Summary: New tighter laws regarding drones will step into effect in March once President Sauli Niinistö approves a draft bill on Friday.

Police will be able to prevent and forbid drones from flying, for example near an accident site, if a new draft bill steps into effect. Drone flying can also be totally forbidden if necessary "for public order and safety,” according to a government draft bill that goes to President  Sauli Niinistö  on Friday, 22 February. Once Niinistö approves the bill, it will become law on 18 March.
 In practice, this means that flying drones could be prohibited at the scene of an accident.
 The dangers and disturbances caused by drones are usually not intentional, though drones have been used for criminal purposes such as transporting illegal goods.
 Twelve close calls
 According to Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, there were 12 dangerous situations involving drones last year in Finland.
 These include situations where a drone flew near an airplane and a collision was avoided only by chance. These types of incidents have mainly taken place near Helsinki Airport.
 The draft bill also warns that drones can be used to transport explosives or false base stations that can capture data traffic.
 Flying above nuclear power plants forbidden
 The current aviation act forbids all types of aviation activity over nuclear power plants and near oil refineries.
 However, the current laws don’t specify anything about unmanned flights. This will change if the draft bill steps into effect.

Police allowed to stop drones if new law steps into effect


Summary: Parliament's approval of child marriage ban, falling support for Centre Party among farmers and a stray dog attack on a 5-year-old Finnish boy on a Thai beach.

Parliament has unanimously approved a proposal to ban child marriages in Finland, daily  Turun Sanomat  writes. Until now, 16-17-year-olds have had the right to apply at the justice ministry for a special permit to marry under the age of 18.
 The justice ministry, which has received between 10 and 30 applications each year, said that a majority of the minors granted permission to marry have been 17-year-old girls. The most common reason given in the applications was religious beliefs. Some 16-year-olds have been given permits to marry due to pregnancy, TS said.
 "In most cases, an underage girl applied to marry an older man, based on their religion or culture. I don't agree with this custom and therefore I proposed to ban it. We must protect children and we must show this in our policies," Minister of Justice  Antti Häkkänen  said in a statement.
 Banning the special permits will also send a signal internationally that Finland does not approve of underage marriages.
 "A marriage is a union of two adults who willingly agree on it. Children should remain children until they turn 18," he added, according to TS.
 Practices that made child marriage possible have been given up in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the paper said.
 "It's an ongoing goal within international development to stop child marriages and it is also part of Finnish foreign policy. In many developing countries, child marriages are a huge problem and a risk to girls' health and educational opportunities," Häkkänen added.
 Waning support for Centre Party
 Support for the Centre Party among Finland's farmers has fallen dramatically, reports daily  Maaseudun Tulevaisuus . According to a poll by the paper, about 65 percent of farmers plan to vote for the traditionally agrarian party in the next election – a drop of 20 percentage points from 2015.
 In contrast, popularity for the National Coalition Party and the Finns Party has risen to 11 and 13 percent, respectively.
 The Centre Party MPs who are farmers themselves are unhappy about the results.
 "This feels really bad as we have really tried to have an impact and defend the farming profession," said MP  Anne Kalmari , chair of Parliament's Agriculture and Forestry Committee.
 Fellow MP  Eerikki Viljanen  agrees.
 "While we have managed to push through many issues to help profitability of farming, profits have not grown. Our emergency help packages to aid distressed farms have not been completely successful," he said.
 Nevertheless, support for the Centre Party among farmers remains considerably higher than among the general population, where approximately 15 percent said they would vote for the party, based on a Helsingin Sanomat poll published on Thursday.
 The poll organised by MT excludes the Åland Islands and Swedish-speaking farmers so it does not adequately measure the popularity of the Swedish People's Party, the paper noted.
 Stray dog attack
 In other news, tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  reports that a five-year-old Finnish boy who was attacked by stray dogs on a beach in Thailand will have to spend several days in hospital.
 A pack of dogs attacked the boy, who sustained serious injuries, in Ao Nang near Krabi on Wednesday. Based on reports by the Bangkok Post, the boy had been vaccinated against rabies and tetanus, but will be kept at the hospital for three days for outbreak of fever or other signs of infection, IS said.
 Thailand's prime minister  Prayut Chan-o-cha  visited the boy in the Krabi hospital on Thursday. The paper said a three-year-old Swedish boy was also attacked by dogs in the same place on Wednesday.
 The governor of the area has given an order to remove two dozen dogs from Ao Nang and the neighbouring Nopparat Thara beach that have been left there by construction workers, the paper said.

Friday's papers: Child marriage ban, disgruntled farmers and stray dog attack


Summary: Young children in Kotka are already benefiting from the use of digital devices, teachers say.

The city of Kotka, southeast Finland is bringing new technology to its daycare centres in a pilot effort to boost children's learning. The new digital learning environments are being developed together with the children themselves.
 So far three centres have employed GoPro digital cameras, tablets and green screens as part of their education.
 The children at the Lankila daycare said the devices are great fun, and teachers are calling the tech-inspired games an educational success. Children are able to develop their information gathering skills and media literacy in an interactive environment by placing themselves into the shared images, teachers said.
 Children get to use the devices  themselves, supervised by teachers. Juulia Tillaeus / Yle
 "Daycare children have been born into the digital age, and these devices are almost second nature to them," said kindergarten teacher  Karin Klemola . "Creating and observing pictures and videos in a safe, controlled space helps them to learn new concepts."
 In one game the children stand or sit in front of a green screen that is hung from the ceiling. Another child then films the other with a GoPro camera and the image or video is embedded in a predesigned 2D setting, such as an imaginative cityscape.
 Long-form play encourages learning
 The sauna-bathing cats and picnic scenes produced by the software have brought children together very quickly, teachers said.
 "It's been a surprise how well the children get along with these devices," Klemola said. "Even kids who don't usually play together now have something new and exciting to share."
 One game or scenario created with the new tech may last for several weeks at a time. Playing long-form games of this kind helps develop the children's social skills and spurs them on to engage their imaginations, Klemola said.
 Children gather around a tablet to see what they've captured with the GoPro camera. Juulia Tillaeus / Yle
 "I don't know where all this creativity has been hiding, but with these long media games the kids have really blossomed, and it's really great."
 Klemola said the educational potential of the devices and their programmes are many and varied. One application teaches children about shapes.
 "A child can inspect a 3D pyramid on a tablet, for instance, and then actually get up and make one out of cardboard themselves."
 The city of Kotka intends to extend the use of digital learning devices to all of its daycares after the initial pilot phase.

Digital tech experiment sparks joy in southeast Finland daycare


Summary: The University of Turku says alder and hazel pollen may waft into Finland from central Europe.

Hay fever sufferers in Finland may experience symptoms in the next week or so, according to news from the University of Turku.
 The university's working group on aerobiology published a release on Friday with this year's first pollen forecast.
 Finland's pollen count is currently at zero, but with alder and hazel trees currently blooming in central Europe, the coming weekend may see a slight rise in airborne allergens, the university's  online pollen portal  indicates.
 Both alder and hazel trees are expected to start flowering in late March in the south of Finland.
 Some 10-20 percent of people in Finland suffer from pollen allergies. Symptoms are usually intermittent and subside at the end of the pollen season in late autumn.
 The main plant species that cause allergic reactions in Finland are alders, birches, hay, mugwort and ragweed.

Spring on the way? Pollen to spread to Finland from abroad


Summary: Passenger imports of snus increased by 23 percent last year, while imports of cigarettes fell.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Passenger imports of snus, an orally ingested tobacco product, increased by 23 percent last year compared with 2017.
 According to a survey by the Finance Ministry, passengers imported about 17.5 million snus packages to Finland. In contrast, the import of cigarettes dropped by 30 percent to 351 million.
 The number of imported cigarettes has fallen considerably in the past decade. At its highest, the travelers brought 800 million cigarettes into Finland in 2008, the ministry said.
 Last year, most cigarettes were sold on ferries or brought from Estonia or Russia. Meanwhile, Sweden is the only EU country that allows the sale of snus.
 Currently, Finnish Customs rules allow private persons to bring to Finland up to one kilogram of snus per day for personal use.
 A social affairs and health ministry working group proposed last year that  the limit should be lowered  to 100 grams, while the Finnish Medical Association wants to ban the product altogether.

Consumers importing more snus than cigarettes, survey says


Summary: The new party of high-profile ex-Finns Party MPs and ministers has performed poorly in public polls, casting doubt on their chances in the coming elections.

