Among the items in Thursday's newspaper press was evidence of growing voter support for the political opposition, the start of a postal strike, and the likelihood of a blanket of snow.
The postal strike set to begin at 4pm on Thursday is likely to have wide-ranging effects on deliveries of letters, parcels and newspapers—particularly in the Turku and Helsinki regions.
Finland’s security police will not raise the country’s threat level despite neighbouring Sweden’s decision to do so. Sweden’s security police raised the threat level to four on a five-point scale, saying they did so because of ‘concrete information’ about a threat.
A postal strike starts at 4pm on Thursday after efforts to find a resolution came to nothing. National labour conciliator Minna Helle will reconvene negotiations at 10am on Monday.
Police are seeking three men in connection with an assault on an Iraqi man at a reception centre in Kangasala, near Tampere. The three used a knife in the attack as well as punching the victim in the face.
Finnish retail conglomerate Kesko announced it is set to acquire loss-making grocery store chain company Suomen Lähikauppa for 60 million euros. Suomen Lähikauppa's chains include Valintatalo and Siwa supermarkets.
The Finns Party has been roiled by a backlash against its policies in government. Leading the rebellion has been Sebastian Tynkkynen, the leader of the party’s youth wing who was expelled by the party’s board in late October. Here’s our profile of the man causing party leader Timo Soini plenty of headaches.
Finland's national postal company Posti, which is embroiled in a labour dispute with its workforce, has announced it would not hire temporary workers during a planned strike that may begin on Thursday.
The premier's address to MPs about the controversial restructuring of the social and healthcare system will be preceded by an opposition challenge on public transport cutbacks.
The Finnish midweek newspapers are still focused on the aftermath of the Paris terror acts and the threat of new violent incidents in Europe. There is also room on the front pages for local crime stories from Kuusamo and Seinäjoki along with sports, celebrity news – and a project to build a record-large holiday decoration with help from asylum seekers and day care toddlers alike.
Finnish companies continue to take advantage of legal tax planning to shelter their profits from taxation. According to Yle’s Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs programme, state-owned firms are among those that have been dragging their feet on reporting income from their foreign subsidiaries.
Opposition parties joined forces Tuesday for a combined attack on government plans to cull rail services in some parts of the country. Transport and Communications Minister Anne Berner failed to win over parliamentary critics with assurances that some rail routes could be replaced with bus services.
Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö said that new legislation allowing Finland to engage in military operations in another country will be tabled in Parliament next year. The minister said that the bill was originally due to come before MPs during the spring, but the timetable has been accelerated to the beginning of the year.
Häme police have received a complaint over a notice put up by a gym in Heinola which said it would not accept immigrants as members. Police will now have to determine whether or not an offence has been committed.
Helsinki’s Kutsuplus service, which mixes elements of taxi and public transport services, is to shut down at the end of this year. The service was too expensive for the regional transport authority—but may return if a private sector partner can be found.
France has asked EU countries for military help in the fight against terrorism, but according to the chair of a parliamentary defence committee Finland won’t be able to assist militarily.
Finnish newspapers on Tuesday continued coverage about the international investigation of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Domestic news featured stories about the border patrol situation after the attacks, a man faces war crimes charges in Pirkanmaa District Court and private insurance company If plans to terminate thousands of health insurance policies.
Fewer than ever young couples in Finland dream of having large families. In fact more are veering in the opposite direction and aspire to a life without children. A new family barometer by the Federation of Finnish Families shows that money might be at the root of the problem.
Interior Minister Petteri Orpo has called for a speedy reform of intelligence regulations, saying that amendments to existing legislation could take years to implement. Orpo said that it is possible to conduct online intelligence gathering without violating fundamental rights or individual privacy.
A Tampere region court has remanded a foreign national into police custody on suspicion of crimes committed during armed conflict in Iraq in 2014. Police have remained tight-lipped about the case and the suspected war crimes, but say there are no links to the terror attack in Paris last Friday.
