Summary: According to reports filed with police, the crew members in question appeared to be under the influence on the plane.

Police said Tuesday that they are looking into the case of a Qatar Airways purser and flight attendant suspected of flying while inebriated.
 Police said they were following up a report lodged at 8.28am on Tuesday morning while the plane was on the tarmac at the Helsinki Airport.
 Officers from the Itä-Uusimaa police department said that they received a report that the two male cabin crew members appeared to be under the influence as the flight was about to take off.
 Airports operator Finavia said on its website that the flight was due to leave Helsinki at 9.50am for the Qatari capital of Doha, but it was delayed and will now leave at 10.00pm on Tuesday night.
 Finnair media relations director  Päivyt Tallqvist  said that the airline will not comment on the case, since it concerns flight operator Qatar Airways.

Finnish police suspect Qatar Airways cabin crew of working while intoxicated


Summary: The National Coalition Party nabbed the third-highest number of seats in Sunday’s election, behind the Social Democrats and Finns Party.

National Coalition Party chair  Petteri Orpo  emerged from a party leadership meeting on Tuesday to carefully signal his party's readiness to join  government formation talks  following Sunday’s parliamentary election.
 Orpo said at a news conference Tuesday that there may be room to manoeuvre in some areas and noted that according to tradition, the position of Speaker of Parliament goes to the party that captured the second-highest proportion of votes, in this case, the Finns Party.
 The NCP  came away from the election with 38 parliamentary seats , just behind the populist Finns Party’s 39 and the Social Democratic Party’s 40 seats.
 NCP not the "bad cop"
 Orpo told journalists that he believed that it would be possible to agree on a government programme with SDP chair  Antti Rinne , adding that he was distancing himself from the concept of "red lines" that cannot be compromised. He noted that the larger the government’s majority the stronger its parliamentary base would be.
 "I am distancing myself from that term. Responsible economic and employment policies are among the important issues for the NCP. However the NCP isn’t hankering after joining the government. It all depends on the policy programme," he noted.
 "We will not join the government at any cost. It is possible for the NCP to participate in the work of government if we can create a shared and realistic picture of the state of the national economy. And agree on what kind of change the government wants to effect in Finland," he added.
 However he stressed that his party would not be the "bad cop" in government that always says "no".
 Commenting on the possibility of the Finns Party joining the governing coalition, Orpo said that the nationalist party’s election surge should be taken seriously. "The NCP respects the election result," he remarked.

"Room to manoeuvre in some areas": NCP chair signals openness to govt talks


Summary: Finland ranks about tenth in the world with respect to lawmakers' gender balance.

Finland's  parliamentary election  on Sunday has been touted by some as a victory for "red-green" female candidates. Red-green parties include the Social Democrats, Left Alliance and Greens.
 A total of 92 women were elected to national office in Finland this year - nine of them for the first time - making the country's incoming 200-member parliament 46 percent female.
 Depending on the source, Finland is generally ranked tenth in the world regarding lawmakers' gender balance, and this election helped to improve gender equality in Finnish national politics.
 Now, Finland trails just behind Sweden (by a tenth of a percentage point), a country which also recently saw an increase in females elected to parliament.
 Veteran MP  Janina Andersson  was just 24-years-old when she first won a seat in parliament in the mid-90s, says she was unsure of on-the-job etiquette at first. But she quickly learned the rules after making headlines for breastfeeding her child at Parliament House.
 "In 1995 there was no room for babies in politics, but quite quickly the female Speaker of Parliament made arrangements for female MPs with a baby care room for mothers with children. It was a psychological win for me that something so wrong became completely acceptable," she said.
 Out of the Greens' 20 incoming representatives, 17 are women, a situation that Andersson doesn't consider balanced.
 "I think there should be an even representation of ages and genders. When it comes to age [demographics] I think it looks very good, but within the Greens the gender split is rather lopsided and that's not good, either," Andersson.
 Fewer new young MPs, but average age dropped slightly
 The average age of Finland's next parliament dropped by a year, but at the same time the number of young MPs actually fell.
 Out of the 200 available seats they were vying for, only eight candidates under the age of 30 managed to get elected in Sunday's general election.
 The average age of incoming MPs is 46, while the average age of parliamentarians elected in the 2015 parliamentary election was 47.3.
 However, the age decrease was not prompted by a slew of millennial 20-somethings being elected - the number of incoming MPs under the age of 30 - eight of them -actually declined this year.
 In 2015 there were 14 MPs under 30 who were elected and in 2011 there were 11.
 The youngest incoming female MP this year will be the Greens' 24-year-old I iris Suomela .

Finnish parliament still mostly middle-aged, male


Summary: Each player on the women's team will receive 5,000 euros compared to a possible 12,000 for each of their male peers if the men's team wins silver in May.

In spite of an historic silver-medal performance during last Sunday’s Women’s Ice Hockey World Cup Championships, Finland’s national players will receive less than half of what their male peers are likely to get for a silver in the men’s tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia later this spring.
 The lionesses,  who were denied gold when a goal was disallowed in the dying minutes  of their final against the USA, will each receive a 5,000-euro bonus for their sterling performance, compared to a possible 12,000-euro bounty for each of the players on the men’s team. If Finland’s men’s team manages to cop gold at the upcoming men’s championship in Bratislava, each player will receive a 27,000-euro cash prize.
 Finnish Ice Hockey Association CEO  Matti Nurminen  said that it is not possible to compare the two situations – or the financial reward. He noted that the men’s and women’s games are at different stages in their life cycle.
 "The International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF pays generous bonuses in the men’s world championships based on the level of success. The size of the men’s bonuses depends on how we divide the IIHF premium between the players and the association. On the other hand, the women’s bonuses come exclusively from the association’s budget, in other words, it is funded by the organisation’s income," Nurminen explained via email.
 No IIHF prize money for women's games
 The Finnish Ice Hockey Association SJL could also adopt a different approach to distributing the international federation’s prize money, Nurminen said, noting that it is not specifically earmarked for the men’s team.
 "The SJL does in fact, do this. In practice, both the men’s and women’s bonuses are funded from our other income. It is just a question of which income stream it comes from," he noted.
 The SJL has previously said that it has aspired to promote equality in the IIHF by increasing competition prize money, and it continues to do so. During the 2017 women’s ice hockey world championship, the SJL budgeted a bonus of 2,000 euros per player for a gold medal outcome. Two years later, a win would have earned each player 7,000 euros. It said that it is still pushing for a boost to women’s bonuses at the international level.
 "We have sent the IIHF a written petition asking for prize money for women’s games as well," Nurminen commented.
 According to Nurminen the SJL’s total annual budget runs to about 20 million euros. The women’s tournament that wrapped up on Sunday night in Espoo resulted in a six-figure loss.
 "Every year the SJL’s decision-making bodies consider how to use the money to develop ice hockey from an educational perspective. Organising the women’s ice hockey world championship is an investment by the association in women’s and girls’ ice hockey," Nurminen concluded.

Finland’s lionesses to take home smaller bonuses than lions


Summary: "It is very important that the government is positive toward EU development," Haavisto said.

Green Party chair  Pekka Haavisto  has said that he would like to see his party join the incoming government, but noted that issues like education, climate and measures against social marginalisation need to be emphasised if it does.
 "It is very important that the government is positive toward EU development," he added.
 On Tuesday Haavisto said he would not yet speculate on the various coalition-building possibilities that may take shape over the coming days.
 He said other matters - particularly the potential size of government's majority - need to be examined, for example whether it is even feasible to form a government with support from fewer than 110 MPs.
 After that's sorted out, Haavisto said, it will be time to begin considering government programmes.
 Finns Party cooperation?
 Haavisto was diplomatic about whether the Greens would join a government with the populist Finns Party, suggesting he thinks the two parties would not likely join forces.
 "In that scenario, one side will need to change, and it's not the Greens," he said.
 Haavisto also said the work load of coalition building may be lightened by the Centre Party's change in leadership. On Tuesday outgoing Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä   announced he was leaving  his Centre Party chair post in September.
 Haavisto thanked Sipilä for cooperation in efforts that both parties worked on, specifically noting their work regarding climate policy.
 The Greens leader said he believes a government will be formed by the end of next month.
 EU elections loom
 Finland's EU Presidency period begins on 1 July, a situation that will likely help along the process of government formation in good time, he said, saying that Finland cannot afford to have freshly-minted ministers when it assumes the presidency.
 Sunday's elections brought five more Greens into parliament, for a total of 20.
 "It is an interesting new group of three men and 17 women. Of the members, 14 are new and their range of ages is large," he said.
 He said last Sunday's good results for the Greens' female candidates will likely carry over to the party's leadership elections next month, and suggested that the party's next chair would likely be a woman.
 Haavisto reiterated that he still has no plans to run for the chair post himself, which the party will elect this summer. He  took over the job last autumn  after the party's previous chair  Touko Aalto  stepped down for health reasons.
 Edited at 7:52 pm 16 April 2019 to reflect that Haavisto said he thinks his party's next chair will be a woman.

Greens chair Haavisto: Not likely to join a govt with Finns Party


Summary: Mozart’s Requiem Mass will be performed during the charity event.

The Turku Cathedral in southwest Finland will organise a charity concert on Wednesday evening to assist with the reconstruction of the badly burned Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
 The proceeds of the event, which begins at 9.30pm, will be contributed to a global reconstruction fund set up for the church.
 One of the performances will be a rendition of  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ’s " Requiem Mass",  widely considered a masterpiece. According to the Turku and Kaarina parishes, performers at the concert will be appearing pro bono.
 The patron of the concert, titled  Pro Notre Dame , is  Tapio Luoma , Archbishop of the Finnish Lutheran Evangelical Church.
 Tickets will be sold for 20 euros each at the church door half an hour before the event, from 9.00pm.
 The blaze caused extensive damage to the Parisian landmark on Monday night and was front-page news in almost every Finnish newspaper on Tuesday morning.
 President  Sauli Niinistö   commiserated with France and all Parisians  in a Twitter post late on Monday night.
 Writing in French, Niinistö said, "Finland shares the sadness in the face of this terrible fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. Our thoughts are with France and Parisians tonight."