Finland's current national debate linking immigration and asylum seekers to crime is simply racist and something that should be stopped, says political commentator  Sini Korpinen . Korpinen joined All Points North to look at the fortunes of the Finns Party offshoot the Blue Reform and their prospects for Finland's upcoming general election.
 Hardliner anti-immigrant MEP  Jussi Halla-aho 's  election to the chair of the nationalist Finns Party in June 2017  rocked the foundation of the government coalition that included the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party. In a bid to maintain their positions in prime minister  Juha Sipilä 's cabinet, several Finns Party MPs and ministers exited the Finns Party to create the Blue Reform. The Blues and the Finns Party each have the 17 seats in Parliament at present, but  their voter support figures couldn't be more different , with the Finns Party polling at around 10 percent to the Blue Reform's one percent.
 Korpinen noted that in spite of its best efforts the Blue Reform may not win more than one or two seats in the April election, and that those MPs are likely to be installed in districts in southern Finland's Uusimaa region. The pundit remarked that the Blues have so far not been able to distinguish themselves from the parent Finns Party, which is clearly anti-immigrant and racist.
 She added that support for the party is likely to come from voters who remain loyal to figures such as Foreign Minister  Timo Soini  and party chair  Sampo Terho . Meanwhile the election may flush out members who want to survive in the cluttered political field by moving to greener pastures such as the NCP, she commented.
 Commenting on the  government's recent move to introduce a civics test for citizenship  as well as similar proposals from the Blues, Helsinki University researcher  Niko Pyrhönen  said that citizenship tests are usually ineffective and that even the native population may not be able to pass them, as has been the case in countries such as the US. Moreover, they are likely to have little effect on curbing crime or immigrant crime, he added.
 Tuition fees, measles and cancer treatment lead the news
 Each week in our podcast we look at the top three news stories that animated our social media audience. This week readers were most drawn to  Monday's press review  which highlighted an article about foreigners and university tuition fees. The former marketing chief behind Angry Birds  Peter Vesterbacka  told the paper that foreign students can help boost Finland's economy, and that Finland could easily attract 150,000 foreign students willing to pay for English-language degree programmes.
 The second most popular story was a recent measles scare that turned out to be a false alarm. In the southern city of Espoo, an  unvaccinated child suspected of carrying the disease had forced a partial shutdown of the Iso Omena shopping centre on Tuesday evening . However, officials later said that the child did not have measles.
 And the third most popular story this week was about a cancer therapy for children suffering from leukemia being piloted in Finland. The treatment - called  CAR-T cell therapy  - involves giving patients genetically modified immune cells which stimulate the immune system.
 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 .
 This week's podcast episode was presented by  Denise Wall  and  Mark Odom , with additional reporting by Denise. Our producer was  Pamela Kaskinen ,assisted by  Anna   Ercanbrack , and the sound engineer was  Juha Sarkkinen.

All Points North #41: Platforms, promises and platitudes - Blue Reform


Summary: Investigators believe that a pay dispute prompted a man to murder his boss before later killing himself during a Helsinki police raid.

Investigators said Friday that a man whom police who committed suicide during a raid in Helsinki last August had also installed two tracking devices on his workmate’s car. Police are investigating the case, in which the suicide victim was also a suspect in  the murder of his former boss  in Sipoo.
 The suicide victim, a portfolio manager with the pensions insurance firm Ilmarinen, was suspected of shooting his former boss at his Sipoo home last July. The murder suspect took his own life as police raided his apartment to take him into custody on suspicion of murder. He shot at police through the door before shooting and killing himself.
 A preliminary inquiry has now revealed that the murder suspect had used magnets to attach two tracking devices to a car used by a colleague. Police investigated the case as plotting aggravated offences against a person’s life or health.
 He had also monitored his supervisor’s movements with tracking devices. Police found that based on location data stored in the device, it had been attached to the man’s car for more than a month before the murder was committed.
 However the tracking device had been de-activated immediately after the crime. At the same time, technical investigations revealed that the man had been using his phone to communicate with the devices from as early as March 2017, leading police to conclude that he had been planning to commit the act for a long time.
 Three years on the same team
 Police discovered that the murder suspect and the person he had been tracking had been in the same team for three years at Ilmarinen. The Ilmarinen employee told investigators that there had been no major differences or bad blood between the suspect and his supervisor prior to the shooting. However he added that he had the impression that the portfolio manager didn’t like him.
 The murder suspect had left his job at Ilmarinen at the beginning at 2016 and the workmate told police that he hadn’t seen him since then, nor was he able to say why the suspect had fitted his car with a tracking device. Police also asked the Ilmarinen employee about the suspect’s behaviour and the reasons for his dismissal, however he said that the man’s supervisor had a mentoring approach to others in the workplace.
 "He also collected tax data from others and used it in his salary negotiations. He must have thought that he was not appreciated so he left for greener pastures, but perhaps he was not successful after all," the employee added.
 According to information gathered by police, the suspect was not able to settle into a permanent job after leaving his position at Ilmarinen.
 The suspect’s colleague said he’d noticed that the man became agitated when other workmates laughed at news reports that the founder of the anti-immigrant website MV-lehti has been convicted for a number of offences, including slander.
 "It seemed quite odd because in our field we always look for objective information from different sources and reading that publication seemed far from it," the employee noted.
 He said that it was very difficult to understand why the suspect would have wanted to kill anyone.
 Emails reveal beef with supervisor
 Police ended the investigation into the murder after the suspect committed suicide. They said they could find no other motive for the murder than the suspect’s dissatisfaction with his boss. The murder suspect and his victim had had no dealings after he left the firm and there was no evidence of contact between them. However sources in the suspect’s circles and emails he sent hinted at his resentment.
 In an email sent in 2016, the man described his discontentment with his salary. He had raised the issue with his boss, the man he later murdered at the victim’s Sipoo home.
 "I argued with my supervisor that my pay is the same as it was four years ago when I was the most junior member of the team, now I am the most senior, at least in terms of experience and my time in the team," he wrote at the time.
 The suspect also wrote that – according to his interpretation – his supervisor had promised him a raise, however he never got one. According the email the suspect’s supervisor had also declared that the man’s current salary was in line with his responsibilities, tasks and goals and that his starting pay may have been too high.
 "It felt like something that you would never believe, that my boss could say... this makes me feel that the situation has become unbearable," the suspect wrote.

Salary dispute at centre of Sipoo-Helsinki murder-suicide, police say


Summary: Online competition can cause harmful behaviours, one psychotherapist says as data show up to 20 percent of teens in Finland  intentionally harm themselves..

Between 11-20 percent of teens in Finland harm themselves intentionally, according to various domestic studies as well as data from the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
 Exact figures are unavailable, however, as research on youth self-harm is scarce in Finland. The only  focused study on the issue  from 2009 puts the figure at 11.5 percent, as does more generalised  subsequent research .
 Meanwhile  THL survey data  indicate that "one in five" teens cut or otherwise harm themselves without suicidal intent.
 THL also reports that while girls cut themselves more often than boys, teen male suicides occur more often.
 On Friday psychotherapist  Katja Myllyvirta  told Yle that young people tend not to disclose their patterns of self-harm for fear of shame or reprisal.
 "It appears that deliberate self-harm has increased in the past decade, especially among young girls. Some elementary school children even maintain self-harm chat groups," Myllyvirta said.
 Many young people cut or otherwise wound themselves as a kind of experiment, Myllyvirta said, but for others hurting themselves is related to processing difficult emotions or psychological distress.
 "Young people [I've talked to] say that cutting themselves resets their feelings in a sense. When they feel really bad, self-harming can calm some teens down and help them sleep."
 The suicide rate of young adults has declined slightly over the past decade. In 2017 some 107 people under the age of 25 committed suicide. Before a couple of years ago, Finland's overall suicide rate has been  steadily dropping  since the early 1990s.
 Vicious social media cycle
 Myllyvirta said it is clear that the problem of self-harm among youths is exacerbated by social media environments.
 While sometimes online platforms may offer support and relief, she said, a young person may also be conditioned to compete with their peers.
 "Young people who self-harm often have aesthetic conceptions of what beautiful scars look like," said Myllyvirta. "All forms of comparison strengthen competition, which reinforces behaviour. Some teens share blog posts of their wounds."
 While sharing such content is not a new phenomenon, online media such as Instagram are responding to a rise in self-harm imagery.
 Instagram announced in early February  it would remove pictures and videos depicting self-harm , after the father of a young woman who committed suicide blamed the company for being involved in his daughter's death.

Youth self-harm provoked by social media but rarely studied


Summary: There are no records to indicate the last time there was such a radical temperature change in a 24-hour period.

Before 7.00am on Friday, temperatures in Muonio, western Lapland measured -35 degrees Celsius. However by Saturday morning they will reach +five degrees – meaning that conditions in the north will warm up by an astounding 40 degrees overnight.
 However at the same time a weather system will dump freezing rain across the country. According to Yle meteorologist  Matti Huutonen , it is unusual for both phenomena to have such a large-scale effect. He added that there are no records to indicate the last time there was such a radical temperature change in a 24-hour period.
 By 10.00am on Friday, the temperature in Muonio had risen to -17 degrees, already exceeding the usual daytime temperature change. At this time of year, the sun generally causes conditions to warm up by between 10 and 15 degrees.
 Freezing rain causes perilous driving conditions
 The freezing rain expected on Saturday could make road conditions challenging in a zone stretching from Ostrobothnia to western Lapland. Huutonen cautioned motorists to exercise caution on Friday night and Saturday morning.
 Conditions on Saturday will be ideal for taking a turn outdoors as highs will be quite spring-like, rising above freezing throughout the country.
 Huutonen said that the sun’s growing influence will make winter seem a thing of the past as snow cover rapidly shrinks, starting from the west and southwest.
 The Yle meteorologist speculated that in about a week and a half, the snow would likely have melted in a region ranging from Ostrobothnia in the west to Uusimaa in the south.

Temperatures in Northern Finland to soar 40 degrees in one day


Summary: Strikes would begin in March and affect merchant shipping and icebreaker traffic. Some 85 percent of exports and imports to Finland is transported by sea.

