2022-23, the ministry forecasts that economic growth in Finland will fall to under one percentage point.
 Balanced books by 2020
 The finance ministry predicts that the balance of general government finances will be restored at the turn of the decade, although central and local government will remain in deficit.
 It forecasts that public finances will start to deteriorate again in the early 2020s, however, as consolidation measures come to an end and economic growth slows further.
 "Finland’s economy is pushing forward in the wake of the economic upswing. Growth is slowing down and many see the signs of recession in the global economy. Conditions for strengthening public finances are demanding," says  Mikko Spolander , director general of the ministry's economics department.
 Civil servants at the ministry of finance said back in early February that the  new government needs to either make two billion euros in cuts or raise taxes to ensure fiscal sustainability . At the 4 April release event for the forecast, Spolander said that these recommendations haven't changed.
 75% employment would require more reforms
 Finland's outgoing government set a goal to achieve a level of  72 percent employment , and now Finland's largest parties are making pre-election promises to pursue a 75 percent target. The finance ministry's forecast predicts that the employment rate will rise to 73.3 percent in 2023. If the next government wants added improvement, the ministry says it will require more structural reforms.
 Finland's finance ministry releases an economic survey with projections for the coming economic climate four times a year. The last forecast is from December 2018, when the ministry predicted the Finnish economy would grow by 1.5 percent in 2019.

Finance Ministry predicts economic slowdown, presses for more structural reforms


Summary: Employees report illegally low wages and forced overtime work.

An Indian subcontractor of a firm owned by outgoing Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications  Anne Berner 's family is guilty of violating workers' rights, says the corporate responsibility NGO Finnwatch.
 The firm, RK Exports, is a supplier to the Helsinki-based Vallila Interior, which sells printed fabrics, rugs and home accessories. It was established in 1935 by Swiss businessman  Otto Berner , grandfather of Anne Berner. A dual Swiss-Finnish citizen, she is now the firm's chair while her brother  Mathias Berner  is CEO.
 Employees of the subcontractor, based in the southern Indian town of Karur, say the firm pays wages below the legal minimum and compels them to work overtime beyond the legal limit during production peaks. The factory has refused to comply with minimum wage legislation for the textile sector imposed by the state of Tamil Nadu in 2014.
 "The employers have tried to delay adoption of the new minimum wage laws by suing the state of Tamil Nadu in court. This is worrying, as even the new minimum wage is not enough to live on," says Finnwatch researcher  Anu Kultalahti .
 RK Exports has an SA8000 certification, developed by Social Accountability International (SAI). Finnwatch, however, is critical of the SAI and the German certification firm TÜV Nord, alleging that those who carried out the audit used the wrong minimum wage data.
 According to the SAI, SA8000 is "the leading social certification standard for factories and organizations across the globe," which "helps certified organizations demonstrate their dedication to the fair treatment of workers".
 It measures social performance in eight areas including child labour, forced labour, health and safety, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours and pay.
 Vallila 'surprised'
 Vallila says it is surprised by the Finnwatch report since RK Exports had provided Vallila with its valid SA8000 certificate and signed Vallila's operational principles agreement.
 "We are surprised that there are reported shortcomings in processes that have been inspected. We will go over these findings with the auditing bodies," Vallila said in a statement on Thursday.
 Vallila says that RK Exports only accounted for 1.3 percent of Vallila Collection's overall purchasing last year, down from 2.4 percent in 2017.
 Anne Berner owns about 30 percent of Vallila Collection. When she became a cabinet minister in 2015, she owned more than 60 percent of the firm, but subsequently handed over about half to her sons.
 Balmuir leather goods also under the magnifying glass
 Finnwatch also looked into the operations of another Indian subcontractor that supplies leather goods to Balmuir, another Finnish interior design brand, which is owned by the Wheslyn Group.
 The NGO alleges that Balmuir products are manufactured by workers in the Faridabad area of northern India who are not paid minimum wages or pension benefits.
 "The employees report receiving very low wages, even below three euros a day. An employee cannot get by on a wage like that, even in India," says Kultalahti.
 Wheslyn Group CEO  Heidi Jaara  says the firm takes the reported problems "extremely seriously" and has taken immediate steps to correct them.
 The Finnwatch study is part of a development cooperation project partly funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as a consortium of development, environmental and labour groups.

Finnwatch: Minister Berner's company's Indian subcontractor tramples workers' rights


Summary: Many callers who revealed they'd been victims of child sexual abuse said they were talking about it for the first time.