Finland's Turku Cathedral to host charity concert for Paris' Notre Dame


Summary: More than 70 years after they fell, the remains of 30 unidentified Finnish soldiers will be laid to rest with honours.

The remains of 30 unidentified WWII-period Finnish soldiers recovered from Russia will be interred in a war grave on Finland's Memorial Day, 19 May.
 The remains were recovered during  searches of former battlefields in Russian territory  over the past two summers.
 It has not been possible to establish the identity of any of the remains. They were all identified only as Finnish soldiers on the basis of associated artifacts such as uniform buttons, belts and other objects discovered along with the remains.
 All unknown Finnish soldiers are buried at a war grave located in the southeastern city of Lappeenranta. When it is possible to identify remains, for example through dog tags or DNA testing, the dead are buried in the local parish war grave nearest their homes.
 Over 1,000 now found
 The bodies of around 13,000 Finnish soldiers who fell during the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) were not recovered after battle. Over the past more than 70 years, about one-tenth or some 1,300 remains have been found and returned to Finland.
 For the past 20 years or more, groups of Finnish volunteers have carried out searches for remains in Russia. In addition, some Russian searches have recovered the remains of Finnish soldiers.
 However, it is not expected that the remains of all the fallen will ever be found.
 Cpl Uuno Johannes Jantunen was interred in the war grave of his home parish of Parikkalan Saari in May 2017 after his remains were discovered the previous summer on the Ihantala battlefield in the Karelian Isthmus. Mika Albertsson
 Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Finland agreed to permit Finnish searches of the sites of wartime battles inside Russia. Numerous finds were made during the early years, later in declining numbers. Even so, searches are still carried out every summer.
 Military honours
 The latest group of remains will receive graveside blessings and a burial with full military honours in Lappeenranta in a ceremony starting at noon on 19 May.
 The burial will be preceded by a memorial service at the nearby Evangelical Lutheran church St. Mary's of Lappee.
 The last burial of unknown soldiers was in 2017. As a result of searches of Russian battlefields, 782 unknown soldiers were interred in Lappeenranta between 1993 and 2018, and another 18 identified remains elsewhere.

30 of Finland's "unknown soldiers" to be laid to rest


Summary: Finns Party defectors get left behind, Kela changes its basis for benefits and postal workers steal 60K euros in electronics.

Former Finns Party members who defected to other parties in 2017 did not fare well in Sunday's parliamentary elections,  writes tabloid Iltalehti .
 A group of defectors founded the Blue Reform group in summer 2017 to distance themselves from hard-right Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho . Their efforts were in vain, however, as nobody from Blue Reform managed to secure a seat in parliament on Sunday.
 While some MPs such as  Veera Ruoho  jumped straight to the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), long-term politician  Kaj Turunen  went a different route, as IL notes: he first defected from the Finns Party to Blue Reform (then called "New Alternative"), from whence he defected once more to the NCP, only to be ejected from parliament altogether.
 Turunen's support figures fell substantially since the previous parliamentary elections. In 2015 he received 6,929 votes, but on Sunday only 545 people voted for him.
 Ruoho said in IL that while she is grateful for the support she did receive (1,487 votes, more than a thousand fewer than in 2015) her time in the legislature was overshadowed by a harassment case. In 2017 Finns Party MP  Teuvo Hakkarainen  was  convicted of assault and sexual harassment  against Ruoho and ordered to pay 80 day fines. Ruoho received hate mail after the incident, Iltalehti writes.
 Ruoho said she will return to her profession as a police officer, calling her low support numbers "a blessing for my family".
 Rehabilitation, parental benefits to change
 Meanwhile regional daily  Aamulehti reports  that Finnish national pension institution Kela will change the way rehabilitation allowances, parental allowances and sickness benefits are determined.
 Previously  Kela calculated  the sums based on each recipient's annual income from the full previous calendar year's tax returns. Starting in 2020, the amount of benefits will be based on the recipient's income from the previous 12 months preceding the benefit decision, even mid-year.
 Kela said this method would bring allowances more in line with people's actual income levels, AL writes.
 Thieves caught by hidden tracker
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat writes  that two men in Vantaa were found guilty of aggravated theft on Tuesday after they systematically stole electronics from postal shipments in 2015 and 2016.
 The men, born in 1983 and 1969 and working for an outside logistics company, got away with 60,000 euros in phones and tablets while working at the primary Posti hub, HS writes.
 The duo was caught after a GPS tracking device in one of the shipments raised the postal service's suspicions. HS reports that video surveillance footage of the men improperly loading packages for their own purposes finally landed both men one year's probation each.
 Both workers appealed to have their sentences commuted, but the Helsinki Court of Appeal found no reason to change the original ruling.

Wednesday's papers: Ex-Finns Party MPs, Kela benefits change, Posti electronics theft


Summary: A new report on the social responsibility of clothing brands found serious problems.

A report on corporate social responsibility published by ethical trade NGO Eetti found that a majority of Finnish clothing brands rank very low in terms of climate, environmental and human rights transparency.
 Eetti advocacy coordinator  Maija Lumme  said that while some companies fared better than others, every brand could do better.
 "Responsible production, especially in countries where job security is low, requires strict measures and metrics to improve working conditions and salaries," Lumme said. "There are also many hurdles to face in minimising the effects of clothing production on climate change."
 The Eetti report  utilises a set of international criteria  maintained by consumer community Rank a Brand , which ranks companies into five categories (A-E) based on how clearly brands include responsibility clauses on their official websites and in their other PR. A total of 23 Finnish clothing brands were ranked against 1,500 other international companies.
 Majority in lowest category
 The best-ranked Finnish brand in the report was children's clothing company Papu, the only firm to make it into the B category ("On track towards sustainability"). The next category ("On its way, but can do better") included companies Sail&Ski and Vimma. These brands all produce their products either solely in Finland or in some other low-risk countries.
 The vast majority of the brands in the report fell into the lowest two categories. Category D ("should do better") included Noom, Lindex, Marimekko, By Pia's, House, Mywear, Nosh and R-Collection. The lowest category, E ("Better put your wallet away"), held Halti, Reima, Nanso, Pola, Peak Performance, Sasta, Gugguu, Luhta, Makia, Rukka, Torstai and Your Face.
 Luhta Group is the only company that did not reply to Eetti's contact attempts.
 Spurious promises broken
 The report is the first of its kind, and so the data cannot be compared with previous findings, said Lumme. She said she finds it heartening and even surprising that most of the companies considered openness and responsibility important, at least on the surface.
 What Lumme said is really needed is a corporate social responsibility law that would obligate companies to assess and report on their standards on human rights and climate action.
 According to Lumme, more consumers than ever are seeking information on the origin of the products they buy but companies tend to offer misleading promises, thus making it harder for consumers to hold the brands accountable.
 "A responsible company must provide accurate information on the measures it is taking to ensure ethical production," Lumme said.

Report finds room for improvement in Finnish clothing brands' ethics


Summary: Recycling the sand and grit used to help with slippery roads is possible and ecological, says Espoo's city road manager.

Each winter the cities of Finland sprinkle tens of thousands of tonnes of gravel onto their roads to keep cars and people safer. However, all that grit goes to waste as there are almost no recycling methods in place in the country.
 Road manager  Teemu Uusikauppila  for the southern city of Espoo said that it used 35,000 tonnes of crushed stone in its anti-skid efforts in 2018. But next winter the city has plans to take back some of that stone, to rinse it and reuse it.
 The first-time programme means to recycle 10-15 percent of the annually used anti-skid gravel. Even this scale is unprecedented, said Uusikauppila. The only other attempt to clean and recycle gravel was in 2016, and not enough was produced with the process at the time to warrant reuse.
 Uusikauppila said Espoo does not expect to make gains or savings the first year.
 "Cleaning and recycling anti-skid crushed stone is about as expensive as buying new gravel," he said. "This is something that needs to be seen as climate action, pure and simple."
 Uusikauppila said recycling the gravel is environmental because cities will mine less natural granite and rock, and CO2 emissions will decrease as far less grit will need to be transported via truck. The same anti-skid gravel could even be used several years in a row.
 "I believe Espoo can show the way in this," said Uusikauppila.
 Oulu sand ends up in construction
 In the northern city of Oulu, a type of sieved natural gravel is used that does not contain sharp stones. This material is often referred to as anti-skid sand, even though it is not produced by natural erosion.
 Oulu gathers up this sand every year, but instead of recycling it for the same purpose, the material is used for other useful purposes.
 "The sand we've collected this past winter will be taken to a snow-dumping site," said Oulu maintenance manager  Kai Mäenpää . "We fix bad angles in the snow heaps, and we're able to direct the runoff in the right direction."
 Oulu has also used anti-skid sand to build noise barriers and jogging tracks. Using the sand for anything else is still problematic.
 "The sand would have to be cleaned before it could be reused, as it may contain impurities such as heavy metals. The sand may also be crushed further when recycled, causing more dust to accumulate in the air," he explained.
 Mäenpää said his city would be following Espoo's pilot programme very closely.
 "We have to use natural resources sensibly," he said. "Cleaned, recycled anti-skid sand may be the future."

Espoo to pilot first gravel recycling effort


Summary: Police have seen an uptick in reports of child sexual abuse and rape, but statisticians stress that figures change a lot from year to year.