The Finnish Engineers' Association SKL issued a press release on Friday warning of an impending labour strike beginning on 9 March that would see engineers working on merchant shipping boats and icebreakers lay down their tools. The SKL union says the industrial action is in response to employer demands to raise the percentage of foreign labour working on the vessels.
 The owners of the shipping lines in question want to raise the quota of cheaper foreign labour to 75 percent, while current terms and conditions limit the percentage to one-third of the crew on each vessel.
 SKL has estimated that if the employers have their way, it would result in the loss at least one thousand jobs for Finnish maritime workers. Collective bargaining over the dispute includes about 900 employees that work in shipping as chief engineers, engineers or electro-technical officers in ship engine departments.
 "If the strike becomes a reality, both merchant ships involved in international shipping and icebreakers will stay moored in the harbours," SKL's executive manager  Robert Nyman  told Yle.
 The Finnish Shipowners' Association says that Finland's shipping industry has to open its workforce up to more foreigners if it wishes to remain competitive on the world market. It says SKL claims that the change would result in hundreds of lost jobs is untrue, for the employer-suggested terms and conditions also call for the expansion of merchant shipping in Finland, with the goal of adding more merchant ships flying under the Finnish flag to the fleet.
 Seafarers may start strike on 1 March
 The Finnish Seafarers' Union SMU has also threatened a walkout that would begin next week Friday, 1 March at 10am, if a suitable agreement to its own labour negotiations cannot be met before this time. This separate round of collective bargaining concerns the terms and conditions for crew members working on passenger ships, merchant ships and icebreakers.

Unions warn of possible shipping industry walkouts


Summary: The North Korean government has asked Finnish aid organisations to provide food aid amid a worsening food shortage in the country.

Authorities in North Korea are struggling to prevent famine in rural parts of their country and have asked Finnish NGOs to send humanitarian aid.
 Harvests have been poor for two years in succession, and this year’s is also expected to be poor, says  Harri Hakola  of the Christian NGO Fida.
 “The situation is worse than it has been for ten years,” said Hakola. “To all intents and purposes food will run out in May for the majority of the population.”
 Summer period 'critical'
 Malnutrition has long been evident in rural areas of the country,  according  to the UN.
 “The most critical period is in the summer, when the previous year’s harvest has been eaten,” said Hakola. Both Fida and Finn Church Aid, another Finnish development NGO, have received requests for aid direct from North Korea.
 The country also asked the UN for help ahead of the recent Hanoi meeting, during which dictator  Kim Jong-Un  asked  Donald Trump  for sanctions on the country to be lifted.
 “Sure, the summit [in Hanoi] might influence the timing of the request but the message of distress has been sent out for a while now,” said  Jouni Hemberg  of Finn Church Aid. “They have had problems with drought and flooding, and there’s also a shortage of fertilisers in the country. So there are many factors.”
 The World Food programme estimates that some 40 percent of North Koreans don’t get enough food, and the government has asked the UN for 1.4 million tonnes of food to help make up for poor harvests.
 Sanction compliance
 Fida has worked in North Korea for more than two decades, while Finn Church Aid doesn’t currently have a presence in the country.
 Despite warm words from Trump in Vietnam, strict sanctions will remain in place and that makes it more difficult to provide the isolated country with assistance.
 Finn Church Aid travelled to the east Asian peninsular in January to evaluate the need for help, and the conditions for delivering it, in three different provinces. Hemberg said there’s a willingness to act, but now resources should be found—and sanctions complied with.
 “There are stricter conditions for visas, it’s difficult to send materials to the country and payments are more difficult to make,” said Hemberg. “Banks don’t want to transfer money for things connected to North Korea, even though the aid materials themselves will be purchased elsewhere.”
 Hakola says that conditions within the country have eased somewhat for foreign NGOs, with rhetoric not as hostile towards foreign threats as in previous years.
 “It’s also somewhat historic that in recent years the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un has mentioned his own population’s welfare in speeches, as well as foreign threats,” said Hemberg.

North Korea requests food aid from Finland and others to avert famine


Summary: Parliament's constitutional law committee said 20 changes must still be made to the plan, casting doubt on whether the bill will reach the finish line in time.

The parliamentary constitutional law committee finished its long-awaited report on the latest version of the government's proposed  social, health care and regional government reform  on Friday, calling for many corrections. This means the bill will move to the committee on social affairs and health, which will have little time to execute the required changes before Parliament starts its pre-election recess on 15 March and the government term comes to an end.
 The constitutional law committee is charged with examining the constitutionality of law proposals and their bearing on international human rights. It's unanimous decision on the latest version of the proposed overhaul of Finland's social and health care system and regional government included 20 different requests for "constitutional law fine-tuning".
 "Yes, there's some work that has to be done, but that's why we are here," said vice-chair of the constitutional law committee  Tapani Tölli , in a press conference arranged after the report was submitted.
 The report's list requires, for example, a better explanation of customer plans, a re-examination of the timing of regional elections, clearer service requirements for  private facilities , requirements for social and health care quality monitoring, the resolution of some data protection issues, and further clarification of regional  funding  and compensation paid to municipalities.
 Skirting compliance with EU law
 The constitutional law committee also called once again on the  social affairs and health committee  to reconsider so-called EU notification. If member states of the European Union wish to use EU aid, they are required to notify the EU commission. The Finnish government has avoided having to do this, but the committee says that EU commission approval would ensure that the "freedom of choice" element of the proposed reform would be compatible with EU competition law.
 The constitutional law committee has struggled with this issue since the first drafts of the proposal were submitted. The report released on Friday contains wording that says that if the social affairs and health committee cannot guarantee the reform's legality in terms of EU law, then the application of the "freedom of choice" component of the bill should be postponed.
 The report also calls for the entire regional government component of the bill to also be changed, if it turns out that there is no time to resolve various related issues first. The plan to create larger regions to oversee the administration of the new social and health care system would require that regional funding and municipal taxation are redefined, with a guarantee that regional financing models would ensure that adequate funding is always available to meet social and health service needs.
 Time is running out
 The parliamentary term will end on 15 March already, due to the lead-up to the next general elections on 14 April. This leaves the social affairs and health committee of parliament with just a few weeks to implement the changes in Friday's report. The committee has already called an extraordinary meeting on Monday to go through the report.
 "We'll do what we can. We need guidance from the government about what our next course of action should be: which details should be changed and how they want to proceed," said  Krista Kiuru , chair of the committee.
 Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Annika Saarikko  says her ministry will start in on the work required immediately.
 "We've got some sweaty weeks ahead, but I am hopeful that we can work together with the civil service to come up with solutions to all of the points that the social affairs and health committee requests," she said.
 Opposition: The game is over
 Opposition leaders commented on the report and its ramifications on social media on Friday.
 "Not only does the constitutional law committee require that the social affairs and health committee ensure EU law compliance, but it also calls for the 'adoption of the freedom of choice law to be postponed'. In practice, the social affairs and health committee cannot guarantee this without significantly altering the bill," Left Alliance Chair  Li Andersson  posted on Twitter.
 "My personal conclusion: this is the end of the line. It's high time the government blew the whistle – time is out and the game is over. The problems of the model are just too great and there's no way we can confirm its relationship to EU law with this little time left. We should spend our time thinking about what to do moving forward instead." she tweeted later.
 Green chair  Pekka Haavisto  called for a meeting of all the parliamentary parties to discuss the bill's current status.
 "The changes required by the constitutional law committee are significant. It looks quite likely that implementation of the sote reform will transfer to the next term," he tweeted.
 The Swedish People's Party chair  Anna-Maja Henriksson  appeared in an Yle interview Saturday morning to say that the reform will not be finished in time for a vote this term, as there are too many outstanding problems.

Time is running out: Committee determines "sote" bill still needs fine-tuning


Summary: MDI consultants predict that declining birth rates will contribute to only the capital city area, Tampere and Turku seeing population growth in the next two decades.

In the next twenty years, only the capital city area, the southwest city of Turku, and the south-central hub of Tampere and its surroundings will see their populations grow, predicts MDI, a private consultancy firm specialising in regional development.
 MDI forecasts that the population of the Helsinki metropolitan area will increase by a quarter of a million people in the next 20 years. At the same time, however, the population of the entire country is only predicted to increase by fewer than 100,000 people, which would mean that every other area of the country would see a drop in their resident numbers – except the Helsinki area and the cities of Turku and Tampere.
 "The change will be most dramatic in the Oulu region, where birth rates have plummeted," says  Timo Aro , an author of the MDI analysis.
 The northwest city of Oulu has been growing steadily in recent years, and at more than 200,000 inhabitants, it is currently Finland's fifth largest city. The demographic is also quite young, leading to a good comparative birth rate. According to the MDI forecast, however, this growth will reach a turning point in the mid-2030 and start to decline.
 More segregation and ghost towns
 MDI's consultants predict that internal migration within the country will peak at this time. The group also forecasts a concurrent increase in geographical segregation, as well as more areas being drained and emptied of their inhabitants.
 The  MDI forecast  (in Finnish) released on Friday concentrated on Finland's ten largest cities and their surrounding areas, using recent developments in mortality, birth rates, internal migration and immigration to predict the demographic trends of the near future.
 According to the forecast, in the year 2040, 32.7 percent of Finland's population will live in the Helsinki area, compared to 6.4 percent in Turku, 7.8 percent in Tampere, 3.5 percent in Jyväskylä and 4.7 percent in Oulu.
 This leaves 11.9 percent to be shared by the rest of the top ten cities: Lahti, Kuopio, Seinäjoki, Joensuu and Vaasa, and 32.9 percent of the population in the areas of Finland outside of these major cities.
 The MDI analysis reached a more dismal conclusion than a similar  2015 forecast  from the state-owned agency Statistics Finland. The consultancy firm says this is because the  birth rate has since fallen at a more alarming rate  that than the statistics agency could have predicted.

Forecast: Only 3 out of 10 urban areas will see population growth


Summary: The risk of a stray dog attack may be added to future travel advisories, said Finnish consul Raimo Pahkasalo.

