A round-up in English, in bulletin form, of the news in the Finnish dailies IltaSanomat and Iltalehti.
The Finnish Border Guard have taken delivery of a new EU-funded ’PV-8’ scout boat and will receive three more this year, report Itasanomat. The boats, which ‘add to the every-day safety of borderlands people,’ are part of an initiative to improve European border safety.
Minister for the Interior Anne Holmlund attended the collection ceremony.
Mitro Repo, the Finnish orthodox priest who stood for and won a seat in the European Parliament–and was subsequently barred from leading religious services and wearing priestly garments–has chosen three ‘EU assistants,’ one of them, controversially, his brother’s wife Pia Repo.
A Finnish MP is not allowed to hire family or near family members, but EU parliament rules are less strict, barring only parents and siblings from joining a politician's paid staff.
'Father is the boss in our family,’ say 52 percent of Finnish citizens answering an internet poll of 3000 people ordered by Reader’s Digest. India had the highest percentage of respondants stating that father is the boss at 69%, followed by Brasil at 67%.
Sweden had the highest percentage of respondants stating that mother is the boss, at 61%.
Helsinki-Vantaa airport faces congestion this weekend, the first weekend in July and a peak for summer travellers.
“We’re expecting big numbers for Saturday,” commented Paavo Virkkunen, service manager at Finnair. “Right now terminal two might be described in German terms as ‘toten hosen,’” he joked on Thursday morning.
Passengers are cautioned to check in online, and to report their phone numbers to the airlines who can pass on any last minute schedule changes by text message.
Virkkunen also advised passengers to bring any luggage for morning flights to the airport on the previous evening from 20.00 to 21.30, remembering to show their flight tickets for identification.
A 50 to 60-year-old man who is yet to be identified was found dead in Turku’s Mannerheim park early on Thursday morning. Police are asking for eye witnesses with any information on the incident to come forward.
A driver accelerated at a cyclist in the Lohiniva district of Kittila, a four-hour drive from Oulu, in the small hours of Thursday morning. The man drove a white Mercedes-Benz right at the cyclist, knocking him to the ground. The driver then got out of the car and began ‘to act in a threatening manner,’ at which the cyclist ran into the forest.
When the cyclist returned to the street he discovered his bicycle destroyed and his travel items thrown across the grass verge.
The first million doses of swine flu vaccine may arrive in Finland in September, earlier than anticipated, say the National Institute for Health and Welfare. Following this initial delivery, a million doses will arrive each month.
Johanna Korhonen, fired from her post as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Lapin Kansa allegedly because she has a lesbian partner, has brought her case to the Court of Appeals. Korhonen lost in the Helsinki district courts against Lapin Kansa owners Alma Media last month.
YLE reports that litigation for discrimination has also been filed against Alma Media by the Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate of Uusimaa.
Compulsory unemployment insurance charges may rise from 0,2 percent of a person’s salary to 0,9% next year to cope with increasing unemployment, say Helsingin Sanomat. Insurances charges paid by firms and businesses may rise as well, following recommendations by TVR, the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
“This is a much larger increase in charges than we had predicted,” commented Heikki Pohja, TVR’s CEO.
Puuhamaa Theme Park in Tervakoksi, Finland’s ‘most diverse theme park,’ has applied and been rejected for the right to serve alcohol on the grounds that the core of its visitors are small children under 12.
The Visulahti, Serena, and Wasaland parks, which belong to the same company, have been granted alcohol rights, but Puuhamaa remains without.
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article.
