Summary: Companies offering first aid training say the Red Cross has an unfair advantage marketing the same services.

Employers that choose Red Cross-educated experts to train their workers receive rebates from the state for doing so, but operators of private firms claim that amounts to a monopoly, because their services are not subsidised. On the other hand, the Red Cross says it is simply a question of quality control.
 Every year, firms across the country spend about four million euros on first aid instruction provided by workers trained by the Finnish Red Cross (FRC).
 The non-profit organisation set up a separate company,  Punainen Risti Ensiapu  (roughly: Red Cross First Aid), which offers courses in first aid.
 Employers across the country are obliged by law to regularly provide first aid training for their workers, so for the time being, the business appears to be continually profitable.
 Regular complaints to competition watchdog
 The issue of the FRC's dominance in the training course market has been discussed for the past decade, ever since the Competition and Consumer Authority received the first complaint about the situation when the FRC started its training offshoot. Since then, complaints have regularly arrived at the authority, most recently about two years ago, according to the authority's research chief  Max Jansson .
 "If a company wants to organise first aid education training, the course leader is required to have been trained by the FRC for the firm to receive compensation," Jansson said.
 Many operators of private first aid training companies say they are frustrated by the situation, adding that their courses aren't eligible for state compensation provided by the social insurance institution Kela.
 However, the difference between the FRC and its competitors doesn't end there. For example, private first aid training companies are required to purchase first aid certificates from the FRC in order to stay in business.
 Disadvantages to being private
 The privately-owned firm  Suomen Ensiapukoulutus  - whose workers are Red Cross-trained - trails slightly behind the FRC in annual turnover by about one million euros. But the company's CEO,  Tero Roivainen  said the playing field is uneven.
 "The cost of certifications can amount to a quarter of a course's price for us and we have a difficult time competing with the FRC in bids or the cost of training courses," Roivainen explained.
 The matter of unfair competition was raised after the FRC decided to set up the first aid training company, an arrangement that Roivanen said should have been done differently.
 "Instead, both course leader training and the certificates should be taken care of by the FRC's charitable organisation. Then the competition situation would be fair," Roivanen said.
 The FRC's chief of national preparedness  Leena Kämäräinen  said that the group wants to guarantee high-quality first aid training, but noted that companies looking for first aid educators can choose whoever they want.
 However she emphasised that FRC-certified trainers are able to identify specific health risks at various workplaces and can adjust courses to address them. She added that the FRC has been developing first aid courses for a long time on an international scale.
 "We are a global operation and do not work to market anything - instead we want to help people. Our goal is that everyone should have first aid skills," Kämäräinen said.
 Ministry looks for changes
 The competition authority's Jansson explained that the matter has now been taken up by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, where officials are examining different solutions.
 Under particular scrutiny is the validity of a contract written in the 1970s which said the FRC and Finnish state should "coordinate and develop first aid as part of the national crisis preparedness plan."
 The Head Of Department at Ministry of Social Affairs and Health,  Tuija Kumpulainen , said change of some kind is on the way.
 "These days, we don't think that we can continue with the old agreement, but still want to guarantee that first aid education will have a common base," she said, noting that the ministry wants to sort out a solution this autumn, but was still unsure of how that might take shape.
 "The world has changed and we need to see what is possible today," Kumpulainen said.

Firms call for end to Red Cross' first aid market dominance


Summary: While prices for old single-family houses have fallen in some areas, those for flats and new houses have risen steadily.

Prices for older detached houses in the Helsinki region declined by 2.4 percent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, Statistics Finland said on Wednesday. In the rest of the country prices held firm, edging up by an average of three-tenths of a percent.
 The report shows the continuing huge gap between real estate values in the capital region and the rest of the country. The average price tag per square metre in the Greater Helsinki area was 3,075 euros, more than double the level elsewhere: 1,484 euros. The national average in spring and early summer was 1,610 euros.
 Apartments, new houses in demand
 Overall, prices for old single-family houses have fallen since Statistics Finland launched its current indexing system in 2015, based on real estate transactions registered by the National Land Survey.
 The biggest drop has been in Eastern Finland, where the average cost per square metre in the April-to-June period was 1,263 euros.
 Prices for flats have risen while those for older houses have slumped. Nationally, apartments have gained an average of seven percent in value since 2015, gaining more than 11 percent in the Helsinki region.
 The cost of new houses, too, has risen, up 2.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter in the whole country. Prices are up by more than one-fifth since that index began in 2010.

Older house prices dip by 2.4% in Helsinki region, still nearly twice national average


Summary: The ombudsman said banning the swimsuits is gender- and religion-based discrimination.

Kirsi Pimiä , the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman has recommended that Finland's public swimming pools should permit the use of burkinis, the body-covering bathing suits sometimes used by Muslim women.
 Pimiä said she became aware of cases of burkini-wearing women having been turned away from public swimming pools, even though the facilities were advised to allow the swimsuits.
 In 2017, several swimming-related organisations - including the Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation and Aquatics Finland - also recommended that burkinis should be permitted in the country's swimming halls.
 "From the point of view of laws on discrimination, it's problematic that not all swimming pools permit the use of burkinis. Some Muslim women use burkinis as bathing suits and a ban can amount to discrimination on the grounds of religion and gender," Pimiä said.
 Pimiä added that public pools should also provide private showering facilities in order to promote equality among all segments of society - including those with disabilities and illnesses or sexual minorities.

Burkinis should be allowed in public pools, Non-Discrimination Ombudsman says


Summary: Some students say they have not even been interviewed for permits, but Migri says most get residency in time.

Twenty-six-year-old Cameroonian  Alma*  was elated when she got word that she’d been accepted into a bachelor’s degree programme in nursing at the Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Kuopio. Alma had been working as a nurse in Cameroon since she graduated in 2015 and was looking forward to beginning her studies from August this year.
 After receiving her acceptance letter in May, she paid her fees in June, purchased the required health insurance and moved quickly to start the process of getting a residence permit to study in Finland.
 Yle News followed up Alma's story with her sister  Emilia  who lives in Helsinki. According to Emilia, after what seemed like a promising start, the process of getting Alma's residence permit has hit a wall. In early June, the family contacted the Finnish embassy in Abuja, the closest Finnish overseas mission serving Cameroon and much of West Africa.
 The embassy said it was no longer responsible for collecting visa application documents and other material. That process had been outsourced to VFS Global, a Dubai-based, private multinational firm that manages the administrative tasks related to visa and passport applications as well as identity management for many governments.
 When the family reached out to VFS Global in June, it was told that there were no appointment slots available until the end of August. After explaining that Alma needed to be in school by the end of August, they asked for an earlier appointment. This time VFS responded offering an appointment at a later date, at the end of September.
 "We sent about three different emails and realised that this is not working. Because each time we sent an email they kept pushing the date forward," Emilia told Yle News.
 Emilia then decided to contact the Finnish Foreign Ministry in Helsinki and was directed to call the embassy in Abuja - something she had already done. She then decided to email the Finnish Immigration service, Migri.
 "We sent an email to Migri explaining that Alma needed to be in school by the end of September after which she would lose her study place and would not be able to begin her studies this year."
 Other students from Africa still on hold
 Emilia said that Migri promised to forward the case to the person in charge of the process at VFS Global. After three days, Alma was given a new appointment date, in early July. "It was like a miracle because other students we know of, in Nigeria, Ghana and some in Cameroon are yet to get an appointment slot as we speak."
 According to Emilia, on 6 July Alma visited VFS Global in Abuja -- a distance of nearly 900 kilometres from her location in Cameroon -- where she submitted her documentation and fingerprints and received an appointment at the Finnish Embassy in Abuja for 9 July. She attended the interview and returned to Cameroon where she is still awaiting a decision on her residence permit application from Migri.
 "The most disturbing thing is that the school has decided that students must arrive at the latest by the end of September. If you’re not in school by the end of September, you can’t take up your studies this year," Emilia pointed out.
 "You waste one year of your life. Getting to Nigeria across the border is really risky so the trip to Nigeria was a big stress for us. Putting all the documents together was a big stress and she already bought her health insurance for this year. So if she’s not given a residence permit before the end of this month, all those expenses will be wasted," she added.
 She estimated that the family had already forked out around 10,000 euros including the cost of Alma’s first year of tuition -- which included a first-year scholarship covering 75 percent of the cost -- insurance, travel and accommodation in Nigeria, processing fees and fees paid to VFS Global as well as 6,500 euros required as proof of means to sustain herself during the academic year.
 Migri: Most student residence permits granted
 The Finnish Immigration Service Migri told Yle News that it cannot comment on individual cases, however, it noted that most students do get their residence permits in time to begin their studies.
 According to Migri’s website, a total of 4,317 students applied for residence permits between January and the end of July this year. Some 2,406 permits were granted. The vast majority of applicants came from China, Russia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, the USA, India, Nepal, Singapore and Mexico.
 Just 21 residence permit applications came from Cameroon between January and the end of July; five were granted, while 16 applicants were denied permits to study in Finland.
 Back in March, Yle reported that Finnish universities claimed that foreign students wishing to pursue studies in Finland were being  stymied by a slow residence permit process . At the time, Yle interviewed representatives from 18 universities of applied sciences or polytechnics and 8 universities, who felt that it’s hard to attract foreign students with the delays that some students currently experience.
 Following a 2015 decision by the  Juha Sipilä  government to introduce  a minimum tuition fee  of at least 1,500 euros for non-European students, many universities moved quickly to impose fees and market their study programmes abroad. In 2017 Yle reported that fees ranged from 4,000 to 13,000 euros per term. However generous cash-back and scholarship programmes helped offset the pain of the cost of education for many.
 Non-EU international students have become an important money spinner for Finnish tertiary education institutions, since tertiary education for Finnish and EU citizens is free and especially following  draconian cuts to education funding  by the previous government. A number of Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences have also partnered with private sector Finnish education promotion firm Edunation  to attract foreign students to study in Finland . The aim of the collaboration is to enrol 150,000 international students in participating institutions by the year 2020.
 *Real name withheld at family’s request
 Yle News will discuss what international students can expect when they come to study in Finland on the All Points North podcast on Thursday, 5 September. Guests are  Heidi Rättyä  of the National Union of University Students in Finland and  Leena Turku , a senior officer from the Finnish Immigration Service, Migri.