Finland’s largest trade union confederation SAK says it will break off labour market reform talks if postal company Posti uses outsourced workers during strike action due to begin Thursday. SAK is currently involved in negotiations to identify alternative measures to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s pay-slashing work contract reforms.
Finland’s security and intelligence police Supo have turned down suggestions to adopt a new method for classifying security threat levels. Many other countries use colours or numbers to rank their state of preparedness to deal with possible threats, but Supo says it’s sticking to verbal descriptions.
The National Bureau of Investigation has responded to three requests for information, such as fingerprint checks, in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, Police in Finland said on Monday.
Finnish government has decided to shelve plans that would have cut housing assistance for senior citizens. Social Affairs and Health Minister Hanna Mäntylä says the proposed cuts would have caused hardship for thousands of pensioners.
Emerging details of the ongoing search for suspects and the identifying of those who lost their lives in Friday's terrorist killings across Paris fill the newspapers this morning.
The newspaper Savon Sanomat reports that Iraqi asylum seekers have pledged to inform police if they suspect terrorist activity among fellow asylum seekers.
In the wake of Friday's attacks in Paris, religious leaders and hundreds of people staged an interfaith, anti-violence demonstration in Helsinki on Sunday.
Finnish police report there were two incidents at asylum seeker reception centres which required police attention over the weekend.
Interior Minister Petteri Orpo says that following terrorist attacks in Paris over the weekend, the free movement guaranteed in the Schengen area agreement may come under pressure in the weeks ahead.
The Interior, Justice and Defence ministries are considering constitutional changes to facilitate more effective civilian and military intelligence operations. Web surveillance powers for the security and intelligence police Supo are among the reforms on the table. Meanwhile President Sauli Niinistö says it's time to raise the level of Finnish intelligence work to meet European standards.
A citizens' initiative calling for a national referendum on withdrawing from the euro single currency union has collected in excess of the 50,000 signatures required to take it to Parliament for consideration. The euro exit initiative was the brainchild of long-serving Finnish politician and current Centre Party Europarliamentarian Paavo Väyrynen.
The Saturday protest against plans to build a grand mosque for the Muslim community was planned before the Paris terrorist attacks that occurred late Friday night. A counter-demonstration also took shape alongside the protest, but police were on hand to separate the two groups and ensure that the demonstration proceeded peacefully.
Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipilä says he is prepared to return border controls within the EU if border surveillance at Europe’s external borders cannot be made effective. Border controls throughout the European Union have been stepped up after the Paris attacks, he argues. President Sauli Niinistö confirmed that Finland will increase its surveillance operations in response to the tragic news.
Leaders of Finland’s Muslim groups have been shaken by the terrorist attacks in Paris. Committing acts of terrorism in the name of religion is totally unacceptable, says the Chair of the Finnish Islamic Society Anas Hajjar. Abbas Bahmanpour, Imam of the Eastern Helsinki Resalat community, says the sad events should not be allowed to polarise society, as that is their perpetrators' intent.
More detailed checks over possible links to war crimes or terrorism to be introduced in wake of Paris attacks, says Finland’s Immigration Service.
A football match between France and Germany continued despite two clearly audible explosions outside the stadium, but realisation of the attacks across Paris gradually set in, according to two Finnish holidaymakers watching the game.
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Patrols and surveillance in Finland will be increased, says police chief, in response to series of shootings and suicide bombings across the French capital which left at least 120 dead on Friday. Meanwhile prominent figures in Finland came forward to express shock and condemnation of the killings.
Finnish textiles company Finlayson says it’s disappointed over the rather limp response to its racy Tom of Finland products in Western European and North American markets. Launched one year ago, the company hoped it's series of bed and bath products would replicate the success of Posti’s homoerotic special issue stamps.
Finnish power systems manufacturer Wärtsilä said Friday that it had settled on eliminating 110 jobs following conclusion of talks relating to payroll cuts.