Sexual health and youth support organisations in Finland said they registered a spike in calls from concerned members of the public following the screening of the controversial documentary  Leaving Neverland , which claims the late "king of pop"  Michael Jackson  abused young boys.
 Many of those who called support hotlines who said they'd been victims of sexual abuse as kids also said they were talking about it for the first time.
 Sex therapist  Roni Grinberg  works at the Sexpo Foundation, which educates and assists people with questions about sexuality. He said that the organisation's telephone hotline was quite busy after an Yle talk show about the difficult subject of child sex abuse was released online on Tuesday.
 The Docventures  programme  was a special edition of the show released as a companion piece to the documentary  Leaving Neverland , which is also being streamed on Yle Areena. The film chronicles Jackson's alleged long-time relationship with two boys and their families as well as the now-adult men's claims that he sexually abused them when they were children.
 Grinberg, who was answering calls to the hotline on Tuesday, said it was a very interesting night, adding that some of the calls came from people worried about their own sexual histories and proclivities.
 Grinberg noted that it was good that callers reached out for help, and that the talk show's move to address such a difficult matter may have prompted them to reach out.
 First time talking about the subject
 Some individuals who called Sexpo's help line said it was the first time they'd ever spoken out loud about having been sexually exploited during their childhoods.
 Grinberg noted that talking about the subject raises strong emotions, but the ability to talk about them in a safe setting can also offer relief.
 Other support organisations reported that the Docventures special prompted calls to them, as well. These included Suomen Delfins, a group that supports people who were victims of sexual abuse or exploitation as children, as well as their relatives.
 The organisation's manager,  Liisa Kaukio-Rasilainen , said dozens of people reached out for assistance on their online chat.
 "About half of those who contacted us said they were talking about the matter for the first time. We also expect more people to contact us in the future as people gain more courage," Kaukio-Rasilainen said.
 NGO Mannerheim League for Child Welfare hosted an online chat and hotline service, as well.  Tatjana Palomäki , head of the organisation's hotline, said she was glad that the topic of child sex abuse had been brought into the national conversation.
 "Children and young people have been talking about [the effects of paedophilia] for at least a decade now. Talking openly about it helps to lower the threshold for people to seek help and improves parents' ability to identify changes in their children's well-being," Palomäki said.
 Some fear they'll become predators
 It was mostly fathers who called Sexpo on Tuesday, with many saying they had been victims of sexual violence themselves and were concerned about the possibility that they could also become paedophiles, according to Grinberg.
 "This type of worry is usually unwarranted, but it would be a good idea for people who have these kinds of questions to talk to a professional. Personal histories that go unaddressed can create unnecessary stress and ill feelings. They are easily reflected in daily family lives and family relations," Grinberg said.
 Admitting to having sexual thoughts about underage children is not illegal in Finland, but acting on such desires in the real world is.
 Despite this, people are usually still reluctant to talk about these kinds of thoughts because the issue carries deep moral ramifications and emotions.
 The Sexpo Foundation and the NGO Foundation for Supporting Ex-offenders have launched a campaign which aims to prevent the sexual abuse of children.
 Women rarely seek help due to shame
 Sexual attraction to children is something that those affected usually notice early on in life, according to Grinberg. He said it is particularly important for young people to talk about these kinds of feelings and to seek help - not only for their own sakes, but also as a way to prevent potential future offences.
 "The young people who called were worried that they could become paedophiles because they had been victims themselves. Many of them said they felt shame and guilt about what happened to them. The human mind often causes victims to start blaming themselves," Grinberg said.
 The therapist said that many women also called in to express concerns about being at risk of being or becoming paedophiles.
 "In these types of matters women may be even more stigmatised than men," Grinberg said, noting that he was impressed by how honest and open callers were about their feelings.
 He said everyone needs to be listened to without prejudice, given that they aren't admitting to having done something illegal.

Yle talk show on Michael Jackson paedophilia doc sparks hotline calls in Finland


Summary: Officers also caught 33 wanted fugitives and uncovered 60 other violations during a 24-hour operation.

Finnish police took part in a Europe-wide crackdown on speeding on Wednesday, catching 5,558 motorists driving above the speed limit.
 Automatic speed enforcement devices caught more than 4,500 speeders, while police officers detected nearly 1,000 cases during a 24-hour period.
 Inspector  Kari Onninen  of the National Police Board noted that the number of speeders was up by nearly eight percent from a similar crackdown a year ago. That campaign netted 5,159 speeding drivers.
 This year's law enforcement operation also turned up 33 individuals who were wanted by authorities, as well as 60 other criminal offences.
 The round-the-clock enforcement marathon began at midnight on Tuesday night. It was carried out in tandem with police forces in more than 20 European countries.
 As usual, law enforcement officials had  announced the day of stepped-up surveillance  ahead of time through press releases and social media.
 Police say the speed monitoring was focused on built-up areas and accident black spots.

Police nab more than 5,500 speeders in a day, despite advance warning


Summary: More Finns are too depressed to work, parliamentary candidates would relax alcohol laws and some Centre Party members want to boycott the upcoming election.