Finland’s international students stumble over residence permit roadblocks


Summary: Finland's press reports on incentive payments at Posti, the use of weapons against police in Lapland and a startup success story.

Tabloid Iltalehti carries a series of articles this morning on the latest revelations at national mail carrier Posti, and in particular regarding its embattled CEO  Heikki Malinen .
 According to the first of IS's reports,  Malinen and other Posti executives received huge performance-related bonuses in spring this year , around the same time the company began co-determination talks with unions which  ultimately led to the axing of 94 jobs in June .
 IS quotes a remuneration statement released by Posti at the time, detailing the extent of the payment to the top brass.
 "Based on the achievement of the set targets, bonuses paid to the CEO and the executive team ranged from 9.15 percent to 43.76 percent of the total salary," Posti's statement reads.
 IS calculates that Malinen's bonus was 32.85 percent of his annual salary, which – as Malinen's total salary was 610,924 euros last year –amounts to a total bonus payment in April of 200,689 euros.
 The tabloid further reports that Malinen and the executive team are in line to receive 'Christmas bonuses' in December this year, based on the "long-running" LTI9 and 2X incentive schemes, which are calculated according to the group's adjusted operating profit (80 percent) as well as on the group's combined customer satisfaction (20 percent).
 IS also looks back  to the spring of 2015  – when Posti was again in talks with unions, this time about  the cutting of nearly 400 jobs  – and reports that at the time the mail carrier acquired an expensive stake in Sarfvik golf course in Kirkkonummi on the initiative of its CEO, which ultimately incurred a loss of 30,000 euros.
 Lapland police face increasing threats
 Lapland daily Lapin Kansa reports on the  increased frequency with which police in the north of Finland are encountering people armed with weapons  – including deer rifles, bread knives, swords and even the Japanese throwing star shuriken.
 The Lapland Police Department's occupational safety commissioner  Tero Väyrynen  tells the newspaper that police patrols are exposed to violent situations on a weekly basis.
 "Nowadays it seems to be a popular phenomenon to throw different objects at the police," Väyrynen says.
 According to the paper, police in Lapland have faced the same number of such violent incidents so far this year as they did in the whole of last year.
 Nevertheless, despite the increased threats, the department still attempts to resolve these situations by non-violent means whenever possible, according to health and safety representative  Petteri Paldanius .
 "We prefer to talk for an hour if it gets the job done, rather than ten minutes of wrestling," Paldanius says.
 "Not a hospital"
 Highest circulating daily Helsingin Sanomat reports on a  startup hub in downtown Helsinki  which will soon be bigger in size than the 64,000 square metre Redi shopping centre, but about which people seem to know very little – if anything.
 The hub, called Maria 01, is located in Helsinki's Kamppi district at the site of the old Maria Hospital, which closed in 2014. City officials then decided to run a pilot scheme, designating 3,000 square metres of the building to be used by Helsinki's startup community, HS writes.
 According to Maria 01's former CEO  Voitto Kangas , the pilot has proved to be a huge success and the hub has since grown to employ more than 1,100 people in about 120 companies, occupying space of approximately 15,000 square meters.
 The buildings are currently undergoing further renovation, according to HS, and the available area is expected to expand to 70,000 square metres by 2023.
 However, despite the past success and future expansion plans, Maria 01 remains relatively unknown, a fact illustrated by the "not a hospital" sign that greets visitors on their arrival at the hub’s front door, according to HS.
 Edit: Updated on 5.9 at 10.47 to reflect that Voitto Kangas is no longer the CEO of Maria 01.  Ville Simola  has now taken over the role of CEO effective 5 September.

Thursday's papers: Posti bonuses, increased attacks on police, a humble hub


Summary: New contracts negotiated with Finland's female national team players brings their earnings in line with the men's team.

Finland's women's national football team have reached an historic agreement with the Finnish FA which will see them paid the same as their male counterparts.
 In practice, this means that the male players and the female players will receive the same amounts in win and draw bonuses when playing for their respective national teams.
 The female national players, known as  Helmarit  or Pearl Owls, have fought a long battle to obtain the same contract terms and the same match day compensation as the men's national first team players. In 2017, Finland's Ombudsman for Equality launched an investigation into the issue of unequal pay at the national team level, but the body ultimately decided that the pay discrepancy was not in breach of the Equality Act.
 "A great day," Finnish national team and Paris FC striker  Linda Sällström  wrote on Twitter. "I feel proud to be a Finnish footballer. In addition to our common dreams and goals, we now also share the same contract terms among Finland's A teams."
 The Pearl Owls' goalkeeper and captain,  Tinja-Riikka Korpela , a former Frauen-Bundesliga winner with Bayern Munich in Germany now playing for Everton in England, had told Yle last year that the amounts in question were not such a big deal. However, according to Korpela, the male players might not even notice such a small sum, but for female players, every hundred euros means a lot.
 "For many of us, the agreement is important not only economically but also a concrete indication that the first teams are equal," Korpela said in a statement released by the Finnish Football Association.
 "They deserve everything they get"
 Tim Sparv , captain of the men's first team, has long been a champion of equality in national teams and welcomed the FA's announcement.
 "This contract is truly significant. I'm really pleased for the women's team. The [Finnish] Football Association is a pioneer in this way," Sparv said in an interview with Yle Sports.
 Story continues after photo.
 Men's team captain Tim Sparv welcomed the FA's announcement. Lehtikuva / Martti Kainulainen
 Sparv had previously called for male players to take more responsibility in this area, and suggested men needed to be prepared to lower their own bonuses in favour of women.
 "I am glad that we have been a small part of this process and delighted that we have been able to help in this way," Sparv added, and praised the women's national team's captain for her pivotal role in contract negotiations.
 Finnish FA President,  Ari Lahti , said he hopes that the new contracts will act as an incentive for players looking to further their careers in the game. Lahti added that he would like to challenge the media, the FA's partners as well as supporters to follow the example set by the FA and invest more time and money in women's football.
 "This is one of the reasons we are investing in women's football. We want to be involved in developing a more responsible and equal society," Lahti said in the press release.

Finnish FA announces equal pay for male and female players


Summary: The 51 year old first joined Nordea in 2017 as  head of personal banking and the country senior executive in Denmark.

Nordea Bank announced on Thursday that it has appointed  Frank Vang-Jensen  as its new CEO and president and that he would start work immediately.
 Vang-Jensen, 51, joined Nordea in 2017 as the head of personal banking and country senior executive in Denmark, according to a release.
 The executive has a long career behind him in the bank and financial world, also serving as CEO of Swedish bank Handelsbanken, but resigned in 2016 after only 18 months at the post. Amidst Vang-Jensen's departure, Handelsbanken’s board chair  Pär Boman  explained that he did not live up to the demands of the job.
 Outgoing CEO  Casper von Koskull  has led Nordea since 2015 and said he plans to stay with the bank until 2020 in order to ensure a smooth transition.
 “Knowing Frank Vang-Jensen personally since 2017 and having worked closely with him, I am convinced that the board has made the right selection and that [he] will have the professional and personal skills to lead Nordea to the next level,” von Koskull said.
 “Frank Vang-Jensen is an experienced professional capable of leading Nordea with immediate effect. We look forward to starting working with Frank Vang-Jensen to continue our journey towards growth and an improved customer experience,” Nordea board chair  Torbjörn Magnusson  said.
 Shortly after the announcement of Vang-Jensen’s appointment Nordea’s share price increased by about three percent on the Helsinki Stock Exchange on Thursday morning.

Nordea appoints Vang-Jensen as new CEO


Summary: According to emergency services, the speeding car swerved off the road and caught fire.

Three young men died when the car in which they were travelling veered off the road in a fiery crash in Rauma, Western Finland on Wednesday night. Police said that the three men were all from Rauma and died immediately. The incident took place at about 11:25 pm.
 Story continues after photo.
 Eino Kossila / Yle
 The site of the crash was 4.5 kilometres along the road that goes from Kodisjoki to Rauma in Western Finland. According to emergency services, the car was travelling at a high speed, crashed into a ditch and caught fire.
 Traces of the accident on Kodisjoki Road on Thursday. Teijo Valtanen / Yle

3 young men die in car crash in Western Finland


Summary: The Centre Party chair who'll be elected this Saturday will face an uphill battle rebuilding the party's popularity.