Thai King  Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun  has send has sent flowers to a five-year-old  Finnish boy who was mauled by stray dogs  at the Ao Nang beach in Karabi on Wednesday, according to reports in the English-language online paper The Nation.
 According to the publication, the boy’s condition has improved since receiving hospital treatment. He is now able to sit up in bed and no longer seems to be as fearful as he had been.
 The boy’s wounds were also said to be healing and no sign of infection had been detected. The Bangkok Post previously reported that the boy had been vaccinated against rabies and tetanus. The Nation quoted doctors as saying that the patient will likely be discharged from hospital in a few days.
 Strays to be relocated
 Finnish consul in Thailand  Raimo Pahkasalo  said Thursday that police had informed the Finnish embassy in Bangkok about the incident.
 "The pack of stray dogs were first fighting among themselves and afterwards attacked the boy," Pahkasalo explained.
 The consul added that tourists are rarely attacked by strays and noted that during the past five years he hadn’t received a single report of a stray dog attacking a Finnish tourist in Thailand.
 "This boy had really bad luck on this trip. Thailand does have a stray dog problem but it generally doesn’t affect tourist locations. It could be that this [risk] may now be included in travel advisories," Pahkasalo continued.
 A local official said that Ao Nang’s strays had been involved in several attacks in the past. He said they will now be removed from the area near the beach.

Royal flowers for Finnish boy in Thai stray dog attack


Summary: Legal reforms mean that teens as young as 15 are now able to drive regular passenger vehicles as well as mini or moped cars.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

The Finnish Cyclists Federation has filed a complaint with the European Commission over new laws in Finland that designate passenger cars as "lightweight vehicles" and allow underage teens to drive them with the same license used for a mini or  moped car .
 The Federation is arguing that the legal reform essentially allows younger teens to drive larger passenger vehicles without the training or experience usually required to secure the B-class license needed to drive a car. The legal reform took effect last November.
 "I don’t know whether or not we will be able to stop it. That’s another thing. We believe this issue is so serious that we have to look at each and every [class of] license," federation chair  Matti Koistinen  said.
 Yle also interviewed traffic experts who said they were highly critical of how little instruction a 15-year-old would now need to drive a regular vehicle weighing 1,500 kilograms.
 In addition to the new class motor vehicles, Finland has introduced a number of measures that will essentially put more and younger drivers behind the wheel. The include reforms to  fast-track the process of getting a driver's permit  as well as  reducing the threshold for 17 year-olds  to get a driver's license.
 More traffic undermines climate goals
 Passenger cars now designated as "lightweight vehicles under the new law have a maximum speed limit of 60 kilometres an hour and teens will be able to drive them without the B-license that other motorists must have to get behind the wheel.
 The level of training required is the same as is now compulsory for so-called moped or mini cars, which can have a legal top speed of 45 kilometres an hour.
 Meanwhile the cyclists’ association said it opposes the reform for two key reasons. The first is that it will endanger other light traffic such as pedestrians and cyclists.
 "We all know how people 'soup up' their moped cars," Koistinen declared.
 Secondly, the legal reform will increase vehicular traffic and therefore runs counter to climate goals, the organisation pointed out.
 Reform inconsistent with EU rules
 In Finland, lightweight cars are classified as T-class vehicles, which in the eyes of EU regulations are essentially tractors. The driver of a T-class vehicle must be at least 15 years old, according to the law.
 EU regulations define T-class vehicles as intended for use in forestry and agriculture. According to the cycling federation this presents a contradiction with the Finnish legal reform, as cars now defined as T-class vehicles are primarily meant to transport people and goods. The organisation noted that according to EU regulations, lightweight vehicles should be classified as cars rather than tractors.
 In addition, the cyclists’ NGO argued that there is no corresponding kind of moped car that EU rules would allow someone with an AM-class license to drive – in other words a 15-year-old.
 The European Commission had previously cautioned Finland about the inconsistency with EU rules during the preparatory stage of the legal reform. At the time, it pointed out that the new class of driver’s license would flout EU regulations.
 The federation said that later modifications to the law still do not make the new class of "lightweight cars" moped cars or tractors.
 Since it already issued a caution over the disregard for EU rules, the Commission now has the option of taking legal action against Finland.

Cyclists file EU complaint over new class of "light vehicles"


Summary: The Nordics’ first visual song contest for the deaf, hearing-impaired and sign language users took place in Helsinki on Saturday.

Danish sign language performer  Lea Hyldstrup  was named the winner of the Nordics’ first visual song contest for the deaf, hearing-impaired and sign language users in Helsinki on Saturday. Competitors used Nordic sign languages during the event.
 The Danish performer wrested the 1,000-euro prize from a field that included seven other competitors: five from Finland and one each from Sweden and Norway in addition to Hyldstrup herself.
 Competition organisers did not announce runners-up to the winner.
 The song contest was organised by the theatre cooperative Ursa Minor, which is an organisation for the hearing-impaired, with support from the Nordic Culture Center.
 According to  Mikaela Tillander  of Yle’s Sign Language News unit, the contestants had the option of performing with or without music. They could also decide whether to perform the lyrics of their selected songs or to offer a sign language version of the piece.
 "They also had to consider whether or not to mime the songs or offer a visual performance. I am looking forward with great interest to new interpretations in the next competition," she added.
 Sweden will host the next competition in 2021.
 Edit: Updated on 25 March at 10.48am to correct the assertion that Finland did not place in the top three, to indicate that competition organisers did not place runners-up. Information about the participants and sign languages used during the event was also added and the headline adjusted accordingly.

Finland hosts first Nordic visual song contest


Summary: Spending cuts rather than inclusion and equality are behind the move to place special needs learners in regular classrooms, the OAJ charged.

Increasing numbers of children in need of special teaching support  are being taught in large mainstream classes , says the teachers’ union OAJ.
 In 2017 just under one-fifth of all primary school students received varying levels of special support in school. The numbers reflect a doubling in the number of children who receive special support in school over the past two decades.
 Researchers have attributed the phenomenon to different reasons. On the one hand growing inequality and a plethora of distractions in society have resulting in children having difficulty concentrating. At the same time learning difficulties are being detected, diagnosed and documented more readily than before.
 Whatever the reason, a growing number of primary school students are being placed in regular large classrooms instead of smaller groups intended for children who need special support.
 Aalto University researchers said that a reduction in the number of special needs classes and the move to transfer special needs students to larger mainstream groups has added to the problem of students needing special support in class. In some cases, they said, teachers may have classes of up to 50 students, one-third of whom may need special support.
 Inclusion a "beautiful idea"
 The move to locate special needs children in larger groups has been a deliberate choice by education officials and is part of a drive toward an “inclusion”-based approach to education. The principle proposed that everyone has the right to be taught in a regular class environment and that being placed in a special class should be an exception.
 The goal is to ensure equality in schools so that no one is stigmatised because they need more support than others.
 It is a beautiful idea, said one teacher who gave her name as  Hanna . “We have to accept all kinds of people, teachers and students. You can’t say that you work with only a certain type of person,” she added.
 However the truth may be quite different, said the teachers’ union OAJ. It attributes the new guideline to money. It noted that at the same time that the number of children requiring special learning support is growing, many municipalities are struggling with financial difficulties.
 Special education costly
 It is costly to upkeep special education schools and special needs classes and that creates pressure to transfer such students to larger general classes. This is being done in the name of inclusion, but the motive is also the desire to cut spending, said OAJ specialist  Päivi Lyhykäinen.
 “Absolutely. Children have been moved from special classes to general teaching groups but it may be because the school doesn’t have a single special needs teacher. When you don’t have enough teachers, you cannot provide support,” Lyhykäinen continued.
 The OAJ has proposed changes to the laws governing the provision of primary education to address the problem. First, it wants the central government to relieve municipalities of the responsibility for funding special needs teaching.
 In addition, it wants the law to include stronger provisions for the right to groups providing more support for learning as well as quotas stipulating the number of hours of special needs teaching institutions should provide.
 The teachers’ interest group said that under current legislation, access to special needs education relies too heavily on municipalities’ financial situation.
 “This way [children] would not be in different situations depending on the municipality in which you happened to be born or live,” Lyhykäinen added.

Savings behind decline in special needs classes, says teachers’ union


Summary: Environmental protection legislation in many Arctic countries is ambiguous and poorly-enforced, a new report claims.

A new report has called for closer and broader regulation of mining activity in the Arctic region. The authors of the report said that there has hitherto been surprisingly little research on the environmental risks associated with mining in the Arctic as well as measures that could mitigate those risks.
 "For example melting in permafrost areas may increase acidification of mining run-off, which in turn could increase the amount of heavy metals entering the soil from mining operations," Professor  Anne Tolvanen  of the Natural Resources Institute explained in a statement.
 The study by the GovAda research project was funded by the Academy of Finland and conducted by the University of Lapland in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Finland and the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
 The report was the culmination of a five-year research project that ran from 2014 to 2018 and found that environmental protection laws in many countries are ambiguous and also poorly enforced. In addition, researchers concluded that local residents do not necessarily see any economic benefit from mining operations.
 The reported noted that in some cases in Finland, there are also fears that the impact of mining on the environment as well as the natural landscape will undermine local prospects for tourism.
 Professor: More comprehensive assessments needed
 Tolvanen said that in the future, the economic impact of mining should be assessed more broadly and comprehensively and should consider economic benefits as well as possible drawbacks.
 She also called for practical measures for safeguarding the viability of affected areas after mining operations cease.
 "Legislation has often been criticised because it does not effectively protect traditional livelihoods nor are locals or indigenous people involved in decision-making about [prospective] mines," noted  Jukka Similä , a Lapland University professor and head of the GovAda project.
 The project compiled and assessed peer-reviewed scientific publications on the mining of metal, coal, jewellery and industrial minerals. The research report was published in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Report: Tighter regulations, oversight needed for Arctic mining activity


Summary: Uneven urban growth, competing plans for a Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel, dust and pollen in the air are all topics in Monday's Finnish press.

