Power and marine systems company Wärtsilä said Thursday that it will reduce its global workforce by 550 in an effort to save 50 million euros annually. Finland will account for some 270 of the jobs to be shed but will become the centre of its power systems design operations.
The Agency for Rural Affairs has been publically called out for non-payment of subsidies. In reality only a fraction of the payments are still late.
This Thursday Finland's dailies look at a Helsinki imam's views on physical contact, security guards in reception centres, the Prime Minister's analysis of the state of the nation and female war veterans soon outnumbering men.
Perpetrator could face 2,000 euro fine if caught, after protected species discovered inside a plastic bag on a lakeshore in Hämeenlinna, southern Finland.
Ahead of an EU summit on Thursday, interior minister Petteri Orpo comes out in support of member states being forced to accept a share of asylum seekers during times of mass migration.
A new border restriction has been in force for 10 days at Finland’s two Lapland border crossings on the Russian border in a bilateral agreement to clamp down on illegal migration. Border officials at the two stations say they have now turned away their first potential entrants to the country, advising them to try a different border crossing until the 180-day ban is lifted.
The designer and creator of the Toroidion 1MW Concept electric sports car has been named the recipient of the 2016 Ornamo Award for industrial design. Pasi Pennanen will receive the award and prize of five thousand euros at a ceremony at the Helsinki Music Centre on Wednesday.
Universities have noted a severe drop in students applying to study mathematics, physics and chemistry in Finland this year, as hard sciences continue to lose their appeal. Many degree programmes also require applicants to have studied long maths, an upper secondary school course option that more and more youth are rejecting in favour of a shorter course of studies. Some feel the dearth of such students could come back to haunt Finland’s export industries some day.
There was still a lot of talk about the unemployment situation in the newspapers on Wednesday, particularly about entrepreneurs. Refugee rights group says proposed income demands of family reunification in Finland are too high. Supermarket retailing giant Kesko begins its move into Siwa and Valintatalo shops around the country.
Turing Robotic Industries says that it will be shipping its first pre-ordered, crowdfunded smartphones from production facilities in Salo before the end of April.
Turku University of Applied Sciences has been given a 70-thousand euro grant to research how industrial hemp could be used more in construction. The goal is to see whether the energy efficient and eco-friendly hemp and lime-based hemp concrete could become an attractive alternative to builders.
The Finnish News Agency STT reports that public prosecutors have ended an investigation into the actions of 16 people suspected of participating in rioting during a white supremacy demonstration in Jyväskylä last August. The preliminary investigation failed to establish enough evidence for charges to be brought. Another 14 people are still under investigation.
Police across Finland will start a special 24-hour speed enforcement operation as of 6 AM Thursday morning as part of a European Traffic Police Network campaign. Police forces across Europe intend to tackle speeding by conducting random speed checks.
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä told Yle Tuesday afternoon that the cabinet has not held discussions on breaking up the State Railways VR into smaller units. Earlier in the day, the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, reported that Centre Party transport minister Anne Berner is pushing for the establishment of a company to take over ownership of VR's rolling stock .
The prosecutor has ruled that a number of police-station staff across Finland should face misconduct charges for allegedly accessing the personal data of a woman accused of murder, even though they were not involved in the investigation.
Immigration Service data shows volumes of people seeking asylum in Finland dropped significantly in March. So far 25 percent of asylum decisions have been positive, 18 percent negative, and the largest group of people have voluntarily withdrawn their claims or left the country.
A battle of words between ministers over plans to cut regulation of the taxi industry makes most of the papers this morning, as do the tough new measures announced by the Finns Party's employment minister to force the unemployed back into work. Elsewhere, the story of a ninth-grader whose own firewood business has caught alight nicely.
The population of Finland’s national animal, the brown bear, rose by 15 percent in the last year, reports the Natural Resources Institute Finland. The areas experiencing the most growth were the eastern regions of Kainuu, North Karelia and North and South Savo.
Finns Party leaders, opposition party leaders and representatives of the Finnish Taxi Owners Association and ride-sharing service Uber responded to news of Transport Minister Anne Berner's transport sector reform plans on Monday.