The prospect of a change of leadership within the agrarian Centre Party has done little to boost support for the party, according to the latest poll by national broadcaster Yle. The survey of voter approval shows backing for the Centre led by interim chair and former Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä , dipping below 12 percent of support last month.
 Meanwhile the nationalist opposition Finns Party was the country's most popular in August, according to the poll. Some 20.6 percent of respondents said they support the Finns Party, giving the populists a three-percentage-point lead over the second-most popular, the centre-right National Coalition Party (17.4%), which came in second place, followed by Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party (SDP), which received support from 16.9 percent of respondents.
 Tough times ahead for new Centre leader
 The Centre Party, which led the previous three-party administration, suffered severe losses in April's parliamentary elections and in Yle's August poll, support for the party fell by more than two percentage points to below 12 percent.
 After the election, former-PM Sipilä  claimed responsibility  for the party's losses and stepped down as chair. In August, the two candidates duelling for that post - economic affairs minister  Katri Kulmuni  and defence minister  Antti Kaikkonen  travelled around the country making their cases to lead the party.
 The new party leader will be chosen this Saturday at an annual congress in Kouvola, in southeast Finland.
 The Centre holds the Minister of Finance's portfolio, but that has not appeared to help the party's approval ratings. Instead the post may be more of a burden as prospects for economic growth weaken and possible future tax increases or spending cuts loom.
 Big issues ahead for SDP
 After a June dip in ratings, the SDP saw a small uptick in the latest poll. At the same time the Greens' support fell after a summertime boost, as did the Left Alliance's figures.
 Finland's EU presidency has dominated the first months of Rinne's administration, but the big questions on the economy and employment are directly ahead in early autumn.
 The speed at which Rinne and Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering,  Sirpa Paatero , reacted to recent outrage over national mail carrier  Posti's salary policies  is also possibly a sign of increasing pressure ahead of challenging job market talks in the autumn.
 The SDP (polling at 16.9 percent support) has yet to climb back to its post-parliamentary election approval rating of 17.7 percent.
 Rinne in opposition cross hairs
 Analysts say the NCP, polling in second place, has a learning curve ahead. The party has not been in the opposition for 12 years, and there are only a few MPs who would even remember the party line from those days.
 NCP chair  Petteri Orpo  was first elected to Parliament in 2007, while the parliamentary group's chair  Kai Mykkänen  has been an MP for only two terms. The party is taking aim at Rinne's economic and employment policies, and is even now preparing its first interpellation on the new administration's employment strategy after the mid-September budget session.
 Meanwhile, Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho  has returned as an MP following five years as an MEP. Halla-aho resigned as chair of the Administration Committee in 2012 after contesting a conviction for hate speech. He declined a position as head of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, saying it would interfere with his Finns party chairmanship.
 Out of the 2,440 respondents to the survey, a total of 1,683 people divulged their party affiliation. The margin of error in the survey, carried out by pollster Taloustutkimus, was two percentage points in either direction.

Yle poll: Leadership contest fails to revive support for Centre Party


Summary: The aim is to prevent former inmates from reincarceration by helping them adjust to life outside prison.

Ulkoasiain hallinto, maanpuolustus ja järjestystoimi

Miia Jokinen  mows the lawn next to the Hämeenlinna women's prison in Southern Finland while a security guard monitors her progress. Jokinen is serving her first jail sentence at the prison and has eight months to go before she is released. She admits that adjusting to freedom can be challenging.
 "Of course, adapting to life after prison has its own challenges. It helps if you get into an open facility to reintegrate into normal life early on," Jokinen reflected.
 Across the street, the construction of the new Hämeenlinna women's prison is on schedule, with authorities planning to transfer inmates there in October 2020. They say conditions of the new facility, which will cost about 34 million euros, are better suited to promote independence. Authorities aim to encourage inmates to take more responsibility for their life in the future.
 "This way, we get new opportunities. We'll be able to prepare for our life ahead and maybe get better direction. At least, those of us who want it," said Jokinen.
 Story continues after photo.
 The new prison will have a space where inmates can set other inmates' hair. Arkkitehtitoimisto Hannu Jaakkola Oy
 Inmates to wash their own laundry, shovel snow
 Former inmates often have a hard time adjusting to everyday life outside prison walls. One advantage of the new prison model is that inmates will have better opportunities to practice dealing with routine tasks, officials say.
 "Inmates are encouraged to become more self-reliant, independent and responsible. They will tend to an allotted plot of land, shovel snow from their ward's yard in winter and gradually begin cooking and washing their laundry," said  Petri Niemelä , development manager of the Criminal Sanctions Agency, an organisation that helps former inmates adjust to life outside prison.
 The wards are designed in such a way that the traditionally long corridors are replaced with spaces where inmates can prepare their own food while being easily monitored by security guards.
 Limited access to online digital services
 Former inmates that are familiar with digital services find it easier to integrate into society after their release. Every cell in the new prison will have a tablet with limited access to the internet. Inmates will not be able to browse the web outside of the permitted websites.
 "We'll be able to fill in online forms and connect with the prison staff. We will receive a list of websites that we're allowed to use independently as per the rehabilitation program," said Jokinen.
 Story continues after photo.
 According to Site Manager Pasi Haakana (Left) every worker and contractor on the prison's construction site has undergone extensive security checks.  Kati Turtola / Yle
 The aim is to prevent former inmates from returning to prison
 Half of the former inmates in Finland return to a life of crime and are imprisoned again within five years. According to  Johanna Huhtala , executive director of assisted living provider Sininauha, which helps former inmates in Pori, Western Finland, where the alarming rate of recidivism indicates that too many recently released inmates have no support system in place and lack the skills to manage everyday tasks.
 The Hämeenlinna Prison currently holds 36 cells. In addition to the closed wards, it has a family ward that accommodates remand prisoners with children less than two years old.
 The new facility is designed to house a hundred cells. To Jokinen, this seems reasonable.
 "As inmates, we spend a huge amount of time here. It's good that we can focus on self-development. It will be great for the future," she said.
 "This is no boarding house"
 The conditions of the new prison have invited stunned reactions from the public. Jokinen stresses that despite the reforms, the facility will be closed off and prison cell doors will remain locked.
 "This is a correctional facility and will remain so. Of course, the framework is changing," she says.
 Some members of the public have opined that inmates are not deserving of the congenial conditions offered by the new prison. "Now that doesn’t feel nice," Jokinen said, in reaction to the comments.
 Story continues after photo.
 According to Development Manager Petri Niemelä, the new women's prison will try to tackle issues such as drug use and attitudes towards crime to aid rehabilitation. Arkkitehtitoimisto Hannu Jaakkola Oy
 "The new prison will not have any bars, but it will have fences, surveillance cameras and other security equipment," the Deputy Director of Hämeenlinna Prison,  Jarmo Haavisto , clarified.
 Niemelä dismisses claims that the new facility will be a luxury prison.
 "This is no boarding house. We simply aim to boost inmate independence in all activities. It is important not only for the inmates' future, but also for the benefit of every taxpayer," he said.
 The new prison will also render Hämeenlinna Prison's traditional cells without toilet facilities obsolete. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and the parliamentary ombudsman of Finland have both criticised the presence of these old-fashioned cells.
 Jokinen will be released in spring and says that she is looking forward to life beyond prison.
 ”I can turn my life around,” she said.

New women's prison to let inmates cook, use internet


Summary: Proportionally, social benefits abuse levels are quite low but still amount to nearly 10 million euros per year.

There has been an increase in the abuse of social benefits in Finland in recent years, according to the country's social insurance institution Kela.
 The benefits agency said that every year it sees around 2,000 cases in which unemployment benefits or other financial support was handed out to applicants that did not have the right to them.
 While a few of the cases amounted to as much as 20,000-32,000 euros per year, fraudulent applications for lower amounts are more common, amounting to nearly 10 million euros annually, according to  Suvi Onninen  from Kela’s legal department.
 In 2016, Kela uncovered 1,953 cases of benefits taken inappropriately, while last year there were 2,344 such cases. The most common fraudulent claims are made by those seeking unemployment benefits, according to the agency.
 Mostly smaller amounts
 Most of the cases are sums between a few hundred or one thousand euros, but every year there are about a dozen individuals who try to deceive the benefits agency out of tens of thousands, according to Onninen.
 However, while fraudulent cases appear to be rising, they only made up a small fraction of the 14.3 billion euros which Kela handed out last year. Around 9.6 million euros was incorrectly given to individuals who did not have the legal right to receive them last year, according to Kela statistics.
 Cases of social support fraud are usually uncovered with help from authorities like the Tax Administration. Onninen said the national Incomes Register database, which launched at the beginning of the year and operated by the tax office, will increase Kela’s abilities to find cheaters, too.

Benefits fraud on the rise, Kela reports


Summary: The "No-Harm Centre" will be required to create Finnish and Swedish equivalents.

Vaasa Central Hospital's brand-new centre for study and development of patient safety will be changing its official name after the  Institute for the Languages of Finland  (Kotus) criticised the original English name – the No-Harm Centre – as going against Finnish administrative policy and legal requirements.
 The wording of the centre's name comes from a version of the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors, which contains a phrase that has become the common English-language idiom, "first do no harm."
 The phrasing is very familiar to patient safety workers, according to Vaasa Hospital District chief  Marina Kinnunen .
 "But when common people see this term, they might not know the reference," said Kinnunen on Thursday, after a week of linguistic controversy. "Kotus didn't tell us to change the name entirely, just to add Finnish and Swedish equivalents as well."
  What's in a name?
 Kotus expert and name planner  Ulla Onkamo  said that an official Finnish agency or office cannot be only known by an English name, because English is not one of Finland's official languages.
 The Language Act states that the government and bilingual municipalities must offer services and signage in both Finnish and Swedish. The Administrative Procedure Act says that official nomenclature must be clear and straightforward.
 "A solely English name cannot be considered understandable in Finland. And even if one were to know enough English, this name does not tie into patient safety clearly enough. Experts perhaps may find it obvious, but not the public at large," Onkamo said.
 Onkamo and Kotus find fault with other official naming practices as well, saying that authorities and public agencies must be distinguishable from commercial trademarks.
 The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency's official name,  Traficom , is not clear enough in denoting itself as an official authority, Onkamo said, while the name of national mail carrier Posti is clear but lacks a Swedish equivalent.
 Kotus announced that it will begin compiling a guidebook for proper naming policies. The guidelines will likely be available to public administrators and others sometime in 2020.
  Safety first
 Offiicals at Vaasa's No-Harm Centre said it would soon be adding Finnish and Swedish names.
 Kinnunen said she was surprised by the sensation the English name caused, but that the attention should not go to waste. She said she hopes the discussion will draw interest to the centre's primary goal, namely to develop patient safety.
 "We've basically received a lot of free advertisement for the centre with this public discussion. I hope it will lead to better national resourcing for improving patient wellbeing and safety."
 Meanwhile, Finland is struggling in many respects to keep its health care systems working properly, as  pharmacies are understaffed ,  elder care companies are in crisis  and hospital  emergency wards are often congested .