Reported cases of rape and sexual abuse cases by 28 percent in the first three months of the year compared to one year earlier, according to new figures released on Wednesday by Statistics Finland.
 The data jibes with the experience of the Tukinainen rape crisis centre, which supports victims of rape and sexual assault across Finland.
 "There are lots of reports but few convictions," said  Riitta Silver , a lawyer at the  Tukinainen  rape crisis centre. "One big reason for this is the lack of legal help for victims in police interviews. Victims have the right to free legal advice when they report a crime and to free legal assistance when they’re interviewed by police."
 "Police have the obligation to direct victims to support services but that often happens too late, as the victim has already given an interview. It would be better if they were informed about support services before making the complaint."
 One in six reports lead to conviction
 Amnesty International  reported recently  that in 2017, the last year for which figures are available, police received 1,245 rape reports but just one in six, 209 cases, resulted in convictions. Police concluded investigations and sent cases to the prosecutor in 70 percent of reported rapes, with 29 percent going to trial and just 17 percent resulting in a conviction.
 Chief Superintendent  Mons Enqvist  of the National Police Board says that officers are required to inform victims of their rights, and mostly do so.
 "We do tell victims about right to free legal assistance, that’s part of our guidelines," Enqvist said. "This right has been expanded in recent years to include potential victims of trafficking."
 "For the past few years we have proritised sex crimes because we cannot investigate every crime, but sex crimes are a priority," he added.
 Training programmes and specialist sex crime investigators are also cited by Enqvist as evidence of police efforts in the area, but Silver argued that more needs to be done. She mentioned a "lack of expertise" in the police force.
 Resource question
 "Police have made general decisions about where to direct resources, and it's clear that some criminal reports are not investigated right to the end," Silver noted. "Only some cases proceed to the prosecutor, or the prosecutor brings a charge like sexual harassment which is the mildest sexual offence, and quite often the case will be closed early and then it’s not investigated to the end."
 Statistics Finland  reported  that altogether 379 rapes were reported to police over the first three months of the year, which was 27.6 percent more than the January-March period in 2018. There were 417 reports of child sexual abuse, a rise on 2018 of 28.7 percent.
 The stats agency reports that during the 2010s the highest level of reported child sex abuse cases during a three-month period came in April-June 2013, when police received 612 reports.
 Overall, the number of criminal complaints received by the police, Customs and the border guard dropped three percent this year compared to the first three months of last year.
 New laws toughening the  maximum jail terms for child sex abuse  came into force in Finland this week.

Reported sex crime up 28% as activists criticise low conviction rate


Summary: APN reviews a nail-biting parliamentary election and speculates about an SDP-led coalition as populism becomes the "new normal".

Populism has come to Finland to stay and the days of big-three political parties shaping the government or the opposition are over, say analysts  Sini Korpinen  and  Sam Kingsley  as All Points North wraps up its special parliamentary election series.
 The populist Finns Party led by immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho , swept into the top three to claim 39 seats and push Finnish politics hard right, with a voter mandate that Korpinen and Kingsley say other politicians and the general public should not ignore. That groundswell of support is what will complicate the task of coalition talks for  Antti Rinne , whose Social Democratic party claimed 40 seats and the commission to form a new government from the fragmented result.
 According to the experts, although  Petteri Orpo 's National Coalition Party and  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party -- which was soundly trounced in the poll -- are the only groups with any appetite for working with the Finns Party, sending them into opposition could ultimately lead more voters to rally to their side in subsequent elections.
 Overall, opposition parties the Greens and the Left Alliance look to be solid potential partners for the SDP, but their MPs may not be enough for a parliamentary majority. That means Rinne will likely have to invite other parties to join his administration, taking the new government in the direction of an unwieldy "rainbow coalition".
 Whatever happens, Finland can look forward to more thrills as coalition formation talks progress and a new government takes office just as Finland assumes the rotating EU presidency from 1 July.
 Back again after Easter with new content!
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 Our landmark 50th podcast was presented by  Denise Wall  and  Mark B. Odom , with additional reporting by  Pamela Kaskinen  and  Tom Bateman . The producer was  Pamela Kaskinen  and the sound engineers were  Pasi Ilkka  and  Jami Auvinen .

All Points North #50: Finland veers left and right - and seeks consensus after a divisive election


Summary: Ex-narcotics cop Jari Aarnio could be prosecuted for a 2003 murder.

Jari Aarnio , the former head of Helsinki police department’s narcotics department, could be prosecuted over a 2003 murder because investigators believe he knew in advance it was going to happen--but he didn’t stop it.
 An investigation into the hit has concluded, and the file will now pass to the prosecutor’s office. Aarnio is suspected of knowing the killing was about to happen but not doing anything to prevent it.
 If a police officer knows a murder is about to occur and does nothing to stop it, he can be convicted of murder and given a life sentence in prison.
 He is suspected alongside  Keijo Vilhunen , a former organised crime boss who has previously been convicted with Aarnio on drug charges. That conviction is being appealed.
 Vilhunen is not suspected of direct involvement in the killing, and neither are two former Aarnio subordinates who are suspected of official misconduct.
 Four convictions already
 Four people have already been convicted for the killing of  Volkan Ünsal , a Swedish citizen, in the Vuosaari district of eastern Helsinki in 2003. He had stolen money from an accomplice in a robbery at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport, went into a witness protection programme and then left it.
 Three Finns were convicted of the killing, along with the Swedish man who ordered the hit.
 STT reports that investigators found a notebook in Sweden, according to which Aarnio had warned his Swedish colleagues about the plan before Ünsal arrived in Finland and was killed in October 2003.
 Peculiar original investigation
 The original investigation into the killing was marked by several peculiarities. For one thing, police collected evidence and searched an apartment before any kind of note of suspicions a crime had been committed was made in the police system.
 In addition, police sent a crime scene investigation team to the flat the day before anyone had reported Ünsal missing.
 Aarnio has been convicted of aggravated drug and official misconduct offences, which are currently being appealed. He was also convicted of offences related to police procurement of surveillance devices, and his appeal against that conviction was rejected.
 Aarnio also faces prosecution over failures in the management of confidential informants, a case in which current and former senior police officers are also under suspicion.

Corrupt cop Aarnio could face prosecution over gangland hit


Summary: The SDP faces rocky government formation talks, half of the capital's residents have left the church and one in five Helsinki kids speak a foreign language.

Business magazine Talouselämä reports that government formation talks will begin next week with SDP chair  Antti Rinne  sending a questionnaire to political parties. The Social Democrats want to know the parties' stance on issues such as the economy, climate and energy policy.
 As the biggest party in the election, the SDP will take the lead on government formation talks, though it will face pressure as it only gained one more seat in the new legislature than the Finns Party and two more than the National Coalition Party, writes TE.
 Talouselämä predicts that the Social Democrats will partner with the National Coalition party, though the NCP is likely to stick firmly to its election programme, which could prove troublesome for the SDP.
 Yle News' podcast  All Points North  released an episode on Wednesday that examines how party negotiations might play out, and which parties might ascend to government in the coming weeks.
 Church losing appeal
 Ahead of the Easter holiday, national daily  Helsingin Sanomat  reports that the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church continues to  lose members . Around 52 percent of Helsinki residents now belong to the church, down from some 62 percent in 2010.
 Helsinki has seven parishes in which fewer than half of residents belong to the church. HS noted that many newcomers to Finland have no connection with the state church.
 Sakari Enrold , rector of Kannelmäki parish in Helsinki, said the downward trend was likely to continue, but that a "global catastrophe could encourage people to seek solace in churches."
 Leavers include people who find the church too conservative as well as those considering it  too liberal  on issues such as gender-neutral marriage.
 Multilingual kids enhance peer communication
 HS reports that some 20 percent of under school-age children in Helsinki speak a native language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sami.
 Families’ home languages, however, vary greatly by district. In Länsi-Pakila, northern Helsinki, Finland's domestic languages are the native tongue of 98 percent of kids, but the same is true for just 44 percent of children living in Kallahti in the east of the city.
 Helsinki estimates that by 2025, nearly a quarter of kids in daycare will speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish at home.
 Satu Koistinen , an educational expert with the city, said that polyglot immigrant-background kids are helping stave off the erosion of the Finnish language thanks to their linguistic agility which rubs off on their peers.

Thursday's papers: Tricky government formation talks, church exodus and multilingual Helsinki


Summary: Finnish lamb producers boosted lamb production for the holiday, but were forced to export some of it to Sweden.

For many families in Finland, lamb is the main course during Easter, but finding domestically-raised lamb in shops is increasingly difficult even though production levels were raised in the run-up to the holiday.
 Finland's slaughterhouses were apparently unable to keep up with the increased amount of available lamb, so a good amount of the excess was exported to Sweden, according to agriculture newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus.
 Lambs are sheep which have reached a maximum of one-year of age.
 Chair of the country's slaughterhouse association,  Eero Polso , said it would be possible for Finland to double the amount of domestic lamb during Easter, but that it would require the animals to be slaughtered more regularly during the year and frozen.
 Polso said the availability of domestic lamb products would be improved if grocery stores took more of it in frozen.
 A whole domestically-raised lamb bought directly from the farm costs around 13-14 euros per kilogramme, while butchered steaks cost around 17 euros per kg.
 The price of Finnish lamb tenderloin runs around 32 euros/kg, while lamb loins cost 16 euros/kg and ground lamb is about 13 euros/kg.
 Meanwhile, imported frozen lamb and mutton can be found at significantly lower prices in supermarkets.
 Eggs and unique Easter dessert mämmi
 Grocery store egg shelves are often bare in the run-up to Easter, but this year that does not appear to be the case.
 Egg prices have also remained steady for the past few years. A pack of 10 conventionally-raised eggs in Finland normally costs around 1.30 euros, and often sold for less than a euro around Easter-time.
 The demand for organically-raised eggs has steadily increased over the past few years, and production has started to meet consumers' needs. The price of organic eggs - which not long ago were much more expensive than conventional ones - has gradually been dropping.
 Story continues after photo.
 Mämmi with cream and sugar. Yle
 Mämmi , Finland's unique,  malt- and treacle-based Easter dessert treat , can also be found in organic and other variations. One gluten-free version of  mämmi  replaces rye flour with potato and buckwheat and the malt is substituted with honey.
 The most affordable 700-gram packages of the thick, brown and sticky dessert cost well under two euros, but prices can vary substantially.