On Monday the Minister of Justice and Labour Jari Lindström presented a few of the government's unemployment benefit reform proposals. The reforms involve both the tightening and loosening of the programmes' rules. He said that if implemented, the measures could help 10,000 unemployed people find work.
Swedish-Finnish teleoperator TeliaSonera earned shareholders hefty returns on the back of highly suspicious business dealings in Eurasia - mainly in the former Soviet states. Yle reports that the company is trying to put the infamy of those years behind it, by pulling out of its Eurasian operations and changing its name.
A new government proposal recommends Finland grants taxi permits on a company-wide basis in future and not car-by-car like the current practice. The permit would be administered by the Finnish Transport Safety Agency Trafi.
Recently released figures showed that the number of births in Finland hit a 150-year low in 2015. At least one researcher says that tough times in the economy, high unemployment and a growing sense of uncertainty are among the reasons many people are choosing to have fewer children.
Several newspapers Monday carried reports from the Finnish News Agency STT, according to which at least 90 Finns Party municipal council members in various parts of the country have either renounced their party affiliation or have been expelled from the party since the 2012 local elections.
The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) has begun building new company housing for the first time in more than two decades. Small, reasonably priced accommodations are also being called for in the service sector.
An asylum reception centre on the southwestern coastal island town of Nagu is closing next week. Some of the centre's clients have already been moved to other facilities. The move isn't welcome news for many of the clients as well as many islanders who've gotten to know each other over the past several months. However some asylum seekers will be staying on the island.
The environmental group WWF Finland says that as of today, the country has already used up its share of natural resources for the entire year. Energy production, traffic emissions and food production are the top ills.
Another group says they want to distance themselves from a bank implicated in the Panama Papers leak. The Finnish Transport Workers' Union has added itself to the list of organisations which have announced they are leaving Nordea Bank.
The Metropolia University of Applied Sciences is using an electronic exam as part of its entrance protocol for the first time this spring. The mental health of health care students is also closely screened and followed.
Party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo says the Finns Party is seeking an alternative, Finnish bank to handle its funds. Recently the Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance have ended their arrangements with Nordea.
Thermal spring has come to almost all of Finland, including central Lapland. Colder air will soon follow, however.
This weekend and next, more than 3,000 Finns are taking part in voluntary national defense courses. Altogether over 150 courses are being held around the country in subjects ranging from wilderness skills to cyber warfare.
Foreign Minister and Finns Party leader Timo Soini has denied a report that the government is prepared to deregulate taxi services. He says that it is not part of the government platform and that individual cabinet members cannot move ahead on the issue without full government approval.
Two hundred comprehensive school children, 15 and 16 years of age, got the chance to grill the government Friday when they took over the seats of MPs and convened as the biennial Youth Parliament. Yle picked out four of the issues that seemed of special concern to this year's assembly when they pressed the ruling cabinet for answers to policy questions
Responding to questions about an incident this week in which Russian fighter jets buzzed a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea, President Niinistö described it as "not a unique event - unfortunately" and he pointed out that risky actions can have unintended consequences.
The West Finland Coast Guard District has completed a preliminary investigation into what is likely to be the biggest case of human smuggling by an organized crime group ever in Finland. So far, three suspects believed to have been involved organizing illegal entry for over 150 people, are being held by police.
State-owned forestry enterprise Metsähallitus says that the 79 pups are evidence that the protection and conservation efforts on behalf of the rare Saimaa seal are working.
Iltalehti newspaper reports that the former trade union boss will not be representing his party in the 2018 presidential elections, telling the paper that the SDP has many good candidates for nomination.
The credit ratings of Finnish companies have taken a turn for the better after many lean years. In 2015 the number of successful businesses rose and the fewer struggling firms were reported in the listings of the largest ratings agencies.
The finance minister responded on Thursday to a warning from the European Commission about the state of the country's finances and worsening poverty and joblessness. Stubb defended the government's handling of the economy, pointing to progress in wide-ranging reforms, and positive signs in recent budget deficit figures.