Patient safety office's English name deemed unlawful in Finland


Summary: A study uncovers huge inequalities among public daycares, wage reforms to female sectors and summer makes a comeback.

Significant quality differences exist between public daycares, writes  Helsingin Sanomat , reporting on the findings of a study by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC).
 In one half of the daycares that the centre surveyed, staff did not read to the children daily. Many day cares were also failing to provide art and music and physical exercise as outlined by national guidelines.
 "The most baffling finding was that staff does not always follow a pedagogic plan for the under-threes because they believe it's too difficult. Some were also of the opinion that children don’t need to be read to if they're not speaking yet,"  Laura Repo  of the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre told HS.
 Finland recently began offering 20 hours of free daycare to every five-year-old in an effort  to get more kids into early childhood education , as the government sees daycare as leveling socio-economic difference between families’ before children begin their formal education by the age of seven. The move has prompted some municipalities to lower the home care allowance for families caring for children at home.
 Gender and pay
 Education Minister and Left Alliance chair  Li Andersson  has come out in favour of social and healthcare unions’ demands to raise salaries in fields dominated by women, such as healthcare and early childhood education.
 Two unions representing workers in the social and health care sector, Super and Tehy, have  called for the government to reserve budget allocations for wage programmes  in female-dominated fields.
 "While I can’t take a stand on exact euro amounts, I fully understand that female-dominated sectors need higher wage increases than other fields," she told business magazine  Talouselämä . "It's unfair to compare the output of people working with children and the elderly with those in industrial production, where results are more easily quantifiable."
 The annual net cost of the wage programme to municipalities will be around 80 million euros over 10 years.
 Rain then sun
 This weekend will see wet weather but by the middle of next week, most of the country will experience a brief return to summer with the mercury climbing to 20 degrees Celsius, possibly reaching Finland’s elusive 25-degree-Celsius mark, according to newsstand tabloid  Iltalehti .
 Weather service company Foreca said 20-degree weather should arrive by Tuesday, possibly even reaching Lapland in the far north.

Friday's papers: Daycare inequality, gender wage gap and a return to summer


Summary: Finland's press looks at growing job cuts, developments in the Posti affair, Namibian artefacts and a military mishap.

Turku-based daily Turun Sanomat writes about a  worrying wave of layoffs  that appears to be gaining speed in Finland. News on Tuesday of planned job cuts at forestry companies  UPM  and Stora Enso, as well as Aktia Bank and the construction company Lehto Group pushes the list of companies that have let go of employees this year to past 30, the paper writes.
 The country's almost million-member-strong labour confederacy, SAK, tells TS that it is watching the development carefully, and it appears to be affecting every sector.  Ismo Kokko , the union's senior advisor for collective bargaining, tells the paper that the "increase is not yet alarming".
 TS notes that economic downswings usually start with poorer performance in exporting companies, who must adapt to changing competition parameters quickly. They point to signs of this in recent downsizing at  Finnish forestry companies , as well as such global manufacturers as  Sandvik ,  Nokian Tyres ,  ABB ,  SSAB  and the once-booming  Valmet Automotive car factory  in Uusikaupunki.
 The paper warns that trade wars currently threaten the world economy, while Brexit is creating uncertainty in the EU.
 "When the situation is unclear, companies don't dare to invest and many projects are put on ice. This is bad for Finland, as a large share of its revenue comes from exports," TS concludes.
 Posti salary cut could extend to 8,000
 Daily Helsingin Sanomat reports the latest developments in a plan to lower postal salaries that has generated much debate in the last few weeks. HS has now learned via interviews that the national postal carrier  Posti plans to lower the wages of up to 8,000 employees  – one third of the 22,000-worker total and  ten times more than the 700 or so the state-owned group had originally announced .
 Prime Minister  Antti Rinne , whose government has promised to  review salary policy  at the company, told HS that his coalition was aware of Posti's plans and said it is considering offering a lump sum payment to the employees affected, although he wouldn't speculate as to the amount.
 The public debate over the salary cuts intensified when it was reveal that Posti CEO  Heikki Malinen 's  near-million-euro annual salary  has increased by 65 percent in the last four years, while the firm has steadily let go of hundreds of workers.
 Returning lost property
 The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat carries a story on a  special stone from Namibia . It seems that back in the nineteenth century, Finnish missionary  Martti Rautanen  brought a piece of a sacred artefact to Finland, and now the Vice President of Namibia,  Nangolo Mbumba , wants it back.
 Mbumba met with PM Rinne this week, and he has requested that the culturally significant Ondonga Power Stone be returned to Namibia from its current place in the ethnographic collection of the Finnish National Museum, so that it can be put on display in a local museum.
 Originating in Ovamboland, an ancient northern kingdom of Namibia, the stone is a piece of a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1883 or 1886. The Finnish museum describes Artefact 5620 as "believed to symbolize good government, stability and connection with the forefathers' spirits". Among other things, the stone was revered in northern Namibia for its rain-making properties.
 Finnish National Museum curator  Heli Lahdentausta  says both countries' museum authorities are open to returning the stone to Namibia. The Finnish Government already repatriated two other important artefacts to Namibia since it gained independence in 1990: the Power Stone of the Kingdom of Oukwanyama in 1990, and a stone that was part of the regal symbols of Ombalantu in 2014.
 Next July, Finland and Namibia will celebrate 150 years of close relations, and Lahdentausta says the stone will likely be repatriated sometime during the festivities.
 Tank swerved to avoid reindeer
 And lastly, Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva reports on  a collision in Finnish Lapland involving two military tanks and a reindeer .
 Two Patria Pasi armoured personnel carriers collided in the city of Kemijärvi on Tuesday evening when one of the tanks swerved to avoid hitting a reindeer. The paper writes that 27 conscripts from the Kainuu Brigade were affected by the crash, along with one instructor.
 Five conscripts were immediately brought to Lapland Central Hospital in an ambulance and seven more were later transported to the hospital for monitoring. These 12 young men were held in the Rovaniemi hospital overnight, while the other 15 were monitored in a field hospital. An army spokesman told the paper that "no serious injuries resulted".

Wednesday's paper: Redundancy fears, postal service salaries, power stones, and tanks vs reindeer


Summary: Immigration officials say staffing problems are behind a delay in processing students' residence permit applications.

A new academic year has begun and many international students have arrived in Finland and getting a feel for what lies ahead. While they are just settling in, as many as 1,000  are still waiting for a decision on residence permit applications  to begin their studies.
 Leena Turku , a senior officer with the Finnish Immigration Service Migri, told All Points North that the agency has issued 3,600 residence permits to international students this year. She added that 500 applications were turned down, while another 1,000 are still to be processed.
 Turku said that the agency had been understaffed during the month of June, when it usually begins processing students’ residence permit applications. She pointed out that students may encounter further delays in processing times if their documentation is inadequate or faulty.
 The Migri officer explained that most denials resulted from fraudulent bank statements or inadequate insurance coverage. "It can’t be normal travel insurance but must cover the individual for one year," she added.
 "Not enough" to have a great education system
 Heidi Rättyä  is a board member of the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) and responsible for international affairs. In response to Turku’s remarks, she responded that international students have sometimes face difficulty meeting the requirement to provide proof of insurance.
 "One problem is that it’s hard to find an insurance agency that provides insurance that is also valid in Finland," she pointed out.
 Rättyä said that SYL has been lobbying politicians to make it easier for international students to come to Finland to study and also to stay on and work.
 "We have a great education system, but that’s not enough. We are far up north and it gets very cold, so Finland won’t be the first choice for many people," she noted, and called for a one-stop shop to help international students deal with school applications, residence permits, insurance coverage and other requirements.
 International students can find out more about the work of the National Union of University Students in Finland  online , but should turn to local chapters of the organisation for advice on practical issues.
 Join the conversation
 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 accounts, 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 presenters were  Denise Wall  and  Pamela Kaskinen . Yle News team members  Tahira Sequeira ,  Zena Iovino ,  Ronan Browne  and  Mark B. Odom  also contributed. Our audio engineer and sound designer was  Laura Koso .

All Points North #58: International students in Finland - obstacles and top tips


Summary: Yle sources indicate that the government isn’t fully united on its revised position on the Hansa group.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

Finland is looking for new cooperation partners within the EU according to Yle sources. During the centre-right administration led by former Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä , Finland became a member of the fiscally conservative Hansa group, also known as the New Hanseatic League, a loose alliance of eight countries led by the Netherlands.
 Apart from Finland and the Netherlands, the alliance includes Baltic countries as well as Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.
 According to information obtained by Yle, the new government wants to distance itself from the Hansa group following a shift in the power balance in the EU. As the UK prepares to leave the union, France and other large countries will become increasingly powerful.
 The new government led by Social Democratic Party chair  Antti Rinne  wants to reconsider how closely it wants to hitch its fortunes to those of other EU states.
 Last week European affairs minister  Tytti Tuppurainen  raised the matter of Hansa during comments at a Europe Forum in Turku last week.
 "Nordic EU members are unanimous on the issue of free trade. However in terms of European policy, Finland is not tied exclusively to the [New] Hanseatic League or any other bloc," she remarked.
 "We cooperate with everyone and we treasure EU solidarity," she added.
 Internal government divisions?
 However Yle’s sources also indicate that the government isn’t united on the matter. Sources from the Centre Party, a government coalition party, have said that "nothing has changed."
 During the Sipilä administration, the Hansa group was an important touchstone on the issue of the development of the economic and monetary union. The grouping was cool on the idea of deeper cooperation and shared responsibility among EU member states.
 It was especially critical of France, which saw the Hansa group as a challenge to the unity of the monetary union. Other countries in southern Europe also chafed against the formation of an alliance of countries that were net contributors to the EU. No candidates from Hansa countries were elected to top EU positions during the summer.
 In future, the Rinne government said that it intends to seek a broad range of partners and is said to be more critical about the kinds of alliances it should form.
 Former Finnish EU Commissioner  Erkki Liikanen  recently criticised Hansa and said that a small country should be wary of joining blocs.
 Although Finland is distancing itself from the fiscally conservative group, its position on the development of the monetary unions is not known to have changed.