Easter-time demand for domestic lamb outstrips supply in Finland


The pre-Easter travel rush begins on Thursday ahead of national holidays on Friday and Monday, when schools, banks and most offices are closed.
 Maundy Thursday and Easter Monday are two of the busiest travel days of the year. Most of Thursday's long-distance trains are fully booked, according to State Railways VR. Trains run according to Friday schedules on Thursday, and then on Sunday schedules through Monday.
 The same is true for most local transport services throughout the country, as well as for most long-distance coaches.
 There is still some space on long-distance coaches on Thursday, reports bus station operator Matkahuolto. The firm lists holiday weekend schedule changes on its  website .
 No postal deliveries
 Most post offices are closed from Friday through Monday, although postal counters and services within stores and kiosks are open on some days. The Santa Claus Post Office in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, is open every day all year round. There are no postal deliveries from Friday through Monday.
 Pharmacies have limited opening hours over the weekend; check their websites for details.
 State alcohol monopoly Alko's outlets are closed on Friday, Sunday and Monday. They are open until 9pm on Thursday, and from 9am to 6pm on Saturday.
 Late Easter
 Finland's state-supported Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox churches both celebrate Easter on 21 April this year, while some other Orthodox churches observe it on the following Sunday.
 Easter is unusually late this year. That is because it is dated to the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.
 This year the equinox was 20 March and the full moon immediately the following day. However old church calendars assumed that the equinox was always on 21 March, meaning that Easter could fall anytime between 22 March and 25 April.

Easter weekend shuffles transport, postal schedules


Summary: The new owners said production of the popular slippers needs to be moved abroad.

Finnish textile firm Finlayson announced on Thursday that it has bought the branding rights to Reino and Aino slippers.
 PK Kappi, the North Karelian-based company which made the easily-recognisable plaid slippers declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
 Finlayson's creative director,  Kukka Kurttila , said the firm is looking for a reliable European manufacturer that meets its demands on quality, cost and responsibility.
 Kurttila said it is regrettable that the shoes can no longer be feasibly produced in Finland, noting that PK Kappi went bankrupt even though the slippers still sell well. He characterised Reino and Aino as a "national property."
 "Therefore we want to secure continued production," he said, adding that product development and sales will continue to be handled in Finland.
 The slippers - Reinos for men and Ainos for women - have been keeping feet warm since the 1930s.
 The soft shoes have been worn at home, in offices, outdoors and even local shopping centres by people of all ages. The brand received a shot in the arm in the mid-2000s after the vintage-style slippers became popular with youths.
 Kurttila said Finlayson plans to restore the nearly century-old brand to its roots.
 "There have been attempts to make it a fashion brand. But that's not our plan. I think the heart of Reino and Aino is one that does not follow trends," he said, but added that there is a possibility of expanding other products under the brand.
 Factory closed Thursday
 PK Kappi's manufacturing facility in North Karelia's municipality of Lieksa officially closes on Thursday.
 The bankruptcy forced the company to dismiss 17 employees, including  Satu Turunen , who's worked at the factory for the past decade.
 Story continues after photo.
 Satu Turunen has worked at the PK Kappi factory for the past ten years. Marja-Liisa Kämppi / Yle
 "It seems quite shocking that a Finnish product is now being exported abroad. The slippers have been made in Finland since the '30s," Turunen said, adding that most of her work colleagues are now unemployed.

Textile firm Finlayson buys rights to retro Reino and Aino slippers


Summary: Many observers across the country say that Finland's general election mainstreamed discrimination.

People working with equality and discrimination issues in Finland say the parliamentary election result has exposed deep-seated racism.
 The Finns Party surged in the election to second place with 17.5 percent of Sunday's vote, showing the  strength of Finland’s anti-immigrant far-right .
 Members of Fem-R, a feminist peer support network for racialised people in Finland, is convening in Helsinki on Thursday to mull the results of the parliamentary elections, which saw the Finns Party, led by convicted hate speech offender  Jussi Halla-aho ,become Finland’s second biggest party.
 Halla-aho has previously likened Islam to pedophilia and has said Somalis are predisposed to stealing and living off welfare. In 2006, he wrote that he hoped women members of the Green Party would become the  victims of rape .
 In the run-up to the election, cinema chain Finnkino played a Finns Party campaign film rife with racist tropes ahead of movies.
 Nationalism here to stay
 Following the election, editor-in-chief  Erja Yläjärvi  of tabloid Iltalehti said, "Finland is now clearly one of the numerous European countries where in election after election, anti-immigration sentiment and nationalism are permanently important values."
 “Perhaps now residents in Finland who are not racialised will believe what people of colour have been saying for years,” said  Saida Mäki-Penttilä , parliamentary aide to outgoing Green MP  Jani Toivola , Finland’s first legislator of colour.
 Mäki-Penttilä added that the result may open residents' eyes to the discrimination that many racialised people encounter on a daily basis. Racialisation describes the process of attributing racial meaning to people's identities.
 “The result shows the true extent of racism in Finland. It’s not just affecting a few individuals, but speaks to how systemic it is in Finnish society,” Mäki-Penttilä explained.
 Polarised climate
 Attitudes towards migrants have become harsher in Finland in recent years, from street patrols by the anti-immigrant Soldiers of Odin to violent crimes perpetrated by extreme nationalist organisation Finland First during a months-long sit-in at Helsinki Central Railway Station. Last Independence Day, police intervened to  forcibly remove swastika flags  from Neo-Nazi demonstrators.
 Violence also entered into the campaign trail, with Somali-born Helsinki city councillor  Suldaan Said Ahmed  saying he was assaulted last month while waiting for the metro in Itäkeskus. Meanwhile a man wearing clothes adorned with the logo of anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin attempted to strike Foreign Minister  Timo Soini  at a Blue Reform campaign rally in Vantaa. In the summer of 2017 Soini and a group of around 20 MPs and ministers  split from the Finns Party , creating what became the Blue Reform.
 "We are wondering what will happen next now that populist nationalists have become a permanent fixture in Finland,"  Aurora Lemma , co-chair of Fem-R, told Yle News.
 Lemma said the election results were no surprise, given the polarised societal discussions on immigrant issues leading up to polling day.
 "Since last autumn, and given the Finnish media’s attention on the Oulu sex abuse cases, the election result was expected," Lemma said.
 Finland’s growing anti-immigrant sentiment also caught the attention of international media, with Bloomberg reporting that ‘Trump-style campaigning’ had taken root in the ' world’s happiest country '.
 ”What worries our members the most is that other political parties will adopt the same rhetoric to appeal to voters in the future,” Lemma explained.
 "In the past two days, we’ve seen a lot of people applying for membership," said Lemma, whose NGO aims to amplify the voices of racialised people in Finland.
 Poor result for immigrant candidates
 Candidates of immigrant background running in the election failed to gain traction with voters.
 ”What are your chances of getting elected as a minority candidate?” Lemma asked, adding that many voters don’t seem to engage with messaging around discrimination.
 Iraqi-born  Hussein al-Taee  and  Bella Forsgrén , who was adopted from Ethiopia as an infant, are the only minority-background MPs joining the new legislature.
 The organisers of Thursday's Fem-R event will give racialised people in Finland a chance to unpack poll results as well as the campaign rhetoric preceding the election.
 Looking ahead to the next four years, Mäki-Penttilä emphasised that the government needs to draw up an anti-racist plan of action that will address racism in all areas of society.
 Meanwhile Suldaan Said Ahmed clapped back  at racist tirades directed at him on Twitter, noting that he was close to winning a parliamentary seat on the Left Alliance ticket.
 “Things can be difficult - and even dangerous now - but nothing can stop me when I envision future generations living in a Finland where no one's Finnishness is questioned, and everyone can be who they are,” he tweeted after the election.

Finland's racialised minorities worry after nationalist gains


Summary: Yle journalist Jessikka Aro, cited in the press freedom report, speaks at the index's launch in Washington on Thursday.

After several years of lower ratings, Finland is again ranked near the top of the World Press Freedom Index. Finland is now in second place behind neighbouring Norway, with another neighbour, Sweden, in third. The Netherlands, which was second last year, now slides to fourth.
 The annual list, issued on Thursday by the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories.
 The head of RSF's Finnish branch of the organisation, former Yle reporter  Jarmo Mäkelä , says there are several reasons for Finland's return to the top echelon of the list.
 Besides good fundamental structures and a scandal-free year, he cites a positive court ruling and a clever messaging campaign during last year's US-Russian summit in Helsinki.
 Finland was ranked first in press freedom from 2010 to 2017, when it dropped to third, falling to fourth the following year.
 The first drop was  linked to pressure from Prime Minister Juha Sipilä  regarding Yle reporting, while  last year's decline  followed police  confiscation of a Helsingin Sanomat reporter's material  related to her reporting on a secret military installation.
 Aro speaks at Washington launch
 Last autumn, Helsinki District Court convicted  Johan Bäckman  of harassing and defaming Yle journalist  Jessikka Aro  and inciting others to defame her. It also  convicted Ilja Janitskin , founder of the anti-immigration website MV-lehti, of aggravated defamation of Aro, who had investigated and reported about his website. She has also done investigative reports revealing the operations of Russian 'troll farms'.
 "In October, a district court in Helsinki handed heavy sentences to two pro-Putin activists for defaming and stalking a female journalist with the purpose of trying to silence her. The court drew the line: extreme hate speech cannot hide behind the pretense of free speech," the organisation said in its annual report.
 Aro has been invited to appear as one of the keynote speakers at the World Press Freedom Index launch event in Washington on Thursday, hosted by the Washington Post. The event will be  streamed live  on Yle Areena beginning at 4pm Finnish time.
 Aro was originally invited by the US State Department to a March 7 ceremony in Washington where she was to have been honoured with an International Woman of Courage Award. However US officials  rescinded the invitation and award  shortly before the event without explanation. She said the abrupt cancellation came after US officials inspected her social media accounts, which included criticism of US President  Donald Trump .
 "Welcome to the land of free press"
 The RSF report also notes a Finnish media response to the Helsinki visit of Trump and his Russian counterpart  Vladimir Putin  last July. The leading daily  Helsingin Sanomat placed large billboards  along the two leaders' motorcade routes with the English text: "Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press".
 Mäkelä says the campaign aroused much discussion during and after the summit by the presidents, who have both faced accusations of infringing on press freedom.
 The year the US drops to 48th on the list, while Russia was down one notch to 149th. The lowest-ranked countries on the list are Turkmenistan in 180th place, just behind China, Eritrea and North Korea.