This week's final paper review features headlines on low-flying fighters, Finns Party chair Soini's presidential election decision, new Pirkanmaa procedures on full-time day care and a glance at how freed-up opening hours have hurt and boosted different retail chains.
The present Finnish government has envisaged what it terms a "digital leap" in public education and has pledged more money to make sure that teachers have the competence to meet the challenge of expanding communication technologies in schools.
The Finnish Immigration Service launched a new reception centre monitoring programme this week aimed at improving the planning and quality of reception centre operations, as well as putting all reception centres on an equal footing.
Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) Thursday filed for an operating license for the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit, hoping to start electricity production in 2018, nearly a decade behind the original schedule. Meanwhile, protesters Thursday briefly stopped work at the Fennovoima nuclear plant construction site at Pyhäjoki.
The latest Finance Ministry survey says that the Finnish economy is expected to grow this year by 0.9%. The growth projection for both 2017 and 2018 is 1.2%.
The leader of the Finns Party said on Thursday he will not be standing in 2018, and criticised new arrangements to give extra taxpayers' money to parties campaigning in the regional elections that will be held alongside the presidential vote.
Over 40 percent of people in a new survey have said they are against any more people who have been granted residence permits being housed in their local area, compared to 31 percent who are in favour.
The number of births in Finland hit a 150-year low in 2015, according to new data from Statistics Finland. The last time this few children were born was in 1868, at the height of the so-called ‘Hunger years’ when famine struck the country.
Thursday’s press includes stories on possible misuse of a government scheme to reward people scrapping old cars, investigations into asylum seekers’ ages, and the fallout from the bankruptcy of a professional hockey team in Espoo.
The first elections to new regional bodies set up to manage a reform to health and social care in Finland will be held in January 2018, at the same time as the next presidential election.
A law firm representing customers of Nokian Tyres has requested a police investigation into whether the company had committed fraud. It emerged in February that the firm had systematically manipulated test results in the trade media by sending modified tyres to be tested.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö has defended a bilateral agreement with Russia that restricts the use of two northern border crossings to citizens of Russia, Belarus and Finland. Niinistö said that Finland had wanted an agreement on the border crossings, and although the current deal isn’t perfect no EU country had yet complained about it.
After a blunder at a Helsinki University hospital lab in which a blood technician used needles that were meant to be discarded to take the blood samples of 19 patients, a hospital official insists that incidents of harm caused to patients by staff are exceptionally rare. The hospital says its labs safely carried out some 14 million blood tests last year.
Finland's postal company Posti has announced it has launched a pilot programme in Helsinki and Espoo, which is aimed to connect people who want to exchange items. But even though it's run by the post office, the scheme doesn't involve delivery.
Mother in Kajaani, central Finland, says her son woke up in the middle of the night to find his room full of smoke and his sheets charred after the battery of his Samsung S3 exploded. The three-year-old device was left charging overnight.
Finland’s trial of a basic income model is set to start in 2017 and will involve a payment of 550 euros to those selected to participate, according to a working group which on Wednesday published its report on how the trial should work.
Finance Minister Alexander Stubb predicts the revelations about tax havens "will give added impetus to the international cooperation against tax evasion".
A 230-year-old church in the Northern Ostrobothnian city of Ylivieska burned to the ground late Saturday night. A local man has been apprehended by police and has confessed to arson. Despite the destruction, a church service was held as planned amid the smoking ruins at midnight.
The Helsinki District Court has found a 23 year-old man guilty of illegally operating as a taxi driver in Helsinki. The man, who worked for three and a half months as a driver with the ride-sharing service Uber, received a 25-day fine amounting to 150 euros and was also ordered to surrender his ill-gotten gains – estimated at 12,000 euros - to the state.
A photo of a northern hawk owl taken in Kokkola, Finland by amateur photographer Jani Ylikangas has attracted considerable attention since it was taken two years ago. In that short time, ‘torpedo owl’ has been featured by several media companies, has become the source of scores of internet memes, and even has his own social media site and a mobile game in his name.