Yle: Finland breaks with fiscally conservative EU group


Summary: More young people are being diagnosed with depression, but that does not necessarily mean the illness is becoming more common.

More youth are seeking and receiving treatment for depression through specialised healthcare services, according to a national study carried out at the University of Turku's Research Centre for Child Psychiatry.
 "The rapid increase in children and adolescents diagnosed with depression poses a challenge for specialised mental health services," the researchers note in the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry.
 The study compared young people born between 1994-2000 with those born in 1987-1993. The rate of depression diagnoses by the age of 15 soared by 65 percent among girls and by 53 percent among boys.
 The report does not explain the increase, but suggests that "it might be due to improved access to services, which could reflect better identification and more positive attitudes to mental health problems".
 The study's principle author,  Svetlana Filatova , stresses that the results do not necessarily mean that young people are more depressed than before.
 Patients getting help earlier
 "The most likely explanation is that youth are more courageous about approaching mental health services. Increasingly, depressed individuals get help early on, which is a positive thing," says Filatova, a post-doctoral researcher at the centre.
 The use of mental health services has steadily increased over the past two decades in Finland and elsewhere.
 "The results indicate that people more readily recognise their own need for help, or that of others, and that societal attitudes toward depressed people have become more positive," Filatova says.
 A co-author of the study, docent  David Gyllenberg , points out that the growing use of children's and youth services is placing a burden on the specialised healthcare system.
 "The growing number of patients should be addressed by developing suitable evidence-based forms of treatment," he says.
 The study was based on data from various population registries as well as the Finnish Prenatal Study of Depression. It covers some 1.24 million children born in Finland between 1987 and 2007. Of these, more than 37,000 had at least one specialised healthcare visit for depression. Among those tracked up to age 25, 10 percent of girls and five percent of boys were diagnosed with depression.

Rise in youth depression diagnoses may reflect change in attitudes


Summary: State-owned gambling agency Veikkaus says it will trim executive bonuses if problem gambling doesn't decrease in Finland.

Kasinot, uhkapelit ja rahapeli- ja vedonlyöntipalvelut

State betting firm Veikkaus said it plans to remove some 3,000 slot machines in Finland following  calls by politicians last month for tighter restrictions  on gambling in Finland. In August, Veikkaus faced a public outcry over its ad  featuring avid gamblers receiving a therapist's blessing  to indulge in their habit.
 Following on the heels of a  scandal involving executive remuneration at national mail carrier Posti , executive bonuses at Veikkaus will now turn on how well the firm mitigates problem gambling, the company said. Veikkaus also said that it will cut back on marketing significantly. In the future, digital games will only be advertised on digital channels.
 The gambling monopoly also plans to decrease the number of slot machines in shops and kiosks by 3,000 units.
 By 2022, users will need to log on with identification to play any of the remaining slot machines in kiosks and shops. Veikkaus currently owns and operates around 21,500 slot machines around the country.
 Heavy criticism
 The gambling industry in Finland is directly controlled by the state through a government monopoly and for decades, successive governments have  channelled the gambling proceeds of the state-owned operators back into Finnish society . These days, the state-owned national betting agency Veikkaus hands over about one billion euros in profit to government ministries and more than 200 million euros in taxes – a fact used to justify the gambling monopoly.
 But critics argue that the firm has become increasingly focused on profit-making, while preventing the harmful effects of gambling has fallen to the sidelines. Politicians have indicated that they would approve of shifting slot machines to more controlled spaces.
 Board shake-up
 State Ownership Steering Minister  Sirpa Paatero  this week announced changes to the Veikkaus board of directors. According to board chair  Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo , the board still has confidence in CEO  Olli Sarekoski .
 The board has voted in new members  Anne Larilahti  – who was previously VP of sustainable strategy at Telia and will be Finnair's Corporate Responsibility Director next month – as well as M-Brain CEO  Christian Cedercreutz  and  Juha Pantzar , CEO of the Guarantee Foundation.

Veikkaus to remove slot machines, cut marketing


Summary: Calling the Brexit process a "mess", Antti Rinne says the EU is "not ready to open this agreement we have negotiated".

At a press conference on Friday, Finnish Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  described the current situation regarding Brexit as a "mess" and said that the EU is not prepared to re-open the withdrawal agreement it negotiated with the UK last year.
 Speaking alongside European Parliament President  David Sassoli  at Helsinki's House of the Estates on Friday, Rinne declined to answer directly when asked whether the EU would agree to another extension if Britain asks for one.
 "I would say that the situation in Britain is quite [a] mess now. And we don't know what is happening there," he replied.
 "It seems very obvious that we are not yet in Brexit with agreement. And we have here in Finland and also in the European Union level done work that we can manage that kind of situation also. And that means that we are ready for that kind of Brexit also. I hope that they can reach a situation where this can be solved so that there is no mess, but it seems not possible now," Rinne said in English.
 "Open to discussing any initiative"
 Replying in Italian, Sassoli said that "there is a lot of unity between the 27 member states to defend the deal, which we believe is the best deal possible. Of course we're open to discussing any initiative that may come forward."
 "It's painful for us if the UK leaves the EU but if they're going to leave without a deal, then someone has to take responsibility for that and for the fact that in Ireland quite naturally a border will have to be put up. There is unity on the deal that we found. However we are open to hearing further proposals that may be put on the table," Sassoli added.
 In response, Rinne said: "We're not ready to open this agreement we have negotiated between Britain and European Union."
 Climate focus in talks
 The two also returned several times to the issue of climate and emissions reductions, which Finland has set as the main theme of its European Council Presidency.
 "We have a broad consensus on the need to [have] a strong emphasis on climate actions in the EU budget. I want to highlight the EU global climate leadership course for committing to climate neutrality by 2050," Rinne said.
 Sassoli noted that "there are urgencies in that the general public is calling for major change when it comes to climate policy. We're going to do more. And we are going to have to be able to rise to the challenge of the threat that it poses," he said.
 "The parliament has indicated a number of very ambitious objectives. A 55-percent cut in CO2 emissions is of course a huge challenge and so we'd very much like to see how the Commission intends to move forward with that...we've put our faith in these objectives and we hope that they will be kept too."
 Climate, sustainable growth and the EU budget were the main topics earlier on Friday morning when Rinne and Sassoli met with the chairs of the European Parliament’s political groups and ministers from Rinne's centre-left cabinet.
 Sassoli, a centre-left MEP since 2009, was elected as President of the European Parliament in early July, at the same time as Finland took over the six-month rotating presidency.

Finnish PM: EU "not ready" to re-open withdrawal deal with Britain


Summary: A close cousin to the tornado - the waterspout - touched down in south-western Finland on Friday.

As showers and thunderstorms move across the southwest, the crew aboard a Western Finland Coast Guard surveillance aircraft spotted a high-speed waterspout touching down in the Finnish Archipelago on Friday morning.
 The team managed to film the meteorological spectacle, which took place near the island municipality of Pargas.
 Waterspouts are formed by water droplets from clouds as well as seawater, brought together by strong, spinning winds, according to Yle meteorologist  Kerttu Kotakorpi .
 The combination of thunderstorms and strong winds commonly produce so-called funnel clouds, which are cone shaped protuberances from the cloud base, Kotakorpi explained.
 "If winds are strong enough, the funnel cloud reaches the sea level," she said.
 Wind speeds of at least 18 m/s are needed to form a waterspout, a weather phenomenon that can cause major damage at sea as well as on land. In North America, the more powerful variations of waterspouts are known as tornadoes and significantly more dangerous.
 The weather in southern, south-western and western areas of the country will be rather wet on Saturday, with heavy rains and autumn temperatures expected.
 However the day will be calmer in eastern and northern regions, featuring temperatures hovering above or below 15 degrees Celsius, and about 10 degrees in the north.

Watch: Waterspout touches down in Finnish Archipelago


Summary: The state postal firm sold three membership shares in a posh Espoo golf club to buy one at Finland's priciest club.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

The minister in charge of overseeing state-owned companies,  Sirpa Paatero , says she will look into Posti management's golf club membership shares.
 The tabloid Iltalehti revealed that in 2015, the state postal firm spent nearly 30,000 euros on a membership stake in the tony Sarfvik Golf Club in Kirkkonummi, some 20 km west of Helsinki.
 According to the paper, the purchase of a membership card for Finland's most expensive golf club was proposed by Posti CEO  Heikki Malinen . He has been under fire in recent weeks over his generous remuneration in a time when the company is trying to slash jobs and wages.
 The paper reports that the country club expenditure caused consternation within Posti, as it came just when the firm was launching redundancy talks that led to more than 300 employees losing their jobs.
 "It doesn't sound very good"
 "One has to admit that it doesn't sound very good," Paatero said on Friday in Parliament.
 Paatero questioned spending on golf fees while simultaneously carrying on tough co-determination negotiations and job cuts. She said that she would not be able to analyse management golf benefits on Friday, but that they would be included in an overall re-evaluation of executive remuneration at the state-owned firm.
 "It's essential that I get information and ask the company what this is all about," she said.
 Posti's revenue has slumped in recent years as many consumers opt for electronic versions instead of having letters and newspapers delivered to their mailboxes, and it faces more competition for package deliveries.
 On Tuesday, Paatero announced that after talks with Posti, it agreed to reconsider management salaries, bonuses and benefits, and to  suspend a plan  to force some workers to accept much weaker working contracts. The postal union, which estimated that would have cut their wages by 30-50 percent, then agreed to cut short a strike.
 3 shares at posh Espoo club
 According to Iltalehti, Posti previously owned three membership shares in another prestigious golf club, Master Golf on Lake Bodom in northern Espoo. However the firm sold these when it bought the Sarfvik share. Posti told the paper that it sold the Master Golf shares because it was difficult to reserve tee times at the venue.
 Paatero, a long-time parliamentarian from Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party, took over as Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering in June. This week she also announced changes to the board of directors of the  state-owned gambling agency Veikkaus  amid claims that it has failed to tackle problem gambling.