The business daily  Kauppalehti  says that the post-election government will need to look at population trends and create a programme to deal with urban growth.
 This article points to the rapid urbanization underway in the country and a growing gap in regional development. Kauppalehti writes that the latest projections show that in 20 years' time Finland in practice will have  only three actively growing urban centres . Helsinki, Tampere and Turku will form a triangle encompassing half of the nation's population.
 Even with  low birth rates , internal immigration will contribute to the population of the Helsinki region expanding by 270,000 by the year 2040, while the population of both Tampere and Turku will be up by 30,000 by then.
 Kauppalehti sees a growing shift not only from rural to urban areas, but also from the outlying areas of cities towards the urban centres. This raises its own challenges. Growth centres will have to be able to provide affordable housing, daycare services, schools and other services.
 The post-election government, this paper argues, should recognise these trends and formulate an urbanisation policy for inclusion in its programme. This will mean a commitment to significant investment in, for example, rail traffic, so that not everyone will have to live in the centre of the capital. Also, the funding to local governments that comes out of the national budget will have to be re-examined in light of population forecasts.
 Kauppalehti points out that smaller communities can also work on their own to be attractive locations for living and working. It notes that for example, the towns of Seinäjoki and Rauma have been more successful in creating cooperation with corporate partners than have big cities. Companies especially appreciate fast zoning processes and opportunities to take part in providing services for the public sector.
 Meanwhile, increasingly large parts of the country are suffering from a shortage of workers as the population ages and birth rates fall. This paper says that internal migration would help ease the problem, and that the government should take steps to ease the path for moving to take up jobs. Migration, it adds, is a slow means of dealing with the problems related to population structure, but there are few alternatives.
 Tallinn tunnel tug of war
 A proposed tunnel under the Gulf of Finland between Helsinki and the Estonia capital, Tallinn, may move a significant step forward on Monday when the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council reviews its latest zoning plan, reports  Helsingin Sanomat .
 There are two competing projects to create the 100km tunnel linking the two cities. One is based on a study commissioned by a group of local authorities in the Helsinki region and is backed by the Transport and Communications Ministry. The other is a  private venture led by Finnish marketing guru and entrepreneur   Peter Vesterbacka  who picked up a 100 million euro investment for his project late last year.
 The first of these two calls for the tunnel link to run to the Helsinki airport via the central railway station and the city centre. Vesterbacka's plan routes the tunnel connection through the city of Espoo, just to the west of the capital.
 According to Helsingin Sanomat, the chair of the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council, and the city of Espoo, are willing to zone for both routes. This is opposed by a range of official bodies, including the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the cities of Helsinki and Vantaa. They all want to see a single route, the one through central Helsinki, decided on now.
 Regional council chair  Markku Markkula  told the paper that he believes that both options need to be kept open. Right now, there are no tax funds earmarked for the project, no city funding, and no EU funding.
 Start of dust and pollen season
 Typical springtime annoyances for many people, stuffy noses, coughs and itchy eyes caused by dust and pollen are early this year in many parts of Finland. Monday’s  Metro  free-sheet reports on information from the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY saying that drier streets and a few sunny days mean that there is already lots of dust in the air.
 Most of the dust kicked up by traffic in urban areas consists of particles of asphalt and sand used on streets over the winter months. Studded snow tyres in particular chew up road surfaces, creating particles that get trapped until the snow and ice melt.
 Dust levels can vary widely from day to day, depending on the weather.
 As for pollen counts, Metro notes a report issued by the Aerobiology Unit of the University of Turku on Friday saying the small amounts of alder and hazel carried on winds into Finland have already been detected in the air in southern parts of the country. These two common early sources of pollen usually start blooming in southern Finland in late March.
 A  pollen information service  is provided by the Aerobiology Unit of the University of Turku. General  air quality monitoring data  in the greater Helsinki region is available from Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY.

Monday's papers: Urban growth, Tallinn tunnel, dust and pollen


Summary: The WWF and locals report sightings of 10-15 eagles at a time in western Finland.

White-tailed eagles are gathering near residential areas in groups of 10-15 individuals in the region of Vaasa in western Finland, locals and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report.
 WWF environmentalist  Pekka Peura  told Yle that the unusual gatherings are due to a growing eagle population and crowded habitats.
 White-tailed eagles nest in sturdy trees that grow in old forests, and Peura said both are becoming scarce in Vaasa.
 The spike in sightings also coincides with the species' migration period and the nesting season, which tends to run from February to April.
 Article continues after photo.
 Numerous white-tailed eagles, gathering due to a shrinking habitat. Göran Puutio
 "The window for nesting is pretty wide. Some older white-tailed eagle couples tend to get to business quite early," Peura noted.
 Local birdwatchers said they are delighted by the presence of the impressive creatures. A group of eagles is sometimes known as a convocation.
 Healthy population
 The area known as Kvarken near Vaasa in the Gulf of Bothnia is an important region for white-tailed eagles. In 2017 ornithologists counted 96 hatchlings. Despite a drop to some 70 chicks the following year, researchers say the figures are encouragingly high.
 "Considering the fact that there were no sightings whatsoever in the 1970s, and that we haven't located every nest, 70 eagle chicks is a prodigious number," Peura said.
 WWF volunteers such as Peura monitor the species' nesting each year and check for possible new sites. New hatchlings are ringed to help track the population.
 "The way we do it is that we check the nests we already know of, and if we find new ones or get tips we investigate those, too. And we tag as many young birds as we can when they reach the right age."
 Edit: Vaasa and Kvarken are located in western Finland.

White-tailed eagles congregate in Vaasa as habitats shrink


Summary: Finnish-made cars account for only around one percent of imports to the U.S.,  but Finland's auto industry would likely be hurt by new tariffs.

The auto industry in the EU, and especially in Germany, is looking on with a growing sense of foreboding as Washington continues holding to a threat to impose tariffs on cars imported from the European Union.
 US President Donald Trump's administration could impose tariffs of as much as 25 percent on foreign-made vehicles and parts including those from the EU. These could come into force if the U.S. is unable to reach a new trade deal with the bloc. At present there is a 2.5% tariff on EU-made cars imported to the United States.
 New tariffs could push up the price of a car manufactured in the EU on the U.S. market by more than 5000 euros. Higher prices would mean fewer sales and force a need to cut production.
 Bump-on effect in Finland
 If, for example, Germany's Daimler is forced to scale back production, one of the first to feel the pinch is likely to be the Valmet Automotive plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Valmet Automotive manufactures Mercedes-Benz vehicles under contract with Daimler, 110,000 of them last year.
 Usually when market demand falls, contract manufacturers are in a weaker position than plants in the home country of the principal producer. So far, however, the threat of new tariffs has not affected the Valmet Automotive facility.
 "We are monitoring the situation, but it is impossible to evaluate the impact on production in Uusikaupunki," says Valmet Automotive Communications Manager  Mikael Mäki . "Right now our company is producing cars as has been agreed upon with our customer. The impact of tariffs is not being seen in our operations."
 Article continues after photo.
 Valmet Automotive manufactured a total of 110,000 cars at the Uusikaupunki, Finland plant in 2018.  Valmet Automotive
 Strong recent growth in car exports
 "The direct effects of new tariffs on cars on Finland's automotive industry would be significant. The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy has estimated that more than 10 percent of jobs in the automotive sector would be lost. That's a massive impact," notes Nordea Bank Chief Analyst  Jan von Gerich .
 von Gerich believes that the threat of tariffs is a credible one, even though he hopes that they can be avoided.
 "My projection of the possibility of [new] tariffs is in the range of 30 to 40 percent," he adds.
 The export of cars manufactured in Finland has been on a sharp upward curve. Cars produced here are first shipped to Germany, from where they are then forwarded on to the U.S. and other export markets.
 "A growing share of Finnish-produced cars ends up in the United States, so the effects of a possible tariff on contract manufacturers could be big. If these tariffs are shifted directly to retail prices, exports to the United States could dry up very quickly," points outs  Olli-Pekka Penttilä , director of statistics at Finnish Customs.
 Finnish Customs estimated that almost all petrol engine cars manufactured in Finland were exported to the U.S. via Germany last year - while in 2017, a good half ended up in the United States. In practice, these were Mercedes-Benz models produced at Valmet Automotive's plant in Uusikaupunki.
 U.S. custom figures show that during the first ten months of last year, approximately 1.5 billion euros worth of Finnish-made cars were imported to that country, 70 percent more than during the same period of 2017.

Finland could take a hard hit from U.S. car tariffs


Summary: Prosecutors have filed charges in a case of sexual crimes believed to have taken place between July and October of last year.

The prosecutor's office in Oulu says that charges of aggravated child sexual abuse and aggravated rape have been formally filed against a defendant in custody described as a man of foreign background born in 1975.
 The offenses are thought to have taken place in the city centre and in the Tuira district of the city. The accused has denied the charges.
 This is reportedly the second set of charges filed in a recent series of investigations into sex crimes in Oulu.  Earlier this month , charges of aggravated child sexual abuse and aggravated rape were brought against a 22 year-old man also of foreign background.
 A court will begin proceedings in that case on Tuesday 26.2. The defendant has denied the charges.
 Investigations of sex crimes in Oulu have been the focus of major media coverage since  eight men were detained in December . None of those eight cases have yet gone to court.

New charges in Oulu sexual abuse cases


Summary: Volunteers have worked to improve the condition of southern Finland's Longinoja brook for more than 15 years.