Finland ranked second on Press Freedom Index, behind Norway


Summary: South Karelia Central Hospital needs foreign customers, a suspected stabber posted alleged threats and a sandy phenomenon streaks the skies.

Etelä-Karjalan sosiaali- ja terveyspiiri (EKSOTE)

The South Karelia Central Hospital will begin offering on-demand childbirth and delivery services to foreign customers. Daily  Helsingin Sanomat wrote on Thursday  that the hospital, located near Finland's eastern border, will target their services to Russian mothers especially.
 The paper wrote that the number of deliveries at the Lappeenranta-based facility has fallen to less than the government-mandated one thousand cases, with some 800 births expected in 2019. The Central Hospital itself is not under immediate pressure of closure, however, as the government may issue an exemption to its minimum demand. But numerous domestic maternity hospitals have been shuttered in recent years.
 "The biggest motive for offering maternity services to non-Finnish customers is for the hospital to continue its work, and at best the municipality may make financial gains," said South Karelia Social and Health Care District (Eksote) helath service chief  Tuula Karhula  in HS.
 Senior physician  Antti Valpas  said in the paper that the first mothers-to-be from abroad could start receiving care this spring. Previously the earliest start to the service  was scheduled for summertime .
 "The contracts are all ready for the service to begin," he said.
 The starting cost of the full Eksote childbirth programme is at some 7,500 euros, according to HS. The first consultation costs 1,000 euros, with one-hour clinic appointments available at 94 euros each and doctor's appointments at 194 euros each.
 Alleged stabber posts videos on the run
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat  on Thursday reported that Iraqi national  Hayder Abduljabbar Al-Hmedawi , suspected of  stabbing his ex-spouse  and others in March, recently published videos on YouTube allegedly threatening his former wife.
 In the videos Al-Hmedawi addresses his ex-wife directly, saying he misses his children but also seeming to threaten their mother's life.
 "It's always serious to suspect unlawful threats, but in this case it is justified," said police inspector and head of the investigation, Pekka Hätönen in IS. "There is no direct promise to harm, but the setting of the videos points in that direction."
 Al-Hmedawi's younger brother is also suspected of abetting in his acts of violence, and a further person is suspected to have helped Al-Hmedawi escape. Hätönen said it is unclear whether Al-Hmedawi could be extradited to Finland from Iraq, and no attempts so far have been made.
 The 33-year-old Al-Hmedawi is on Europol's most wanted list and is also sought by Finnish police for attempted murder, IS wrote. He is suspected of stabbing his former wife and her friend as well as injuring three children he has with the ex-wife. The incident on 3 March took place in a child protection unit of a private social services company in the Haaga district of Helsinki.
 Saharan sand dyes atmosphere
 The amount of light in Finnish skies increases with each passing day of spring, but some sky-watchers may have noticed especially spectacular sunsets in recent days. These glowing phenomena have their origins in Africa's Sahara desert.
 HS  wrote on Thursday  that fine sand from the world's largest desert made its way into the atmosphere and into European skies after a suspected sandstorm kicked up the African dust.
 The particles in the atmosphere may cause the setting sun to glow a fiery orange-red, as many HS readers' photographs demonstrate.
 Meteorologist  Petri Hoppula  said that winds can carry Saharan sand all the way to Greenland and Iceland. The sand is not hazardous in the present amounts.
 "Phenomena such as this may last for a long time," Hoppula said. "But respirators are not required."

Thursday's papers: Russians coaxed to give birth in Finland, fugitive posts videos, Sahara sand colours sunsets


Summary: A number of newly-elected Finnish MPs say they will also run for European Parliament seats.

Finland's main political parties released their full lists of candidates for next month's European Parliament election. They include quite a few politicians who were just elected to the Finnish legislature this week. If elected to both bodies, they will have to pick one, leaving the other seat open to be filled by a runner-up deputy from their own party.
 The number of so-called 'double candidates' indicates that the parties have had difficulties attracting enough candidates for the back-to-back elections, says University of Helsinki political science researcher  Antti Ronkainen .
 Kerfuffle at Finns Party press event
 Thursday was the deadline for Europarliamentary candidates to announce their intentions. One of the biggest remaining question marks was whether outgoing foreign minister  Timo Soini  would seek a seat in Strasbourg and Brussels.
 Soini co-founded the nationalist Finns Party, the second largest bloc in the new Finnish Parliament, but left the party two years to join the breakaway Blue Reform party – which did not win a single seat in last weekend's election. The party has vowed to press ahead anyway, but suffered a blow as Soini announced in a Thursday blog post that he is leaving politics.
 Three other former Blues ministers,  Sampo Terho ,  Jari Lindström  and  Jussi Niinistö , have also said they will not run, while two former Blues MPs,  Ari Jalonen  and  Kari Kulmala , will seek European seats along with seven other candidates.
 The Finns Party revealed its roster of candidates, headed by deputy chair and MP  Laura Huhtasaari . The rest of the list includes current MEP  Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner ,two newly-elected MPs convicted of hate speech,  Teuvo Hakkarainen  and  Sebastian Tynkkynen , as well as  Mika Raatikainen , who just lost his seat in the Finnish Parliament after one term. He originally got that seat by replacing party chair  Jussi Halla-aho , another convicted hate speech offender, when the latter opted to join the European Parliament in 2014.
 At a press conference announcing the party's candidates on Thursday, a  Helsingin Sanomat  reporter asked Halla-aho about the old blog posts that earned him that conviction. Social Democratic Party chair  Antti Rinne , who is beginning efforts to form a new government, cited the anti-immigrant posts twice this week as a potential obstacle to government cooperation between the SDP and the Finns Party. Halla-aho, however, refused to answer the journalist's question, ordering a staffer to take the microphone away from him and moving on to the next question.
 Veteran politicians and young hopefuls
 Leading the Social Democratic list are incumbent MEP  Miapetra Kumpula-Natri , former finance minister  Eero Heinäluoma , along with former MP  Satu Taavitsainen , Helsinki city councillor ' Husu' Hussein  and SDP youth wing chair and Rovaniemi city councillor  Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi .
 Candidates from outgoing prime minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party include  Mauri Pekkarinen  and  Pekka Puska , who have both just left Parliament, current MEPs  Elsi Katainen  and  Mirja Vehkaperä , as well as  Jouni Kemppainen , editor in chief of the rural newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus and former news chief at Yle.
 The best-known Christian Democratic Party candidate is party chair, MP and former world-champion race walker  Sari Essayah . Others include MP  Peter Östman  and party secretary  Asmo Maanselkä .
 Essayah says that if she is elected to the European Parliament, she will return as an MEP during Finland's EU Presidency term in the second half of this year and then switch back to the Helsinki legislature. However if the small party is included in the next government coalition and she is offered a ministerial portfolio, she would then give up her MEP seat.
 The conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) announced its candidates earlier. Among them: present MEPs  Sirpa Pietikäinen ,  Petri Sarvamaa  and  Henna Virkkunen , as well as another former government minister,  Kimmo Sasi  and ex-MEP  Eija-Riitta Korhola .
 The main Green candidates are  MEP Heidi Hautala  and former environment minister  Ville Niinistö . Among the others is  Iiris Suomela , who was just elected as Finland's youngest MP.
 On the Left Alliance candidate list are  Hanna Sarkkinen , newly re-elected as an MP, and  Silvia Modig , who this week lost her seat in Helsinki, as well as current MEP and ex-transport minister  Merja Kyllönen . She too is a newly-elected MP who says she does not intend to return to Brussels even if she wins – apparently aiming to gather votes for the party to help fellow candidates vying for an EU seat.
 Meanwhile the small Swedish People's Party's best-known candidate is MEP and former presidential candidate and journalist  Nils Torvalds .
 14th candidate may hang in limbo pending Brexit
 The European Parliament election is held in all EU member states between 23-26 May, in Finland on Sunday 26 May. Advance voting is available for  European citizens in Finland  15-21 May and for Finns abroad 15-18 May. Finns abroad may also now vote by mail-in absentee ballot.
 As it now appears that Britain will take part in the European election, Finns will elect 13 MEPs as before. However if the UK does eventually leave the EU, the candidate with the 14th-highest vote tally would then take Finland's new 14th seat in Brussels and Strasbourg. However it could take many months before the eventual size of the Finnish delegation is finalised.
 The European Parliament now has 751 MEPs with 73 from Britain. If the UK leaves the union, 27 of its seats will be distributed to other countries and 46 left empty. Finland was among those arguing that the extra seats should not be distributed, but that the legislature should simply be shrunk in size in the event of Brexit.

Finnish parties unveil EU election candidates, Soini quits politics


Summary: Temperatures may even soar to 20 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

A sunny and warm Easter is in the forecast, predicts Yle meteorologist Anne Borgström. Southern and central parts of the country are most likely to see clear skies, warming sunshine and balmy breezes.
 "There's a chance that the temperature may even jump up to 20 degrees Celsius on Saturday," Borgström says.
 Even though the Easter holidays are being celebrated later this year, temperatures have been warmer in Finland than they usually are in mid-April. The ground is also already dry in many areas.
 "There's still snow in the forests and no grass fire warnings have been issued, but it's a good idea to be careful lighting fires," Borgström says.
 Most of the northern part of Finland is still covered in snow, with 84 centimetres reported in the popular skiing location of Kittilä in Lapland on Friday.
 Weather forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yle
 Thursday already saw the warmest temperatures of the year so far in many areas. Friday is predicted to be a bit cooler, with more patches of overcast skies. Borgström predicts sleet in the western parts of Lapland in the afternoon.
 On Saturday, the precipitation front is expected to move east, and even Lapland may see warm springtime temperatures of up to 15 degrees. Conditions will be colder in the east, with temperatures of around 10 degrees Celsius in the forecast.
 Easter Sunday will bring rain showers and brisker winds to the north, while the rest of the country will continue to enjoy the sunshine and warmth.
 Borgström says things will stay warm into next week as well, with warm and sunny conditions in the forecast for Tuesday, when the mercury may rise to 20 degrees Celsius again.