Minister to probe Posti executives' golf privileges


Summary: Only three percent of respondents to a recent survey indicated dissatisfaction with President Sauli Niinistö's performance.

A recent survey of the Finnish public from the country's most widely-read daily suggests that President  Sauli Niinistö  is currently enjoying unprecedented levels of support in Finland.
 Over 90 percent of respondents to the late-August Kantar TNS survey said they felt Niinistö had succeeded in his presidential tasks at least somewhat satisfactorily. Close to half answered that they were very satisfied with his performance.
 Sauli Niinistö  has seen public support for his presidency rise steadily since he was  first elected  president in 2012. The former conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) chair and finance minister was re-elected for a second six-year term in 2018 after a  landslide vote .
 The poll indicates that Niinistö enjoys the support of the Finnish public across party lines. In fact, 63 percent of respondents who identified as Social Democratic Party supporters felt Niinistö was doing a very good job, followed by 62 percent of Centre Party adherents, and 59 percent of NCP supporters.
 Just three percent of the 1,005 people participating in the poll gave the president a "somewhat or very poor" grade. The margin of error for the survey results is three percentage points in either direction.

Poll suggests record-level support for Finnish President


Summary: The idea that babies are bad for the planet is not a message a country with a low birth rate needs to hear, politicians say.

Politicians in Finland have criticized the 13/2019 edition of Tieteen Kuvalehti, the Finnish version of Bonnier Publications International's Danish periodical Illustreret Videnskab, for its cover image of a baby with a red X over it, referring to a story on mitigating climate change.
 Finland's birth rate is currently at a  historic low , making it a touchy subject.
 The magazine's cover article gives tips on how readers can reduce their carbon footprint. In addition to measures such as rejecting meat and forgoing air and car travel, the page-long article concludes that the single best step a climate-aware person can take is to not have children.
 Call for display removal
 Pekka Aittakumpu , a Centre Party parliamentarian from the northwest coastal city of Oulu, put out a bulletin asking that the magazine be "hidden" in shops, libraries and kiosks.
 "I think conveying the message that a baby is a source of emissions is going too far. It gives children and youth the impression that they are a burden, and I find this horrible," Aittakumpu told the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle.
 Christian Democrat parliamentary  Päivi Räsänen  also commented on the cover in a Facebook post.
 "The message of the cover image is offensive to babies and families with babies […] Children that are well cared for and educated will come up with the solutions to future problems, not be the cause of them. I support a counterattack to propaganda of this nature that says 'All babies are welcome!'" she wrote.
 Yle was unable to reach any Tieteen Kuvalehti personnel to comment on the matter. Bonnier publishes a version of the magazine in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, the magazine is sold under the title Science Illustrated. Global circulation is in the neighbourhood of 550,000 copies.
 Rock-bottom fertility rate
 Statistics Finland's  most recent report on Finland's birth rate  shows that the number of births in Finland fell for the eighth year in a row in 2018. The service said that if last year's fertility rate was used as a benchmark, a woman of childbearing age in Finland would give birth to just 1.41 children on average.
 This 2018 figure was a clear drop on the previous year, when the figure was 1.49. The historic low threatens Finland's overall population levels as well. From January to April, the  number of births was lower than the number of deaths .
 A few years ago,  a study from Lund University in Sweden  claimed that a decision to have one fewer child is the most effective personal carbon footprint mitigation action one can take.
 The study has since been roundly criticised. Researcher  Jáchym Judl  from the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE for example  makes the case  for a humane solution that doesn't "blame people for reproduction", as "it all comes down to (sustainable) consumption and production".
 "Personal carbon footprint is a function of income, individual consumption choices, and the carbon intensity of products and services that are consumed. When comparing two citizens in a given year, both with a similar income, their personal carbon footprints will be a result of the consumption choices they make, regardless of the number of kids they have," Judl writes.
 "Finland cannot shirk its responsibility"
 Helsinki University's world politics professor  Teivo Teivainen  says that it is clear that fewer births would lead to lighter load on the planet, but he says this doesn't mean that the decision to have children would be morally objectionable.
 "The decision to have children includes many ethical considerations. Finland cannot shirk its responsibility, however, by stating that our birth rate has no significance on the global scale because we are a small nation."
 He points out that science oftentimes calls attention to issues that bring our society's morals into question.
 "The cover asks 'What can you do?'; it doesn't say 'What you should do'. There's a difference," he said.

Finnish MPs criticize science magazine over cover image


Summary: The 32-year-old economic affairs minister easily won the party congress vote over defence minister Antti Kaikkonen.

Delegates to an extraordinary meeting of Finland's Centre Party have elected  Katri Kulmuni  has their new party chair. Kulmuni defeated the only other candidate for the position, defence minister  Antti Kaikkonen , by gaining 1,092 votes compared to Kaikkonen's 829. She takes over the reins of the party from  Juha Sipilä , who decided to step down from the position after the party was soundly defeated in April's general elections.
 Kulmuni said told the gathered crowd that the work would start now to change the agrarian-backed Centre Party from a "10 percent party to a 20 percent party". She will serve as the Centre Party chair until Sipilä's term would have ended in the summer of 2020, when the party congress was originally set to choose a leader.
 Before the vote, MP  Joonas Könttä  from the central Finland city of Jyväskylä explained why he was planning to support Kulmuni as the party's next leader.
 "The Centre Party looks towards the future from a difficult position, and I believe that Katri is the best choice for us moving forward. She is modern, very competent, and a very centrist choice. I think she also appeals to new people," he said.
 Sipilä's farewell address focused on achievements
 Outgoing chair Juha Sipilä spoke to the assembly, pointing out that his austerity-minded government coalition created 14,000 new jobs during his term in office. He told the gathered delegates that he would have liked to continue as the party chair, but the Centre Party's  trouncing at the ballot box  this spring – resulting in the loss of 18 parliamentary seats – made it clear to him that it was best to step down.
 Kulmuni will have her work cut out for her, as support for the party fell to 13.8 percent in the last election, putting the once-on-top Centre Party in fourth position behind the nationalist Finns Party, the centre-right National Coalition Party and the left-leaning Social Democrats. Yle's  latest assessment of political allegiances in September  suggests that support has fallen even further, to 11.6 percent of the population.
 The next elections in Finland won't be until the municipal elections scheduled for spring 2021. In the 2017 municipal elections under Sipilä's leadership, the Centre Party gained 17.5 percent of the vote.

Katri Kulmuni voted new Centre Party chair


Summary: Yle News looks at the facts and figures behind the stellar rise of Teemu Pukki, an up-and-coming goalscoring sensation.