The Finnish committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) awarded volunteer environmentalist  Juha Salonen  and his team the Biodiversity Award for 2017-2018.
 A network of volunteers has been working to revitalise and maintain the Longinoja brook in Malmi, Helsinki for more than 15 years. The stream is home to a population of endangered sea trout ( Salmo trutta ).
 The Biodiversity Award is handed out via a public competition overseen by the national committee. This time the competition attracted 21 high-level proposals.
 Minister of the Environment  Kimmo Tiilikainen  handed over the accolade at the seventh biennial award ceremony in Helsinki on Monday, praising the efforts by the conservationists.
 "Thanks to active restoration work, the brook has now revived, and large numbers of threatened sea trout come again to spawn in the Longinoja brook," Tiilikainen said. "This kind of hands-on work is important in the conservation of species. The volunteer work has opened the eyes of many city dwellers to the importance of urban nature areas."
 Sea trout gather near the surface of the Longinoja brook as volunteer conservationists look on. Juha Salonen / Longinoja.fi
 The award last went to the Wolf Ambassadors of the Finnish Nature League for dispelling the fear of wolves among children and youngsters by disseminating science-based information, according to the Environment Ministry website.
 The IUCN is the oldest and largest environmental network in the world. Finland's IUCN organisations include the Ministry of the Environment, the Finnish Association of Nature Conservation, WWF Finland, the Finnish Society for Nature and Environment (Natur och Miljö), BirdLife Finland, the Finnish Wildlife Agency and the Helsinki Zoo.
 Unique work creates friendships
 Project coordinator and award recipient Juha Salonen said he and his team of 112 volunteers greatly appreciate the acknowledgement.
 "I was pretty speechless when I heard the news," he said. "It's amazing that such an esteemed panel chose us as this year's winner."
 Salonen emphasised that the greatest award for him is a renewed interest in the natural environment and the human connections created through the restoration work.
 "Our brook troop is very active and very close. Awards are great, but it's most important to do lasting work to take care of nature. We want to do something unique together," Salonen said.

Revived Helsinki waterway volunteers receive Biodiversity Award


Summary: Some reviewers were impressed by the Nokia 9's camera specs, but said the handset's other features may fall short in the very competitive smartphone market.

HMD Global, the Finnish firm licensed to produce and market Nokia smartphones, unveiled four new phones at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
 Most of the buzz online about HMD's presence at the world's biggest smartphone event this week surrounded the firm's unveiling of its flagship phone, the Nokia 9 PureView, which runs on Android.
 Most flagship phones made by market leaders like Samsung and Apple are outfitted with two - or even three - cameras. The Nokia 9, however, has five cameras on the back of the device, each equipped with 12-megapixel sensors.
 Each of the lenses is triggered when a photo is taken and internal software melds those five images into one, offering phone-based photographers the ability to create the out-of-focus 'bokeh' effects that not long ago were only possible through the use of traditional cameras with bulky lenses.
 The company had help from San Fransisco-based camera firm Light in outfitting the multi-camera tech on the Nokia 9. Light recently released its own camera device,  the 1700 euro L16 , which utilises 16 separate lenses and sensors. The phone also features a front-facing camera for selfies.
 HMD Global has been marketing Nokia smartphones for the past three years, and - like all phone companies these days - has tried to differentiate itself in the highly competitive and mature smartphone market.
 Differentiation
 Unlike rivals Samsung and Huawei - which both recently announced smartphones with foldable screens - HMD is aiming to differentiate by offering phones capable of taking great photographs, according to the firm's SVP  Pekka Rantala .
 When it launched operations a few years ago HMD said it was aiming to bring Nokia back into the mobile phone industry, saying that it wants the brand to become one of the top five in the market.
 However, in terms of market share, the firm has not yet succeeded. According to smartphone sales data from Counterpoint Research, Nokia HMD was the ninth-largest holder of market share in 2018, with about one percent of the market.
 Meanwhile the market leaders, Samsung and Apple, enjoy about 19 and 14 percent of the global smartphone market, respectively.
 According to Counterpoint Research the smartphone market reached a peak with overall sales falling by around 4 percent last year. The research firm said that consumers were holding onto their phones longer and not upgrading them as often as in previous years.
 Android One
 Another way HMD has differentiated the Nokia brand is through the use of its "pure" version of Android, known as Android One. The majority of smartphone companies using Android commonly use modified versions of the operating system with many including pre-installed software.
 Android One, which is made and licensed by Google, is an unmodified version of the OS that continually receives security and software updates, a service which many smartphone makers do not provide for their devices.
 HMD said the retail price of the Nokia 9 PureView will be around 599 euros, which is well below the asking price of many flagship handsets from other firms. Apple's top model starts at well over a thousand euros while prices for Samsung's folding phone-tablet will start at more than 1,700 euros.
 While no official release date has been set, it has been reported the Nokia 9 will go on sale next month.

HMD unveils Nokia flagship smartphone with five cameras


Summary: Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they approve of the use of medicinal cannabis, according to a National Institute for Health and Welfare survey.

People in Finland are increasingly using or have at least tried cannabis, and attitudes about the drug have relaxed since the early 1990s, according to a survey by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL.
 Every four years THL carries out a substance abuse survey. According to results collected in 2018, it has become increasingly common that people between the ages of 25-34 use - or have tried - recreational drugs.
 Compared to results from a similar survey in 1992, the proportion of people who said they have at least experimented with cannabis has quadrupled. In 1992 some six percent of respondents said they'd tried cannabis, while in 2018 that figure jumped to 24 percent.
 Some 45 percent of respondents in that age group in the 2018 survey said they have tried some kind of illegal drug at some point in their lives. People between the ages of 35-44 also increasingly admitted to having experimented with drugs at some point as well.
 However, the situation appears to be more stable among the youngest group queried in the survey, which THL said was a good sign.
 There was no marked increase in drug use by those between the ages of 15-25, compared to the last time the survey was carried out in 2014.
 Cannabis most popular by far
 The use of cannabis appears to be on a clear upswing, and was the most commonly-used illegal drug according to the survey. The use of prescription medication - for non-medicinal purposes - was the second-most commonly used group of drugs.
 These drugs include sleeping aids and pain medications, according to THL.
 Less than five percent of respondents said they had tried other recreational drugs, the most common of which were the stimulants amphetamines and ecstasy.
 One-fifth support drug decriminalisation
 The survey found that Finnish residents have become more liberal in their views on the use of cannabis as medication and on questions regarding the legal penalties for drug use in general.
 Some 42 percent of respondents said that criminal punishment for cannabis use should be eliminated, while 20 percent said Finland should consider decriminalising all recreational drugs.
 Around 72 percent of respondents said they approve of the use of medicinal cannabis. About 18 percent of respondents said that cannabis should be legally obtainable for any purpose, while 54 percent said that cannabis should only be obtainable for medicinal purposes.
 The THL's substance abuse survey reached out to 3,229 Finnish residents between the ages of 15-69 in 2018.

Cannabis use in Finland increasingly common, health watchdog says


Summary: The Finnish government will decide on an operating permit for the nuclear plant based on the Nuclear Safety Authority's approval.

The Finnish Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) announced on Monday that the government may issue an operating permit for the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor through to the year 2038, even though the facility still faces unresolved safety issues . The facility is located on the island of Olkiluoto off the western coast of Finland and owned by the Industrial Power Corporation (TVO).
 The reactor has been dogged by  construction delays, cost overruns and tit-for-tat lawsuits  between the Finnish nuclear utility TVO and the majority French nuclear contractor Areva.
 The nuclear plant was originally due to power up in 2009, however  production has been pushed back to 2020 , 11 years behind schedule. Stuk's announcement on Monday therefore marks a major step forward for the facility as the Finnish government will rely on the evaluation in its decision over whether or not to grant a final operating licence.
 "STUK has assessed, besides the technical and structural safety, also the preparedness of Teollisuuden Voima’s organization and employees to operate the plant safely," the agency said in a statement.
 The nuclear watchdog issued its statement on condition that TVO conduct periodic safety appraisals by the end of 2028 and send them to Stuk for approval.
 Government is expected to decide on the plant's operation in two week's time.
 Safety work still to be done
 While Stuk concluded that Olkiluoto 3 is safe to operate, the report included critical measures that would have to be implemented prior to the facility receiving a loading permit for the nuclear fuel and before it can be connected to the national power grid.
 Test operations in early 2018 uncovered an anomaly in the reactor. Stuk called on TVO to take steps to suppress vibration in the pressuriser surge line of the primary circuit before loading fuel in the reactor.
 TVO has suggested two different technical solutions and said that it will inspect plans for the eventual solution before supervising the work and verifying its quality before fuel loading can take place.
 Facility wildly late
 Construction of the French-German EPR pressurised water reactor began in 2005. It is among the world's largest nuclear reactors at a rated output of 1,600 megawatts.
 Olkiluoto 3 is projected to meet about 15 percent of Finland's total electricity demand when fully operational.

Finland's nuclear watchdog greenlights Olkiluoto 3 reactor


Summary: Creating a post-election government in Finland may be exceptionally difficult, writes one of the papers in Tuesday's look at the Finnish press.

The tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  predicts Finland will see exceptionally difficult government formation talks following April's parliamentary elections.
 The paper bases its prediction on the latest Helsingin Sanomat Gallup poll showing the Social Democrats with 20.8% of voter support, the conservative National Coalition with 18.6%, the Centre with 14.7%, closely followed by the Greens and the Finns Party.
 Ilta-Sanomat points out that government formation talks are easy when one party is "a head taller" than its rivals and can claim a mandate from voters. This time, though, it is possible that no party will gain the upper hand.
 It describes the months of stalemate that were seen in neighbouring Sweden after last autumn's elections as a possible foretaste of what will happen in Finland. There it was the rightwing Sweden Democrats who created a bottleneck. In Finland, that same role  might be played by the Finns Party , led by  Jussi Halla-Aho . The leaders of the largest parties have already said they will not enter into a coalition government with the Finns Party.
 However, in this opinion piece, Ilta-Sanomat states that denials of willinginess to cooperate with the Finns Party should not be believed. If the Finns Party polls at least 15 percent of the vote, which is entirely possible, the road into a coalition will open up.
 The paper's forecast, on the basis of the latest voter surveys, is that the Social Democratic chair  Antti Rinne  will lead talks on putting together a new cabinet. In an interview with Ilta-Sanomat he said that one issue will take precedence - major funding for  care of the sick and elderly .
 "No comment" on ISIS fighters
 Turku's Turun Sanomat reports that the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) has  declined to comment  on whether or not there are Finnish nationals among the former ISIS fighters being held prisoner in Syria.
 According to Supo, more than 80 Finnish citizens travelled to fight in conflict zones in Syria and Iraq mainly during the period 2012-2016. It is believed that approximately 20 were killed and around 20 have previously returned to Finland.
 Officials say that actual figure of those who traveled to take part in the conflict could be higher. Supo says that around 20 of those known to have gone to Syria or Iraq were adult women, and an estimated 30 children, some of whom have now reached adulthood. There are also children with ties to Finland who were born in ISIS-controlled areas.
 A spokesperson for the Security Intelligence Service declined to confirm or deny that Finnish nationals are among ISIS prisoners in Syria, saying that the information concerns Supo's "operational activities".
 Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  recently told Yle that Finland has no interest in taking back ISIS combatants. However, by law, citizens have freedom of movement and cannot be prevented from entering the country, cannot be expelled, and cannot be returned to another country against their will.
 Parliament is, however, looking at a proposal to enable  stripping a dual national of Finnish citizenship  for certain serious offenses.
 Split over immigrant labour
 The Jyväskylä daily Keskisuomalainen is one of the papers carrying a poll by the Federation of Finnish Enterprises that shows an even split among the public on the question of making it easier for companies  to hire foreign employees .
 With a few exceptions, it is standard hiring practice in Finland to prioritise hiring job applicants who are citizens of an EU member state or a country that is a part of the European Economic Area.
 Local employment offices can, however, ease restrictions on the basis of labour availability, in effect dropping the priority requirement approving work permits for non-EU and -EEA migrants in fields where there is a shortage of potential employees from EU and EEA countries.
 Of the more than 1000 Finns surveyed, 39 percent said that it should be made easier to hire foreigners while 38 percent took the position that it should not. The remaining 23 percent were undecided.
 At 44 percent, women were more willing to see it made easier to bring immigrants into the workforce. A significant level of support was seen among older people, with more than half of over 60 year-olds in favour of easing restrictions on hiring non-citizens.
 Mystery quake
 Tampere's Aamulehti reports that a 1.2 magnitude earthquake on Monday centred at Valkeakoski 35 kilometres south of Tampere and 150 km north of Helsinki in the Pirkanmaa region. The quake was recorded and automatically reported by monitoring equipment of the Institute of Seismology at the University of Helsinki.
 Aamulehti says that it was unable to contact representatives of the institute for explanation or comments. It did note, however, that a similar reading about one year ago from Nokia turned out to be a blip from construction blasting work.

Tuesday's papers: Post-election govt, former ISIS fighters, mystery quake


Summary: An official probe of a 2017 aircraft evacuation incident found serious deficiencies in procedure.

Finnish airport operator Finavia has updated aircraft evacuation and rescue plans at all airports in Finland, reports the Lännen Media news service.
 The update follows an investigation by the Safety Investigation Authority of a 2017 incident involving the evacuation of an airliner at Turku airport in December 2017.
 During that incident, Finnair’s scheduled service departed from Helsinki to Gothenburg, Sweden, but diverted to Turku after smoke appeared in the cabin of the Embraer 190 operated by Nordic Regional Airlines. The captain elected to evacuate the 100 passengers and four crew members after landing. The smoke was caused by the failure of the air cycle machine in one of the aircraft's two air conditioning packs. The incident did not result in injuries.
 Among the deficiencies found during the probe was that Turku airport's emergency plan had not taken into account the need to ensure the availability of vehicles for the transportation of large numbers of people.
 The Safety Investigation Authority also stressed that it must be ensured that passengers follow evacuation orders and leave carry-on baggage behind. It said that groping for carry-ons in an emergency shows blatant disregard for others and may cause deaths or injuries.
 Under the new Finavia rules, an aircraft must be able to be emptied of passengers within 90 seconds.

Finavia updates emergency evacuation plans at all Finnish airports


Summary: The country's birth rate continued to decline in January, according to fresh figures from Finland's statistics office.

The population of Finland remained largely steady at about 5.5 million people, with an increase of nearly 400 people in January, according to new data from Statistics Finland.
 The agency announced on Tuesday that the population of Finland increased by 370 people in January, but that the increase was due to immigration, not births.
 The number of people who migrated to Finland was 1,300 more than the number of individuals who left the country.
 Meanwhile there were more deaths than births in January, according to the agency.
 Some 3,846 babies were born in January this year, some 217 less than in January 2018. Around 118 fewer people died last month - a total of 4,807 - compared to January 2018
 Population problems
 Many leaders within government and the private sector have said Finland's dwindling birth rate will cause problems if the situation continues.
 Last December the Research Institute for the Finnish Economy (Etla) said the country’s  falling birthrate  will over time result in significant public deficit. The group said the situation will dent state coffers by billions of euros and put the country's  economic growth in danger .
 Earlier this month it was reported that the population of Eastern Finland has  declined at a rapid pace  and that the decrease is anticipated to continue over coming decades. Statistics Finland reported that during 2015 and 2018 the population in the eastern part of the country - including six regions from Kymenlaakso in the south to Kainuu in the north - fell by 20,000 people.
 According to a recent report from MDI, a private consultancy firm specialising in regional development,  over the next twenty years , only the capital city area, the southwest city of Turku, and the south-central hub of Tampere and its surroundings will see their populations grow.

Finland’s birth rate continues drop - immigration behind slight population increase


Summary: The 70-year-old president suffers from osteoarthritis.

Finland's President  Sauli Niinistö  will have a hip operation on Wednesday, according to the president's office.
 Despite the surgery, Niinistö is expected to be able to perform his duties as usual during his recuperation, according to his office.
 However, the president will not be able to travel by air for at least a month.
 The president's office announced last May that Niinistö suffers from osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition which - in this case - can wear away cartilage in the hip joint.
 According to information from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, cartilage affected by osteoarthritis becomes frayed and rough, sometimes causing damaged bones to form bone spurs. The condition - and resulting pain - develops slowly.
 Niinistö's office said last spring the president was closely monitoring the progress of his osteoarthritis. However, his medical condition did not prevent him from  participating in an informal ice hockey game  in Helsinki earlier this month.
 Story continues after photo.
 The hockey match that Niinistö took part in earlier this month was a light-hearted tournament with a serious aim: raising funds for local climate projects. Pekka Sipola / AOP
 Vanhanen out of hospital
 Former Prime Minister, and current MP,  Matti Vanhanen  was sent to a hospital emergency room after feeling dizzy and faint during a campaign event in Espoo on Sunday afternoon.
 On Monday it was reported that Vanhanen had left hospital and was planning to take part in parliament's plenary vote this week. However, he remained on sick leave on Tuesday, according to news outlet STT.
 Vanhanen attributed his dizzy symptoms to a prolonged bout of the flu, and said he plans to continue campaigning in the city of Hyvinkää on Thursday.

Finnish President Niinistö to undergo hip surgery on Wednesday


Summary: It was the ninth time that the mosque had been targeted by vandals, according to Imam Abdul Mannan.

A window of a Muslim prayer room in downtown Oulu in northern Finland was shattered on Monday night when vandals attacked the facility with a smoke bomb, police said on Tuesday.
 The incident resulted in smoke spreading through the stairwell of the property, but police said that no one was harmed.
 The attack was recorded on a surveillance camera, with footage suggesting that the perpetrator was a slim individual wearing a hoodie as well as a dark jacket and a while cap.
 Oulu police are currently investigating the incident as a case of property damage and are asking the public with any information about the incident to contact them.
 Imam  Abdul Mannan  said that the smoke bomb attack was the ninth time that the mosque had been vandalised within one year.
 The last incident occurred at Christmas and before that around Independence Day, when vandals trashed the property and discarded halal meat that had been stored in a freezer.
 Oulu is currently home to an estimated 3,000-odd Muslims. The mosque in question is attended by roughly 1,000 people from more than 20 different countries.

Vandals hurl smoke bomb at window of Oulu mosque


Summary: Convicted anti-immigrant agitator  Ilja Janitskin is one of two new candidates running on Paavo Väyrynen's Seven Star Movement ticket.