Warm Easter weekend in the forecast


Summary: The Social Democrats, Greens and Left Alliance will correspondingly see their coffers grow in line with their MP tally.

Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party suffered a  historic defeat at the polls on 14 April  and its loss of 18 seats means it will also lose more than 2.6 million euros in political party funding from the state.
 Since 1967, the Finnish government has paid about 30 million euros annually – close to 150,000 euros per MP – to support the activities of Finland's parliamentary political parties. Half of the money awarded by the state each year is meant to support the party in general, and the other half is intended for use in the party's information and communication work.
 Because this support is distributed according to the number of parliamentary seats each party holds, the Centre Party will lose upwards of 2.6 million euros in funding, a loss that party secretary  Riikka Pirkkalainen  says will likely lead to restructuring.
 "This means we will have to adapt, and of course, it feels bad," she said.
 Pirkkalainen said she can't say yet whether the loss will lead to a reduction in the number of personnel in its party offices or district organisations.
 "Party leaders will make the final decision about any changes to the budget and where possible adjustments can be made," she said.
 The Centre Party will take a hard hit when it loses some of its government support, but it will not lead to an economic crisis, as the party's finances are now in order.
 "After the 2011 election, the Centre Party was in much worse financial shape and had outstanding debt. During Juha Sipilä's term as chair, the party's finances were straightened out and so the situation is now better than it was before," Pirkkalainen said.
 Gains for parties winning new seats
 The Social Democratic Party (SDP) won 40 seats in the election, an increase that will translate into a 900,000-euro injection of more annual state support moving forward. This boost will bring state-funded support for the SDP up to around six million euros per year.
 Back in 2015, when the shoe was on the other foot and the SDP had its worst election result ever, it had to respond to the cut in funding by limiting the publication rate of its party bulletin, among other things.
 The Left Alliance won four more parliamentary seats, which means 600,000 more euros in yearly support, bringing their annual sum to almost 2.4 million euros.
 Success at the polls will also provide a welcome shot of support for the Green Party. With five new seats, they will receive 740,000 euros more each year in state funding, a 33 percent increase on their previous state funding amount.
 Green party secretary  Lasse Miettinen  says the boost is important because the Greens do not have large individual donors such as foundations. Finland's Greens have traditionally had to rely on donations from private donors to meet their expenses, in addition to annual state funding.
 Miettinen said the party hasn't decided yet on how to use its new resources, and expected that the next few months would be spent considering it.
 "But I can say at this point that all of the money will be directed towards changing the world – in other words, taking us in the direction that our voters are hoping for," he said.
 Only slight improvement for Finns Party and NCP
 The Finns Party, with its third consecutive strong election showing, will receive only slightly more support from the state, as it picked up only one more parliamentary seat in the general election. Even so, its 39-seat total means it collects over 5.7 million euros in state support each year.
 Likewise, the National Coalition Party's one additional seat puts its annual support at slightly more than 5.5 million euros.
 The figures used to calculate the state funding changes in this report are from last year's government budget estimate. However, the final allocations may differ, as the new government coalition will determine the amount of annual support once it assumes office.

Centre Party to lose €2.6m in state funding post-election


Summary: Lower wage and pension taxes could offset higher emissions taxes, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra suggests.

A report issued on Wednesday by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, a research organisation that also functions as a quasi-official think tank, proposes three types of tax reform the next government could launch with the twin aims of cutting emissions and creating jobs.
 A Sitra panel argues that Finland could simultaneously stimulate economic growth, boost employment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.
 This could all be achieved by 2030 through a comprehensive tax overhaul, the report claims. Sitra is an independent body that is directly supervised by the Finnish Parliament, which established it in 1967.
 "We need to cut emissions in a hurry. Taxation is an effective way to guide us toward that," says panel chair  Saara Tamminen , an international economics expert at the VATT Institute for Economic Research.
 If Finland intends to meet its international commitment to help limit the average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it must slash its emissions by 60 percent from 1990 levels before 2030.
 According to Tamminen's working group, sweeping tax reform could bring about annual emissions reductions of some four million tons, or about 10 percent, by 2030. That would be roughly equivalent to eliminating all exhaust fumes from Finland's lorry and buses.
 Could climate protection create jobs?
 So far, many who have opposed stringent measures to combat climate change in Finland have argued that such moves would lead to a loss of jobs.
 In contrast, the Sitra committee's research indicates that tax revisions to lower emissions could actually spawn tens of thousands of new jobs in Finland.
 It proposes what it calls a 'sustainable development tax reform' which involves a reduction in taxes on work and most corporate operations but increased taxation on high-polluting activities and items.
 This is broadly in line with recommendations from the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission and other international bodies.
 In practice, this means that people would pocket a greater share of wages and pensions, while paying more to fly, drive cars with traditional combustion engines or heat their homes with fossil fuel sources.
 Companies could see higher fuel bills and costs for carbon emission credits, but a removal of current environmentally detrimental taxes that deter green initiatives. Tamminen predicts that firms would also benefit from reduced pressure for wage increases and a better labour supply.
 Companies in energy-intensive sectors would pay more in environmental taxes, but this could be offset with lower electricity taxes, for instance.
 Progressive taxation to hit big consumers
 Under all three scenarios laid out by the research team, economic growth and exports would rise faster than under the status quo.
 Tamminen says her panel does not specifically recommend any single model, stressing that such choices will be up to political decision-makers.
 Last autumn, nearly all of Finland's main political parties agreed to pursue policies aimed at keeping warming to 1.5 degrees – except the nationalist Finns Party, which has the second-largest number of seats in  the new Parliament, elected last weekend . Thus any coalition government that does not include the Finns Party would be likely to give serious considerations to Sitra's recommendations.
 Making the committee's proposals more politically palatable, all three scenarios are intended to be budget-neutral, requiring no cuts in public services.
 Low-income earners would be offered subsidies to make up for higher transportation and living costs. Higher subsidies and lower taxes on wages would be funded by excise taxes on consumer products, calibrated in relation to their lifetime carbon emissions.
 Such taxation would be progressive, in other words it would more heavily affect higher-income people who tend to have higher consumption and produce more emissions per capita.
 Cross-party agreement necessary
 To counterbalance higher petrol and diesel taxes, the automotive tax would be removed from zero emission vehicles, while the additional tax currently levied on non-petrol vehicles would be waived for all diesel, natural gas and all-electric vehicles.
 "We do not recommend that environmental taxes be raised to the maximum right away, but rather that they be increased gradually. We should come up with a long-term roadmap that shows consumers and companies how taxation will change," says Tamminen.
 This would be a major venture stretching over more than just one four-year legislative term, so should be prepared by government and opposition parties in tandem, the report says – although whether parties across the spectrum would be able to agree on such fundamental, far-reaching changes clearly remains an open question.

Sitra: Emissions-based tax package could create jobs, boost spending power


Summary: The Helsingin Sanomat journalist who posed the question was ordered to hand over the microphone.

Finns Party communications chair  Jussi Halla-aho  did not respond to a question about an old blog post for which he was convicted for religious defamation and ethnic agitation -- instead calling on communications chief  Matti Putkonen  to remove the microphone from the journalist posing the question.
 The incident occurred during a party press conference on Thursday when Helsingin Sanomat reporter  Jarno Hartikainen  asked Halla-aho to comment on the blog writings, for which  Halla-aho was fined by Finland’s Supreme Court  in 2012.
 He asked the party chair whether the texts were the rash comments of an angry young man, and which do not reflect his opinions, or if he still stands by his comments. Hartikainen placed his question in the context of the party leader’s old writings "appearing to complicate [government] negotiations".
 The HS journalist was referring to Social Democratic Party chair  Antti Rinne , who said following his narrow election victory last Sunday that he and Halla-aho had "differences of opinion related to humanity". On Monday, Rinne referenced Halla-aho’s writings once more in an interview with commercial broadcaster MTV, citing them as evidence of fundamental differences.
 The Finns Party  emerged from the nail-biting election with 39 seats , just behind the SDP's 40 seats and ahead of the National Coalition Party's 38, making the nationalist party a strong contender to be part of a government coalition.
 Journalist told to hand over mic
 During the press conference, Halla-aho began to respond to the question, saying that "It’s rather difficult to take the excerpt out of its context..." At this point, Hartikainen interrupted and offered to provide an excerpt on which Halla-aho could comment. However at this stage the event took a turn for the dramatic.
 "No, no no," Halla-aho said, raising his voice, before calling on Putkonen to take the microphone away from the journalist. Putkonen complied and told Hartikainen to hand over the microphone.
 "Enough of this. You posed your question, Halla-aho will answer and you will pass on the microphone," Putkonen instructed the journalist.
 "You must comply with the rules here. We are not getting into these issues here," Halla-aho joined in.
 However Halla-aho did not respond to Hartikainen’s question and the hosts moved on to take other questions.
 In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered Halla-aho to pay a 50-day fine instead of a 30-day fine imposed by a lower court over the controversial blog post that he originally published in 2008. The Supreme Court said Halla-aho’s posts, which likened Islam to paedophilia and said Somalis are predisposed to stealing and living off welfare, qualified as inciting hatred against an ethnic group.
 In its ruling, the court said hate speech does not fall under the protection afforded by freedom of speech. The court also ordered Halla-aho to remove the comments from the blog. Two lower courts had previously dismissed the hate speech charges and convicted the defendant of religious defamation.