Anfield Road, Liverpool. It is 63 minutes into Norwich City's visit to the famous old stadium, and their first game back in the Premier League, when  Teemu Pukki  makes one of this trademark runs in behind the opponent's defensive line, controls the ball with one neat touch, and fires a shot across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner of the net.
 The manner of Pukki’s first ever goal in England’s top division has become something of a trademark for the Finnish striker, and demonstrated to a global audience the Kotka native’s on-field strengths: fast, calculated movement and precise finishing.
 The goal, despite it’s quality, did not change the overall complexion of the game at Anfield, as the European Champions Liverpool ran out eventual 4-1 winners against the newly-promoted Canaries. On a personal level however, Pukki’s goal was an important accomplishment. It provided further evidence of his continued progression, which has increased rapidly under the watchful eye of Norwich’s German coach  Daniel Farke , also a former striker.
 Story continues after graphic.
 Juha Rissanen/Yle
 Teemu Pukki was the subject of much discussion among pundits and fans prior to the kick off of the new Premier League season, with many questioning the Finn's ability to step up to the level demanded at England's top table. The doubters have been silenced for the time being by the five goals Pukki scored in his first three Premier League appearances.
 This phenomenal record led to Pukki becoming only the third Finn to ever win the Professional Footballers’ Association's (PFA's)  Player of the Month  award, all of which goes some way towards proving that his tally of 29 goals in the English Championship last season was no fluke.
 Anatomy of a goalscorer
 Last season, Pukki scored a goal every 132 minutes in the Championship, England's second tier, as Norwich earned promotion to the Premier League. So far this season, now in the Premier League, his record is a goal every 72 minutes. In total, Pukki has played 50 competitive matches in the yellow and green of Norwich, and scored 35 goals, which means that Norwich fans have celebrated a Pukki goal every 120 minutes since he signed for the club on 30 June 2018.
 Based on statistics provided by the football analytics website  Statsbomb , Pukki is at his most dangerous towards the very end of a game, as 12 goals out of his total of 35 for the Canaries have come in either the last 10 minutes of a game, or within added time.
 Story continues after graphic.
 Juha Rissanen/Yle
 For the most part, Pukki is a penalty area goalscorer, or what used to be known as a "fox in the box" - although the Finn does have much more to his game than just goalscoring. Of his 29 goals in the Championship last season, only one came from outside the penalty area, and all five of his goals in the Premier League this season have come from within the 18 yard box.
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 Source: Statsbomb. Juha Rissanen/Yle
 And within the penalty area, Pukki tends to operate along certain channels, attempting to time his runs between and behind the defensive line. Once he receives the ball in these positions, he usually takes one or at most two touches before attempting to get a shot away.
 Such speed and movement is difficult to defend against, as exemplified by the goal against Liverpool.
 Norwich's style of play - short passes in search of clever runs - has proved to be the perfect fit for Pukki. The understanding he has developed with Norwich's Argentinian playmaker  Emiliano Buendia  - who laid on the assist for the goal at Anfield - has been particularly lucrative in terms of chances created.
 This was particularly evident in the Championship last season, and Pukki has a very competitive record in terms of opportunities taken. He scored his 29 goals in the Championship from just 144 shots, meaning about every fifth shot resulted in a goal. In the Premier League, Pukki has so far only needed 14 shots to score five goals, or a current record of one goal for every three shots.
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 Source: Statsbomb. Juha Rissanen/Yle
 In terms of precision, Pukki has developed a knack for finding the very corner of the net, making it as difficult as possible for the opposing goalkeeper: with as much as 40 percent of his goals for Norwich nestling in the bottom right hand corner - if the goal is divided into six equal parts, as per the graphic below.
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 Source: Statsbomb. Juha Rissanen/Yle
 Great goal expectations
 In recent years, a new term has entered the footballing lexicon: expected goals, or xG. This refers to the likelihood that a chance will result in a goal, based on factors such as distance from the goal, angle to the goal, proximity to the nearest defender, and if the shot is taken with the player's strong foot, weak foot or head.
 By collecting and analysing data from past games, xG attempts to predict how efficient a player will be in the future.
 In the Championship last season, Pukki was not just the league's top scorer, but he also led the xG chart - with an overall reading of 23.69 and a xG per 90 minutes reading of 0.52. This means that Pukki is expected to score a goal every other game.
 In the Premier League, Pukki's xG rating is 0.47, suggesting that if he continues to score at his current rate, he would end the season with 18 goals from 38 Premier League matches.
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 Expected Goals (xG) is a statistical measure of the quality of chances created and conceded. Source: Statsbomb. Juha Rissanen/Yle
 Working hard in attack and defence
 As mentioned above, Pukki is not just a goalscorer. He has also developed a reputation as a hard worker when his team is not in possession. The statistics again bear this out, revealing that of the top goal scorers in the Championship last season, Pukki was also first in terms of closing down and putting pressure on opponents when his team did not have the ball.
 Statsbomb also collects data on players' defensive activity, with a model that calculates so-called 'pressing performance'.
 According to this data, Pukki recorded a total of 894 presses in the Championship last season, or 19.61 for every 90 minutes he played, putting him well above any of the other top goal scorers.
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 Pressing performance refers to a player putting the player in possession of the ball under pressure. Source: Statsbomb. Juha Rissanen/Yle
 Finland watches with anticipation
 The Premier League is now on an international break, so Pukki has joined his  Huuhkajat,  or Eagle Owls, teammates for the European Championship qualifying games against Greece and Italy, in what is arguably the most important double header of matches in the history of the Finnish national team.
 Similar to his relationship with Farke at Norwich, Pukki has benefited hugely from working under Finland coach  Markku Kanerva . When Kanerva was appointed the Finnish team's coach in December 2016, Pukki was going through something of a goal drought. Since then however, he has re-found his goalscoring touch on the international stage - including hitting the net six times in the 10 games up to the summer of 2019.
 Pukki added to that tally with a penalty that secured the three points against Greece on Thursday. If he can he deliver once more against Italy on Sunday, it would be a massive step for Finland towards finally achieving that much-coveted and long-desired historic first-ever spot in a European Championship Finals tournament.

Party like Pukki: An analysis of Finland's breakout football star


Summary: The OAJ says national criteria are too ambiguous and lead to significantly different grades for the same performance.

Teacher trade union OAJ has called for better guidelines for grading comprehensive schoolwork in Finland, stating that the  current evaluation criteria  (in Finnish) issued by the National Agency for Education have proved problematic across all subjects.
 "There are too many criteria and they are too complex. […] We have insisted that they cut them back, as every single one contains many things that are open to interpretation. The criteria should be far more straightforward," says the OAJ's development manager  Jaakko Salo .
 A  2015 study  of year 7-9 maths competencies from the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre found that "the grades of students doing equally well but studying in different schools could have a systematic difference of up to two points".
 Salo says the spread is probably closer to four different grades for the same skill set.
 Comprehensive schools in Finland follow a somewhat illogical 10-point system in which there are actually only seven grades: 10 is the highest possible grade for excellent work, followed by 9 (very good), 8 (good), 7 (satisfactory), and 6 (fair). 5 is the lowest passing grade and a grade of 4 indicates that the pupil has failed.
 Benchmarking against fellow pupils
 National Education Agency evaluation criteria lay out the performance necessary in each subject to achieve a "good" grade of 8. The teachers' union says this is part of the problem.
 "We feel that criteria should also be at least drawn up for a grade of 5, or minimum competence. It has apparently already been decided that new criteria for grades of 5, 7 and 9 should be outlined," Salo says.
 He says using only grade 8 as a reference puts too much emphasis on comparing the pupils on a classroom or school-wide basis, making grading decisions highly relative.
 "The rest of the student body becomes the teacher's benchmark. At its worst, this means that schools with poorer overall performance divvy out better grades for weaker competencies. This should not be happening," Salo says.
 How to grade art?
 Raimo Alaraatikka has taught art for two decades, and now works at the Sammonlahti primary school in the southeast city of Lappeenranta. He says that the most common grades he gives his pupils are 7, 8 or 9. Deciding on what number to assign is never easy, he says, even for a teacher with years of experience.
 The Education Agency's criteria say that in order to receive a grade of 8 in the visual arts, students should be able to express their thoughts and observations in a descriptive manner, using a variety of tools. They should also be able to aptly describe their perceptions of art, environment and visual culture, use a range of materials, techniques and methods, and recognise the potential images have to express ideas.
 If a student gets a grade of 6 in visual arts, it is usually because of problems related to motor coordination or perception. Alaraatikka says he rarely gives his pupils a failing grade.
 "A grade of 4 is only given if there are a lot of absences, if the work is incomplete, or if it was never started at all," he says.
 Equally rare is the best grade of 10.
 "In that case, the student exceeds expectations in terms of skill and intellectual abilities,” Alaraatikka said.
 He points out that the school teachers' evaluation of pupils' performance extends beyond just the grades. Teachers provide feedback to the children throughout the year, discussing their work progress with them regularly and reminding those who have fallen behind what is necessary to keep up.
 New criteria in the works
 The National Agency for Education is currently renewing its grading criteria for comprehensive schooling in Finland. The agency says it will publish new primary school grading criteria in late 2019-early 2020, and the goal will be to take the new guidelines into use in the spring of 2020.
 New grading criteria for final school-leaving certificates, awarded at the end of year 9, will come into force two years after this.

Teachers union calls for more consistent grading criteria in comprehensive schools


Summary: Starting this autumn, all aspiring university of applied sciences students will sit the same digital entrance exam.

This autumn, Finland's universities of applied sciences will roll out a new joint electronic entrance exam that will be the same for most applicants, no matter if they are looking to study towards a trade in the retail, hospitality, or agriculture sectors.
 The blanket exam will assess applicants' general logic, language and communication skills, and will replace previous field-specific entrance exams to Finland's post-secondary institutions that teach a trade.
 The test will take place in late October-early November. Participants will take the digital exam on their own computers at the vocational university to which they are applying as their first choice. In many cases, several different test sessions will be arranged for prospective students.
 Some applicants may have additional field-specific questions
 The new joint entrance examinations are part of a student intake development programme that started in 2017 at Finland's vocational universities. The programme's project manager,  Marko Borodavkin  from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences is satisfied with the results.
 "This is one of the most noteworthy student selection reforms in the history of Finnish polytechnics. It is a very large change, involving the entire sector," he says.
 The exam will be the same for all applicants, but some of the potential students will also complete additional sections, dependent on the field of study they intend to pursue. Questions assessing mathematical skills will be required from everyone except applicants to subjects in the humanities and education sector, who will instead be asked questions assessing their ethical standards.
 Every university of applied sciences in Finland will participate in the new entrance exam system, with the exception of polytechnic programmes that teach cultural disciplines, the Police University College and the Åland University of Applied Sciences.
 Part of larger effort to streamline student selection
 The reform is part of a larger transformation of student selection practices in Finland. Starting in the spring of 2020, all of Finland's higher education institutions will choose half of their incoming students on the basis of their matriculation exam results or school-leaving certificates alone.
 Universities of applied sciences will in future have separate admission quotas for applicants who have completed matriculation exams and applicants with school-leaving certificates from vocational schools.
 The admissions overhaul aims to simply the admissions process and speed up the transfer of students from secondary to tertiary education in Finland.
 The autumn deadline for applying to universities in Finland is 18 September. Some 6,700 study places in over 250 different degree programmes are available in the autumn round of admissions, the majority of which are in Finland's network of vocational universities.

Vocational universities launch new joint entrance exam


Summary: Prime Minister Antti Rinne's coalition hopes to give work to 20,000 jobless by expanding the use of state salary support.