Helsingin Sanomat’s  leader  examines the hemorrhaging effect early disability pensions have on public finances as Finland aspires to raise employment levels. The young age of recipients means more expenditure on pensions in the long term.
 In 2018, some 20,000 people dropped out of the workforce for health reasons, which is 1,300 more persons than the year before. The spike was mainly driven by psychiatric conditions, according to the national daily.
 Twenty-five to 44 year-olds make up the biggest group of early pensioners, with mental illness forcing more to retire early.
 The number of  pensions paid to people under 40  has risen by a fifth over the past decade – most frequently due to mental health or behavioural disorders.
 Regulating alcohol availability
 Nearly a quarter of parliamentary election candidates would permit the sale of strong alcoholic beverages in grocery stores, finds online newspaper  Uusi Suomi , citing a study commissioned by the Finnish Association for Substance Abuse Prevention (EHYT).
 Some 55 percent of Finns Party candidates and 58 percent of those representing the National Coalition would dismantle the state-controlled alcohol monopoly.
 Overall, candidates were more in favour of relaxing than tightening regulations on alcoholic beverage sales.
 Rural vs urban
 The Swedish-language faction within the Centre Party is urging members to boycott next week’s general elections, reports agricultural newspaper  Maaseudun Tulevaisuus .
 Swedish-speaking executives with the party slammed the Centre for abandoning its agrarian roots, including protecting the interests of agriculture and rural areas.
 Peter Knuts  and  Peter Albäck  criticised  current Centre leadership  of driving neoliberal right-wing policies.

Friday's papers: Mental health, booze and evolution of farm politics


Summary: If the world's other inhabitants all consumed natural resources like Finns, it would require 3.8 earths, according to WWF Finland.

On Friday, 5 April Finnish residents used up their share of Earth’s natural resources, according to WWF Finland.
 Over the past few years, Earth Overshoot Day has fallen in August. This means Finns overdraw on nature's budget four months earlier than the global average.
 "Our current overconsumption is totally unsustainable from the standpoint of nature. Finns draw on borrowed environmental resources for the rest of the year,” said  Liisa Rohweder , CEO of WWF Finland.
 Earth Overshoot Day signifies when people have consumed more from nature than the planet can renew.
 Energy and food production as well as transport are the main factors underlying Finland’s environmental overshoot, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Finns use up their annual share of planet's resources


Summary: Waiting times at some city health centres for non-urgent appointments can be more than a month.

Health centres across Helsinki are planning to provide clients with a new booking system in which appointments can be made at facilities of their choosing. If they choose, clients will also be able to book appointments at centres with the shortest waiting queues, according to city health officials.
 The planned booking system will also become more centralised than it is today. Patients will have real-time access to the length of queues at various health centres and be guided to ones where the wait is shortest.
 At some city health centres the waiting times for non-emergency appointments can last longer than a month, while others are much shorter.
 Typically, residents go to health centres closest to where they live. But for the past six years, they've been able to decide for themselves where to seek care - but only about ten percent of them actually stray from their neighbourhood clinic.
 Personnel shortages
 The city's health centre system's medical director,  Timo Lukkarinen , said he thinks more people will take advantage of the choice in the future. But he said there is a risk that residents in newly-established neighbourhoods and districts in particular may face increasingly longer queues for doctor visits.
 However, Lukkarinen said the city plans to track how people use the queue-based appointment-making service at each health facility and will adjust personnel levels accordingly.
 Even so, there will still likely be medical staff shortages. The entire country's public health care system is reportedly in  dire need of more medical staff , but is having a hard time recruiting them.
 Lukkarinen said the planned scheduling system will not solve the queue problems on its own, however.
 "It won't solve it entirely, because people will want to go to centres closest to them. Helsinki is growing quickly and we need to prepare ourselves for it by having adequate resources," Lukkarinen said.
 Chief physician at the health centre in Helsinki's island district of Lauttasaari,  Liisa Grönhagen  said her facility welcomes patients from other parts of the city. But she noted that she is concerned about doctors' and nurses' abilities to cope with increasing workloads.
 "We found in a personnel survey that staff is already at the breaking point in terms of their well-being and stamina on the job. Staff members are often tired out," Grönhagen revealed.
 One-in-ten
 Lukkarinen also pointed out that the planned system isn't meant to put the burden on residents to even out health centre queues by going across the city to various facilities. He said it was rather more a question of freedom of choice, saying that those who want to go to different health centres can do so.
 He pointed out that the one-in-ten people who currently choose different health centres is a fairly small amount, given that the centres are relatively near one another and public transport makes them easy to reach.
 However, Helsinki residents select to go to health centres farther from home more than their neighbours in the city of Espoo do, where only two percent of patients take advantage of the opportunity.
 The city encourages residents to see the benefits of having long-term relationships with physicians, however. Many people who've moved to different parts of the city continue going back to their old health centres, according to the city.
 It remains unclear when the planned scheduling system could be implemented.

Helsinki plans scheme to let patients choose clinic based on queues