Populist Finns Party chair sidesteps talk of blog post that drew hate speech conviction


Summary: The non-profit WAU says it provided free weekly exercise classes for 10,000 children nationwide, but has now filed for bankruptcy.

WAU, a confederation of sporting organisations, announced Thursday that it has closed down due to lack of funding. The NGO said that it has filed for bankruptcy and will therefore no longer be able to provide free weekly physical activity programmes to as many as 10,000 children across Finland.
 WAU said in a statement that it had filed for bankruptcy and that it was closing down its programmes because several major sponsors had decided to cut off funding. Since the non-profit was unable to find new sponsors it filed for bankruptcy in early April.
 The organisation, which began operations in 2009, said that it had set up sports programmes for children and teens in more than 40 municipalities.
 "WAU has shut down across the country. As a result, some 10,000 children will be deprived of weekly free sporting activities," said WAU project coordinator  Tuomas Kosunen .
 500 affected in Rovaniemi
 Kosunen said that the programme has provided weekly activities for 500 children in Rovaniemi. "We have had 32 weekly classes here. In other words, we have visited different schools throughout Rovaniemi 32 times [a week] to provide kids with exercise. Some of the clubs are in the morning, some in the afternoon and some have taken place in the middle of the day," he explained.
 By his own reckoning, Kosunen said that he had worked with the WAU programme for eight months and 18 days.
 Saga Saniola , a student attending Koskenkylä school in Rovaniemi, said that she was an active member of WAU’s early-morning exercise programme.
 "I like that you get a lot of exercise here. The morning starts off nicely," she added. Her schoolmate  Ville Laurila  agreed.
 "They are really good and in principle it gives you a free morning warm-up," he said.
 WAU estimated that during 10 years of operation, it conducted nearly 78,000 free exercise classes and provided kids with more than one million hours of physical activity.

10,000 kids in Finland left hanging as sports NGO’s funding dries up


Summary: Fire officials in parts of Ostrobothnia have ruled out traditional Easter bonfires due to the tinder box conditions.

Bonfire bans issued in several municipalities could put a damper on hopes for  traditional Easter bonfires  this weekend. Finnish law currently prohibits lighting open fires if the Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI has issued a forest or brush fire warning.
 FMI has so far issued advisories for large parts of southern and western Finland, covering the entire coastal area of Kymenlaakso in the southeast all the way to Ostrobothnia on the west coast. The fire warnings also cover the inland regions of Kanta-Häme and Päijat-Häme.
 The bonfire ban does not affect Helsinki’s Seurasaari – as long as winds remain calm. However fire officials in coastal Ostrobothnia have banned Easter bonfires, although they may be lit in central southern Ostrobothnia.
 Easter bonfires are an old Ostrobothnian tradition that many locals gather to enjoy during the holiday.
 Further north in Finland, however the situation is entirely different as there is still snow on the ground.
 "It's looking rather unusual. There has been no rain for some time," FMI duty meteorologist  Ari Mustala  said on Saturday.
 The ground is also beginning to dry up inland in the Tampere region, so FMI is calling on members of the public to check for brush fire warnings before starting Easter bonfires.
 Burning branches also discouraged
 As snow cover recedes during the spring in Finland, it exposes grass that is dry and highly flammable. Brush fire warnings mean that it is forbidden to start open fires in such areas.
 This year’s advisories are stricter in the past as warnings did not previously ban open fires. Rescue officials decided on a more rigorous approach given the large number of brush fires that have ignited.
 "Brush fires ignite easily, especially if dried grass has been cleared. The flip side is that the wind can easily blow where it is not meant to. Then fire officials have to be called to the scene," Mustala expanded.Easter bonfires will only be allowed in special cases that have been agreed with local fire officials.
 Burning branches and other vegetation is also banned while the warnings are in force. Residents getting their summer cottages ready are therefore being asked to wait to clear up their yards and gardens. Grilling – another sure sign of spring and fine weather – should also be practiced with care and users should keep the grill covered as much as possible, officials have advised.
 "It’s worth exercising care to ensure that sparks do not fly from the grill to the ground," Mustala pointed out.
 Once outdoor chefs finish grilling, they should allow the grill to cool properly before ensuring that it is turned off. It is also not advisable to dispose of glowing charcoal in rocks because of the brush fire risk, Mustala commented.

Brush fire warnings could douse Easter bonfire plans in many parts of Finland


Summary: Forecasts indicate that ice cover will thin by dozens of centimetres all the way up to Lapland.

Rescue officials, police and border guards say they have received numerous calls about people, animals and pets stranded in frozen waters after ice cover failed beneath them.
 On Saturday the Border Guard’s flight division released video of rescuers saving a dog that fell through the ice in Kirkkonummi last week. The dog had reportedly followed a swan onto the ice, which proved to be treacherous as it failed beneath its paws, plunging the animal into the ice-cold waters.
 That same day in separate incidents, at least three people also ended up in the water as they tried to save other animals that had ventured onto the ice.
 As night-time temperatures have risen above zero, ice cover in northern Finland has also begun to weaken rapidly, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI. The organisation said that while the ice is still firm in areas north of Vaasa, western Finland, it is already unsteady in the archipelago off Vaasa.
 FMI meteorologist  Niko Tollman  said that ice in northern sea areas may appear to be thick, but he noted that during spring, thickness is no indication of safety.
 "When the structure of the ice becomes fragile, it is possible to fall through even the thickest ice. There is certainly cause to exercise caution in the Bay of Bothnia and in coastal areas in Ostrobothnia," Tollman advised.
 The meteorologist pointed out that April has been warmer than average and that there has been significantly less ice cover than last spring on open seas.
 "Big changes can happen in just a few days. Even if the ice held up on Tuesday, it will not necessarily be the same in the same spot the following weekend," he noted.
 Ice cover in the central Finland and Kainuu lakes still appears to be several centimetres thick, but the warmer-than-usual April weather has also thinned lake ice. The ice forecast by the Finnish Environmental Institute Syke indicates that lake cover will weaken by dozens of centimetres during the week ahead, and that this thinning will take place in waters as far north as Lapland.
 The Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation SUH has called on people to avoid venturing on to the ice, particularly in marine areas as well as on lakes in central Finland.
 "Spring ice is especially treacherous. Ice that seems solid in the morning may rapidly become brittle spring ice that will not hold anyone’s weight," cautioned SUH executive director  Kristiina Heinonen . The federation’s data suggest that last year 16 people drowned after the ice failed under them. So far this year, three people have died.
 Many rescues in Oulu
 Heinonen said that different people have varying tolerance levels for cold water but in general it takes mere minutes for hypothermia to strike. She advised people who fall through the ice to remain calm and to begin to call for help. "At the same time you should try to get out of the water on your own, because you will not have the capacity to act for long," she added.
 "If anyone feels that they absolutely need to go out on the ice, they should wear a dry suit; it’s the only thing that will withstand the cold."
 On Friday, Oulu rescue officials said they were called out to assist many people who found themselves in trouble on the ice. Ice fishers ended up in the water in Liminganlahti, while skiers went under in Virpiniemi.
 "In Oulu ice on the land side is thinning more rapidly because there are rivers creating openings," the FMI’s Tollman explained.

Watch: Rescuers save dog as ice cover thins rapidly across Finland


Summary: The ministry is urging Finns to follow local media reports and official guidelines and to file travel notices if they have not already done so.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Finland’s Foreign Ministry is calling on all Finnish citizens in Sri Lanka to contacts their families, following deadly attacks on churches and hotels in the capital Colombo Sunday morning that killed more than 200 people and injured over 400 others.
 The ministry said that it is monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka to determine whether or not any Finns were among the dead or injured, communications officer  Meira Pappi  told Yle.
 The ministry has estimated that there are currently around 81 Finnish nationals on the island, based on the number of travel notices it has received. However it said that the actual number of visitors from Finland is likely to be higher.
 Meanwhile tour operators have said that they currently don’t have any groups visiting Sri Lanka. Travel firm Tjäreborg product manager  Jessica Virtanen  said that four independent travellers booked flights to Sri Lanka and that the company had been in touch with them.
 The Nordics’ largest tour operator TUI said that only individual tourists travel to Sri Lanka using its services. Press liaison  Mari Berg  said that no TUI customers are currently on the island. The same is true of another operator, Apollomatkat, said marketing contact  Satu Kontulainen.  She added that the last winter season flights to the island took place about one week ago.
 The foreign ministry’s Pappi said that it had sent text messages to Finns who had submitted travel notifications, telling them about the attacks and urging them to contact their relatives.
 The ministry is also calling on Finns to follow local media reports and official guidelines and to file travel notices with the ministry if they have not already done so.
 Finland’s ambassador to South Asia,  Harri Kämäräinen  also reached out to Finnish travellers on Twitter, telling them to contact the ministry in Finland in case of an emergency at +358916055555 by phone or via email at paivystys.um@formin.fi
 Edit: Updated at 6.13pm to revise the death toll.

Foreign Ministry urges Finns in Sri Lanka to contact relatives following deadly strikes


Summary: The MP’s employer, Martti Ahtisaari’s Crisis Management Initiative, says it stands behind Hussein al-Taee.