Finland's government coalition says it hopes to give work to up to 20,000 jobless people by expanding the scope of the state's  wage subsidy . TE employment offices in Finland grant employers wage subsidies from the government to cover the remuneration of unemployed jobseekers.
 Charity organisations such as the Finnish Red Cross traditionally employ many people in this way. For example, 1,408 employees of the 1,500 total that work for the Finnish Red Cross' twelve Kontti second hand stores were hired via the wage subsidy.
 Maria Rokka  is one of the hundreds of people the state-owned postal service Posti has laid off in the last decade or so. She was let go after 42 years of service in November 2009, when Finland's unemployment rate rose to over eight percent.
 "Looking for work was a constant rollercoaster of emotions. My hopes would get up when I sent the application, and then I would be disappointed and things would head downhill, over and over again. It was really draining," she says.
 She tried several work trials and temporary wage subsidy positions, but her income was scarce and she was forced to collect basic assistance, a form of last-resort state benefit.
 "Win-win situation"
 Finally, in the summer of 2017, Rokka was hired to work at one of Kontti stores, where the state covers her salary in full, in the form of a wage subsidy to the Finnish Red Cross. She says it has been a win-win situation for both the employer and employee.
 "It has tremendous psychological significance. It raises your sense of personal value and makes you feel as if you are good enough for something," she says.
 She doesn't see the wage subsidy programme as a work-around to brighten employment numbers, as she says the experience has enforced her trust in the future. She says her work experience – subsidized or not – will definitely help in her search for other work, if her work relationship at Kontti were to end.
 Great gov't expectations
 Finland's new left-leaning government also believes in the transformative power of the wage subsidy, and is planning to invest in expanding the scheme to twice its current size.
 Employment minister  Timo Harakka  says the expansion will pay for itself by eliminating the cost of participant's social benefits. He encourages companies and organizations in Finland to  use the wage subsidy more extensively .
 "I think we have to be ambitious from the start: we will double the use of the wage subsidy and this alone will mean the creation of 20,000 new jobs," he says.
 30-50% support for firms, 100% for organisations
 According to the website of the TE employment offices, the purpose of the wage subsidy is to advance the employment of jobseekers on the open labour market. Although the wage subsidy is granted and paid to the employer, the granting of the subsidy is always based on the unemployed jobseekers' need for the service, due to possible shortcomings in their professional skills or an injury or illness that affects their ability to cope at work.
 Companies that take on the jobless through the programme receive 30 to 50 percent of the salary expenses from the state. For organizations like the Finnish Red Cross, this percentage can rise to 100 percent.
 The government also says it plans to scrap the wage subsidy's current 4,000-worker limit for organisations, imposed by Finland's previous government.
 A  government study  from December 2018 evaluated the  impact of wage subsidies on unemployed person' subsequent employment  and earnings. Results found that subsidies paid to firms tend to improve the post-subsidy earnings of those hired. For people employed at organisations, however, the experience improved their employment chances only slightly.

Government seeks to expand wage subsidy programme


Summary: The press looks at prison time for violent crimes, changes at the foreign ministry, and Finland's footballers' bad luck.

Tabloid Iltalehti looks at the  sentences handed down to those convicted in Finland of violent crimes , such as aggravated assault, attempted murder or murder. The paper quotes ex-chief detective  Juha "Hermo" Rautaheimo , who has just written a new book detailing his 40 years with the Finnish police investigating serious crimes, as saying that sentences in Finland are too lenient.
 "It seems that in this country, another person can be beaten or stabbed to death almost without legal consequences," Rautaheimo told IL, adding that often the time served is only 10 to 20 percent of the maximum possible sentence.
 In order to substantiate Rautaheimo’s claims, the tabloid compared maximum sentences with how much actual time convicted criminals spend behind bars across Finland, and found some large discrepancies.
 Those convicted of aggravated assault spend on average between 21 months and 30 months in jail, according to the tabloid’s findings. For attempted murder, the average time spent in prison for convictions between 2009 and 2017 ranges from three to four and a half years.
 The "duracell bunny" Minister
 Main daily Helsingin Sanomat reports on the  changes taking place at Finland’s foreign ministry , especially since  Pekka Haavisto  took over from previous incumbent  Timo Soini  as Foreign Minister.
 According to HS, Haavisto is well-known as a hard worker from his two previous ministerial terms, as Minister of the Environment and Development from 1995 to 1999, and as Minister of Development from 2013 to 2014, and his appointment elicited a mixed reaction from civil servants at the ministry.
 "I didn't hear any flurry of joy, but he is very ambitious," one long-serving official told HS on condition of anonymity. Another reported that Haavisto’s appointment was greeted with lots of "weary faces", but that at least now "there is plenty to do".
 And there certainly is plenty to do. According to HS, Prime Minister  Antti Rinne ’s programme for government contained significantly more foreign policy projects than  Juha Sipilä 's previous government. These include the positioning of climate change as a government priority, the role of women and girls in developing countries, and an increased emphasis on cooperation between Nordic and EU countries.
 Little wonder then that Haavisto has been issuing instructions to underlings in the middle of the night, adding to his notoriety as a ministerial "duracell bunny", HS writes.
 Finland denied by questionable refereeing decision
 Many papers carry reports of Finland’s national football team’s heroic - and many argue unlucky - defeat to Italy in the European Championship qualifying game in Tampere on Sunday night.
 According to Tampere daily  Aamulehti , Finland last beat the four-time World Cup winning Italians in 1912, but went into this game full of confidence having won all four of their previous games at the Ratina stadium.
 Finland’s goalkeeper  Lukas Hradecky  kept the free-flowing Italians at bay with some fine saves in the first half, but he was finally beaten by a 59th minute header from Italy’s talismanic striker  Ciro Immobile .
 Finland rallied, and star player  Teemu Pukki  won and then converted a 72nd minute penalty to make the score 1-1 - despite the best attempts of Italian goalkeeper  Gianluigi Donnarumma  to put him off.
 Finland did not stay on level terms for long however, as Scottish referee  Robert Madden  awarded a penalty to Italy just seven minutes later after he deemed Finnish defender  Sauli Väisäsen  had deliberately blocked a shot with his hand.
 The decision was not popular among the Finnish fans in the stadium, nor did it appear to be supported anywhere in the Finnish press. Aamulehti’s article contains a video of the controversial decision, and the paper asked readers to give their opinion.
 Italy’s Chelsea midfielder  Jorginho  scored from the spot to give Italy all three points. Finland remain second in the qualifying group, with two huge games coming in October against fourth placed Bosnia and Herzegovina and third placed Armenia.

Monday’s papers: Lenient sentences, workaholic foreign minister, questionable refereeing


Summary: Reports of symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting are being investigated in South Ostrobothnia.

Suspicions are growing in the western Finnish region of South Ostrobothnia that a mysterious canine illness that has claimed the lives of up to 20 dogs in Norway over the past few days may have spread to the area. Norway's Food Safety Authority has been investigating the causes of an outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea among approximately 40 dogs in the country.
 The fears have been fuelled by a Facebook post written by a dog owner in the municipality of Teuva, near Kristinestad,detailing what happened to their two dogs over the past week.
 According to the post, one of the owner's dogs was reported to be suffering from severe diarrhoea just over a week ago, but died before the vet arrived at the owner's home. Later last week, a second dog fell ill in the same way, but has now reportedly recovered.
 The public Facebook update has since spread rapidly, leading to the Lillvet veterinary clinic in the city of Seinäjoki introducing special precautionary measures: which include keeping dogs in owners' cars during check in, minimising contact between dogs, and taking extra special care with regard to hygiene.
 The Finnish Food Authority has reported receiving a number of inquiries related to the case in Teuva, but with very little confirmed information available at the moment the authority was not willing to comment in detail on the matter at this stage.  Virva Valle , a senior inspector at the agency, did however suggest that the cause could be any number of acute illnesses, and added that the situation is being closely monitored.
 Tarja Väisänen , a municipal veterinarian in Teuva, told Yle that she is aware of the dog owner's Facebook update, but no other similar cases have yet been reported in the area. Väisänen added that the Teuva area's weekly junior handler meetings have been cancelled as a precaution.
 Väisänen agreed with Valle's statement that dogs can have many different types of diarrhoea and vomiting.
 In Norway, more than 20 dogs are reported to have died of a disease whose origin is still being investigated. In a press release last Friday, the Finnish Food Authority recommended that dog owners avoid travelling to Norway at present.

Fears "Norwegian disease" has spread to dogs in Finland


Summary: According to a business think tank's survey, most respondents think social benefits should be based on need.

Three out of five Finnish residents said they do not support the country introducing a basic income model, according to a poll commissioned by think tank EVA, the Finnish Business and Policy Forum.
 Just one third of some 2,000 respondents said Finland should start a universal basic income (UBI) programme for all, according to the survey.
 Those opposed to UBI were more likely to have the opinion that people should have reasons for drawing social benefits, like being jobless, on a low income or studying.
 Meanwhile, some 67 percent of respondents said they think that some people have been receiving benefits without truly being in need of them.
 Finland's UBI trial
 EVA's survey was carried out last autumn, a couple of months before the end of Finland's two-year basic income experiment, which concluded in December 2018. The think tank published a report about the survey, (roughly in English) "Farewell to Basic Income", on Monday.
 During the UBI trial, the country's social insurance institution Kela selected 2,000 unemployed people at random to receive 560 euros tax-free every month. Participants were able to work alongside receiving the money, or even start their own businesses. Selected participants could, however, not opt out of the experiment.
 Shortly afterwards, Finland’s government announced that the steady income appeared to increase the participants’ sense of happiness -  but didn’t improve employment .
 Half said benefits system update due
 More than 50 percent of the EVA survey said that Finland needs to modernise and streamline its benefits system, saying that the various forms of social support - like should be combined as much as possible.
 More than half of the respondents also said that benefits recipients should receive more guidance and advice.
 The EVA survey was carried out by pollster Taloustutkimus, querying 2,007 residents across the country between the ages of 18-70 in late September and early October of 2018. The poll had a margin of error ranging between two to three percentage points in either direction.

Poll: Most Finnish residents opposed to universal basic income