Officials in Eurajoki in southwest Finland have decided to use refurbished shipping containers to accommodate some 150 asylum seekers due to arrive in the city this weekend. However Finns Party councilors say that the city’s environmental committee was deceived into granting a permit to use the containers for housing refugees.
Finnish economic growth remains at the back of the class compared to its EU and eurozone peers, according to the regional statistics agency Eurostat. The agency’s latest figures show that at -0.7 percent, Finnish economic output in the third quarter lagged behind that of crisis economies such as Greece and Portugal.
Helsinki Regional Transport will add several late-night Metro runs to the weekend timetable starting this Friday, as Finland prepares for the pre-Christmas parties that mark the run-up to the holiday season.
The new pension law is in line with last year's pact between labour market groups, who agreed that the age should be incrementally raised from 63 to 65.
The labour dispute at the Finnish postal carrier service Posti has intensified, despite the efforts of an appointed state conciliator. The problem began when contract workers were required to train their lease contract replacements as part of their job requirement.
As the finance minister faces an angry protest over cuts at Helsinki University, LUT joins the list of universities to reduce staff.
The Finnish government has granted Posiva a permit to build a permanent disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel on the west coast. Posiva, which is owned by the utilities TVO and Fortum, has already been working since 2004 on the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository. It is located next to the Olkiluoto power complex in Eurajoki.
Finland's papers on Friday cover the start of temporary border checks in southern Sweden, a 17-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker's dream that his family will join him in Finland, a former prime minister's visit to Slush, and a Statistics Finland report that says people spend less time face-to-face.
Finland’s equalities ombudsman has said the announcement by Valolinna in Heinola that “The gym will remain Finnish” appears to breach discrimination rules. Police said no official complaint has been filed.
Italian police say that three people connected to Finland belonged to the group and had also served in the ranks of ISIS, while a fourth faces a 15-year ban on entering Finland.
Some 15,000 people filled the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre on Wednesday and Thursday. This year the event - which has grown from a meeting of a few hundred entrepreneurs seven years ago - attracted more startups and investors than ever before.
Following reports that Finnair's COO spoke openly of a "consolidation", Finland's main business daily reported that negotiations with British Airways are "advanced". The Finnish flag carrier's stock price soared on the news before falling back.
The National Bureau of Investigation has dismissed reports of one person being detained in Finland during Thursday's pan-European anti-terrorist raids.
The war of words between the Finns Party and maverick deputy chair Sebastian Tynkkynen is becoming more heated. Tynkkynen, one of the Finns Party’s three deputy leaders, is threatening to take the party to court over its decision to expel him.
The Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a man who objected to serving in the army on the grounds of being a Jehovah’s Witness, leaving him eligible to claim damages against the state.
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Following Sweden's decision to start temporary border checks in an effort to curb the wave of refugees, the number of asylum seekers coming to Finland may drop dramatically, says Interior Minister Petteri Orpo.
The Finnish Social Insurance Institution is to begin drawing up plans for a citizens' basic income model. The preparation's director Olli Kangas says that full-fledged basic income would net Finns some 800 euros a month.
A mysterious disappearance in early September that had search parties combing the Nuuksio National Park for weeks came to a sad end on Wednesday, as the body of 27-year-old Nela Utkina, originally from the Czech Republic, was found in the park. Helsinki Police do not suspect foul play and the investigation will continue as a normal coroner's examination.
Yle and the Finnish Centre for Easy to Read, or Selkokeskus, launch a campaign on Wednesday to encourage Finns to speak Finnish with foreigners. The campaign will promote plain language, or ’Selkokieli’, as a tool to help foreigners learning Finnish.
Graphic designer Karoliina Korhonen's new English-language comic strip Finnish Nightmares gained more than 70,000 fans around the world in a very short time. Her comic highlights Finnish etiquette and plays on perceived Finnish awkwardness.
Finnish citizen Janus Putkonen says he’s in Ukraine to help the separatists get their message out to the world. He now plays a leading role in the Donetsk Republic’s media operation, after moving to eastern Ukraine in July of this year.
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