Fledgling politician  Hussein al-Taee , who was recently elected to  parliament on a Social Democratic Party ticket , has come under intense scrutiny over old Facebook posts about the situation in the Middle East.
 Among other things, the new MP from Vantaa appeared to compare Israel to the extremist group Isis and to endorse content posted by  a pro-Russia advocate who was sanctioned by Ukraine  over his apparent support for the illegal annexation of Crimea, according to reports last Thursday by STT news agency.
 Al-Taee has not disputed the veracity of his comments in the open Facebook group in which they were posted.
 "I want to apologise for comparing Israel to Isis, because the comment was simply stupid and it does not in any way represent my opinions or values," al-Taee told STT.
 SDP party secretary  Antton Rönnholm  told STT that the party plans to discuss the matter with al-Taee after the Easter break. Rönnholm added that it is important for the SDP that the newly-minted lawmaker has apologised for his writings.
 Al-Taee received 4,000 votes in recently-concluded parliamentary elections, enough to gain a seat in the Uusimaa district. During his campaign, he said he was a conflict resolution professional and that he had often spoken at the parliament and at ministries in a professional capacity.
 Employer stands behind al-Taee
 Meanwhile, al-Taee has the backing of his employer,  Martti Ahtisaari ’s Crisis Management Initiative, an independent organisation that acts as a peace broker in global hotspots.
 Communications and fundraising director  Elina Lehtinen  told STT that the new MP’s work for the organisation had been impeccable and very successful. Lehtinen said that it was enough for CMI that al-Taee had apologised for any offence his comments may have caused. She added that she had discussed the matter with al-Taee himself, but had not reviewed the contentious comments in any detail.
 "We have not gone through the comments in detail. It must be noted that the majority of the [public] comments are ones that he does not recognise as his own. There are clearly some elements that are deliberately being used to sabotage him," she remarked, declining to speculate who might want to harm al-Taee.
 "In Iraq al-Taee has inspired confidence among parties to the conflict and has brought together representatives of three groups: Shiias, Sunnis and Kurds. There is nothing to suggest that his work has been in any way unethical," she declared.
 Lehtinen pointed out that no one works alone at CMI and that all projects are supervised by the organisation itself as well as donors. "Conflict resolution is always [about] teamwork. Our credibility does not lie in the hands of one person."
 Lehtinen noted that given his new role as a member of parliament, al-Taee’s work at CMI will be on hold for the next four years. "At the moment he has chosen this path and he will be an MP for the next four years. I don’t believe that he will be actively involved in any CMI projects," she commented.
 Facebook group run by pro-Russia actor
 One of al-Taee’s posts dates back to 2014, when he had already begun working at Ahtisaari’s Crisis Management Initiative. At the time, he addressed Sweden’s intention to recognise Palestine as an independent state.
 "The countdown will now begin, we’ll see how the Swedish government will change and Stockholm or Malmö will really start to explode. The Mossad [Israeli intelligence service] will never forgive Sweden for this," he wrote.
 Al-Taee also repeatedly compared Israel’s actions to that of the extremist group Isis, according to STT. The group’s administrator and owner is  Janus Putkonen , who previously worked as editor of Verkkomedia.org, a website that described itself as a challenger of the mainstream media. The site offered Russia-friendly content as well as anti-vaxxer articles and was very critical of the USA and Israel.
 STT reported that Al-Taee commented frequently on Putkonen’s posts and links to Verkkomedia content without challenging the reliability of its sources. "I’m not quite sure that I know even now who Janus Putkonen is, but I do not endorse his ideas. I think his worldview is quite distasteful and problematic. When I began to see the Russia-friendly slant, I didn’t get involved and I quit the group," al-Taee told STT last Thursday.
 In March,  Ukraine placed Putkonen on a sanctions list  for his role as an election observer in Russia-backed elections in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. He was also a press centre chief in the region.

New SDP MP under scrutiny over contentious Facebook posts


Summary: Jussi Hallao-aho evaded questions about whether or not he stands by comments that earned him a hate speech conviction.

Chair of the nationalist Finns Party  Jussi Halla-aho  has not entirely distanced himself from old blog posts that resulted in his conviction on hate speech charges. Last week Halla-aho  did not answer questions from a Helsingin Sanomat reporter  who tried to ask whether or not the head of the populist party still stood by his writings.
 The reporter was ordered to hand over the microphone during the party press conference and his questions were not addressed. Halla-aho took to his blog on Saturday to address the issue.
 "Some were foolish and imprudent comments. Some were the kinds of comments that you can make as a regular citizen but not as a politician. And others were the kind that taken out of context sound wild, but which had and still have a point," Halla-aho commented of the now-decade-old texts.
 Halla-aho "tired of having to respond" to posts
 Last week daily Helsingin Sanomat revisited those writings, which at the time resulted in a conviction for religious defamation and ethnic agitation and saw  the Supreme Court stiffen a lower court penalty  from a 30-day to a 50-day fine for the offences. The Supreme Court ruled that Halla-aho’s posts, which likened Islam to paedophilia and said Somalis are predisposed to stealing and living off welfare, qualified as inciting hatred against an ethnic group.
 The party chair also used his blog to address the incident last Thursday, in which he called for HS journalist  Jarno Hartikainen  to hand over the microphone when he tried to ask Halla-aho about his position on the old posts.
 The party leader said that the press conference, which had been organised to deal with upcoming European parliament elections, should not be used to go through his blogs in detail.
 "The alternative was to take the microphone away from the reporter and give to another who had something to ask about the day’s theme."
 Halla-aho said that he was tired of always having to respond to his written opinions during elections, when according to him, people "rediscover" his blog, titled  Scripta .
 "The fact that following any election, reporters attack the same phrases is a ritual and a compulsory move, nothing more," he wrote.

Some were "foolish", others "still have a point": Finns Party chair says of illegal blog comments


Summary: The number of applications for restraining orders decreased by one-third following the introduction of an application fee in 2016.

A new fee of 260 euros introduced for rejected restraining order applications may be driving a decline in the number of citations, according to daily Helsingin Sanomat. However a growth in support services provided for vulnerable groups may also be behind the trend, NGOs say.
 In the past, authorities did not charge a fee for applications that were rejected. Before the fee was introduced in 2016, the number of applications recorded was about 3,000 per year. In 2018 however, that number dropped to just over 2,000.
 "The threshold for applying for a restraining order has risen considerably with the fee,"  Jaana Kinnunen , head of a Turku facility that is part of the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters, told HS.
 One person’s word against another's
 The paper wrote that the threshold for issuing a restraining order in Finland is already quite high, as it may be difficult for a district court to assess whether or not there is a solid basis for a protection order. This is especially the case in situations where the court must weigh one person’s words against another’s.
 According to the federation’s  Mikko Savelainen , when victims already face the uncertainty of having applications approved in addition to the possibility of paying a fee if the application is rejected, the threshold for applying easily rises.
 The situation has affected the desire of low-income-earners in particular to apply for a restraining order, noted director  Minna Goman  of Viola – Free from Violence, an organisation that supports people dealing with relationship violence.
 She added that applicants are already dealing with chaotic situations, so the threat of financial loss may be seen as too great a risk to take.
 However NGOs noted that one factor that may be affecting the fall in the number of restraining order applications may be the increased availability of services for vulnerable groups. Since more support services are available, fewer people may be filing applications for protection orders.
 This year the Ministry of Justice launched a survey to determine how the fee has affected demand for restraining orders.

Daily: New rejection fee sees decline in applications for restraining orders


Summary: AirHelp Finland says Finnair ranks near the bottom of the class regarding passenger reimbursements and staying on schedule.

More than half of flights operated by national carrier Finnair do not depart on time and the firm rarely reimburses customers without a fuss, according to AirHelp, a company helping passengers receive their due compensation in the event of flight delays or cancellations.
 AirHelp's Finland country chief,  Aleksi Seppo , said Finnair performed nearly the worst in its class in regard to reimbursements as well as staying on schedule.
 The firm's analysis of air travel schedules showed that Finnair's ability to stay on schedule for flights lasting longer than five hours was among the worst in the world, with just 45 percent of such flights departing on time. A flight is considered to be "on time" if it departs within a maximum of 15 minutes of the announced departure time.
 Among 75 airlines around the world, Finnair ranked 61st in terms of keeping to schedule, according to AirHelp.
 Both Scandinavian flag carrier SAS (at 52.6% on-time) as well as budget airline Norwegian (at 48.4% on-time) ranked somewhat better in the survey than Finnair.
 Meanwhile Hong Kong Airlines, at 83.6 percent on-time, ranked at the top of the list, according to AirHelp.
 Seppo said flight cancellations and delays have been increasing for airlines in general over the past few years. Over half of some 4.4 million long-distance flights were more than 15 minutes late or cancelled outright.
 "Those are huge numbers," Seppo said.
 Compensation figures
 EU rules, specifically the EC 261 directive, give compensation rights to air travellers who face delays or cancellations during their journeys.
 The directive stipulates that airlines are liable to pay reimbursements to passengers on long-distance flights when extensive delays are caused by the airlines themselves and not by  force majeure  situations.
 The flights affected by the compensation rules are ones which depart from within the EU. If a flight is returning from outside the bloc, the airline needs to be based in the EU.
 Generally, the compensation fees airlines are forced to fork out in such cases is 600 euros per passenger.
 However, Seppo said airlines will often stall reimbursement claims.
 AirHelp's survey found that Finnair rejects 67 percent of all the compensation applications it receives, which ranks it 36th out of 46 airlines.
 Norwegian tosses out slightly more reimbursement cases (68 percent), but SAS was found to reject just 22 percent of compensation applications.
 Last year Finland’s Market Court began  hearing a case  brought by the Consumer Ombudsman against Finnair over its compensation practices regarding delays caused by equipment malfunctions.

Finnair flights often late and firm stumbles to reimburse customers, claims company says


Summary: It will feel like early summer in many places in Finland on Tuesday, with temperatures flirting with 20C, say Yle’s meteorologists.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny and warm across Finland, with the mercury approaching 20 degrees Celsius, especially along the southern coast.
 On Easter Monday, temperatures in southern and central areas range from 10 to 15 degrees Celsius, though it will be slightly cooler up north. Scattered showers and clouds are also in store for central parts of the country on Monday.
 Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva
 By Tuesday, a high pressure zone will move in from the south, bringing clear skies to most of Finland.
 The warm spell will also see frost-free nights everywhere in the country with the exception of Finnish Lapland.
 No rain in sight
 Spring rain is not expected to bring any allergy relief to sufferers as dry conditions are expected to continue this week. Grass fire warnings extend from southern Finland up the western coast.
 This spring's heat record of +19.3 degrees Celsius was set last Thursday in Kemiö in the south-west.

Summer-like start to week in Finland