The founder of the anti-immigrant website MV-lehti,  Ilja Janitskin , has announced he is running for both the Finnish and EU parliaments on the ticket of  Paavo Väyrynen 's relatively new political party the Seven Star Movement.
 On Tuesday,  Väyrynen  sat alongside Janitskin at a press conference in Helsinki and said that Janitskin is a "star candidate" of the Seven Star Movement.
 Väyrynen said that Janitskin is a man who's better than his reputation and that he was unfairly treated. He added that he was not concerned about having a convicted man represent the party.
 "If it were a question of a murderer or a thief the situation would be completely different. The court case is quite unusual. I don't see that it would be an obstacle to [his] candidacy," he observed.
 Last October, the Helsinki District Court sentenced the immigrant agitator Janitskin to 22 months in jail after finding him guilty of  16 criminal charges  related to his websites.
 The charges included aggravated defamation, aggravated incitement against an ethnic group and copyright infringement, among others.
 The court also ordered Janitskin to pay the lion's share of a reported 200,000 euros in damages to harassment victims after he,  Johan Bäckman  and another individual were found guilty of harassing and defaming Yle journalist  Jessikka Aro  and inciting others to defame her.
 Bäckman is a Finnish academic known  known for publicly championing Russian child custody rights abroad.
 Politician with communist past also running
 Another addition to the Seven Star Movement's roster, veteran politician  Pirjo Turpeinen-Saari , made her first formal appearance during Tuesday's press conference since announcing last week that she's also running for the Finnish and EU parliaments on the party ticket.
 Turpeinen-Saari, a child psychologist, lives in southern Finland's region of Raseborg but will aiming for a lawmaker's seat as a Helsinki candidate.
 Turpeinen-Saari served as MP in 1983-1986 as a member of the political group the Finnish People's Democratic League (SDKL), an organisation regarded by many at the time as a communist front.
 The group was one of the largest  leftist  parties in western  Europe . In its heyday, the Finnish Communist Party was the SDKL's main member party, and one of the biggest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain.
 Then, in 1986-1987 Turpeinen-Saari served as MP for the communist breakaway group the Democratic Alternative and was married to the former chair of Finland's Communist Party  Jouko Kajanoja  from 1985-1996.
 Turpeinen-Saari has also written several books, including one in 1986 about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
 In a more recent book published in 2016, she accused Finland's military leader  Carl Gustaf Emil  Mannerheim **  of having inflamed the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union into war in 1939.

Anti-immigrant agitator Janitskin running for Finnish, EU parliament seats


Summary: The result of Finland's general election on 14 April will shape the country’s direction for at least the next four years.

Finland elects a new Parliament once every four years, and on 14 April 2019, voters will once again choose 200 Members of Parliament to govern the country.
 The party that gains the most votes in the election gets to name the Prime Minister, who then picks a cabinet of ministers from the crowd of newly-elected MPs. This coalition runs the country on a day-to-day basis for as long as they enjoy the confidence of the majority of parliament, or until the next election.
 The current three-party government coalition is led by Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party, with the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Blue Reformparty also holding ministerial posts in the cabinet. Those parties currently control 104 of the 200 seats in the Finnish parliament.
 This is a thin majority for a country used to relatively broad-based coalitions; the previous government elected in 2011 included six of the then-eight parties in parliament.
 The government would need at least a simple majority to be able to implement its legislative programme.  Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 The current three-party coalition has been more ideologically coherent, with market-based reforms and austerity dominating the agenda. The Sipilä government took office in 2015 pledging four billion euros in  annual spending cuts , including reducing outlays on education and social security. The government also pushed through a measure to make most people in the country work an extra 22.5 hours a year, while adding restrictions on unemployment benefits.
 The April election could see a big shift in policy if Sipilä and his Centre Party do not do well enough for him to continue as premier.
 What are the issues?
 The government’s  controversial and unfinished reform of health and social care (‘sote’)  is one of the biggest issues facing the country, but few voters fully understand the complex proposal.
 This reform aims to bring in private providers and move responsibility for care from municipalities to new regional authorities, but it remains unclear if there is majority support in parliament for the plan, as the opposition parties and even  some government party MPs  have indicated that they are unwilling to vote for it. Constitutional and EU compliance issues have also bogged down the bill in committees, repeatedly delaying a parliamentary vote.
 A spate of recent scandals about  standards at care homes  has pushed that issue to the top of the political agenda, ensuring that parties are now discussing tightening the rules for operators of facilities for the elderly.
 After recent alarming news about climate change, the Green Party is framing this year's vote as the last chance to save the world,  hoping for a ‘climate election’ , while the nationalist Finns Party is pushing to make immigration a central theme of the election campaign, especially after a  series of sexual abuse cases in Oulu  in which the suspects were asylum seekers or immigrants.
 Who’s likely to win?
 The largest opposition party in the last term, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has been  leading public opinion polls  and hopes to emerge from the election as the party with the most votes. Party chair  Antti Rinne  has returned to the campaign trail after a recent  illness .
 If they succeed in this endeavour, the SDP is likely to look to the Green Party as a potential coalition partner, as well as the Left Alliance. These three parties have been consistent critics of the current government’s austerity budgets and labour market reforms.
 Polling numbers have been steadily rising for the Greens in Finland, and they hope to achieve the same kind of status as the 'big three' parties of Finnish politics (the SDP, NCP and Centre). After a recent dip in support, they changed leaders, electing  former presidential candidate   Pekka Haavisto  as their new party chair.
 Those three parties are unlikely to make up the required 101 MP seats on their own, however, and so the NCP or Centre Party may also be asked to join the new administration, along with a smaller party like the Swedish People's Partyorthe Christian Democratic Party.Even the conservative Blue Reform party, a new political party that split from the Finns Party in 2017, might be a contender.
 The winning parties are likely to face  tough choices  in creating a working coalition, however, as the electoral arithmetic might not throw up an obvious, ideologically-coherent combination.
 President Sauli Niinistö is not up for re-election. Florian Wieser / EPA
 What about President Niinistö?
 Finland’s  popular president   Sauli Niinistö , who  brought together Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last year , is not up for re-election, having won a second term in 2018. His role is in foreign policy and diplomacy, and he is constitutionally prohibited from interfering in domestic politics.
 It is unlikely any coalition government would have big disagreements with Niinistö, who has been president  since 2012  and was formerly a member of the National Coalition party.
 What happens next?
 Coalition negotiations can drag on. In 2011 it took  more than two months  from election to confirmation of  Jyri Katainen  as Prime Minister.
 Horsetrading and political wrangling aside, it's a big year for elections in Finland. New MEPs are due to be elected on 26 May, and new regional assemblies may (or may not) be elected as part of the troubled ‘sote’ reform.
 A recent economic upswing might well run out of steam in the coming years, leaving the incoming administration less room to manoeuvre than they might like.
 Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 A really simple guide to the main parties
 The  Centre Party  is a centrist party that enjoys strong voter support in the countryside. It has liberal and traditionalist wings. The centre-right  National Coalition  is an economically liberal party that is popular in cities and among higher-income groups. The  Blue Reform  split from the Finns Party after a hardliner took over as party chair in June 2017. The coalition partners objected and kicked the Finns Party out of government, but eventually accepted the Blue Reform ministers and MPs who broke with the Finns Party back into the coalition. The  Finns Party  is a right-wing populist party that is opposed to immigration and the EU. The  Social Democratic Party  is a centre-left party with strong links to Finland's trade unions. The  Green Party  is an environment-focused party founded in the 1970s with a growing supporter base among young, urban voters. The  Left Alliance  is a left-wing group with roots in the Communist party and strong links to the labour movement. The  Swedish People's Party  is a liberal party advocating for Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority. The  Christian Democrat Party  is a small, socially conservative party with links to Christian religious groups.

Yle News explains: A simple guide to Finland's upcoming parliamentary elections


Summary: The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports that the stabbing occurred in child protection facilities in the Helsinki district of Haaga.

Helsinki Police have announced on Twitter that two adults and one child have been stabbed by a male assailant on Santavuorentie in Helsinki's district of Haaga. Law enforcement says two other children were present at the time of the attack, but no bystanders were in danger.
 Police say the victims have been transported to the hospital, but there is no more detailed information about their condition.
 The public broadcaster Yle has not been able to reach the Helsinki police for more details.
 The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat was the first to report on the incident. The tabloid reports that the stabbing took place at child protection facilities that have since been put on lockdown.

Police: Two adults, one child stabbed in Helsinki


Summary: A parliamentary committee wants to dismiss a citizens’ initiative calling for free upper secondary school materials because the wording was inaccurate.

A popular citizens’ initiative demanding  free upper secondary school materials  looks set to falter after achieving the 50,000 signatures required for lawmakers to consider legal reforms.
 The proposal gathered the support of 53,000 people, but the wording calls on the parliament to take action, instead of the government as convention requires.
 The error has prompted the parliament’s education committee to recommend that the initiative be dismissed. However MPs were still due to debate the issue on Tuesday afternoon.
 An analysis by the National Agency for Education has revealed that students may spend up to 2,500 euros, while in the first year of upper secondary education, textbooks alone may cost 1,000 euros. Students attending vocational schools may find that they have to fork out cash for equipment such as kitchen knife sets, for example if they are studying to become chefs.
 Students: MPs "lack will to act"
 Meanwhile upper secondary school students staged a demonstration on the steps of the Parliament building in support of the measure to make upper secondary school education free.
 The protesters said that "parliamentarians have all the [necessary] tools to genuinely ensure free upper secondary education, but they lack the will to act".
 However the education committee has called for a thorough report on the actual price of post-primary schooling. Lawmakers on the committee said that such a report could then be used as the basis for legal reforms, if need be.
 MPs who addressed the gathering were asked to indicate whether or not the proposal should be written into the next government's programme. Yle News
 Meanwhile protesters from as far afield as Vaasa in western Finland and Kuopio in the northeast were expected to descend on Helsinki to participate in the demonstration. The action was organised by a number of youth and student organisations such as the Union of Upper Secondary School Students in Finland.
 In addition to youth speakers, MPs also addressed the gathering. They included the head of the parliamentary education committee, Centre Party MP  Tuomo Puumala , as well as Greens chair  Pakka Haavisto  and head of the Left Alliance  Li Andersson , among others.
 MPs who spoke to the demonstrators were asked to indicate whether or not they thought the proposal for free upper secondary education should be written into the next government's programme.
 A green smiley face indicated support for taking action on the initiative in the next administration, while a red frown meant no. Just one MP did not support the idea.

Citizens' initiative for free upper secondary materials rejected over "wrong word"