Matti Vanhanen, Finnish Centre party leader and the country's prime minister, and Timo Kalli, the Centre party's parliamentary group leader, have sent a statement to the justice minister saying that the president should continue to have the power to veto crisis management troop deployments, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported Wednesday.

A cross-party committee led by Christoffer Taxell had proposed amending the constitution to read that Parliament and the government could decide to deploy troops with no say for the head of state.

Talks between the Finnish Transport Workers' Union (AKT) and the Port Operators' Association ended without a deal late on Tuesday, with the two sides agreeing to resume talks at the government labour market conciliator's office the following day.

The AKT started an open-ended nationwide stevedore strike Thursday last week, shutting down most of the country's foreign trade.

Esa Lonka, the conciliator, opted not to submit a settlement proposal after Tuesday's talks.

Finland's Green League, part of the country's centre-right -led ruling coalition, said Tuesday that Finland should consider investment into energy efficiency and renewable sources as an alternative to new nuclear power stations.

The party added that "a nought option" should be on the table alongside the main ruling parties' plans to grant approval to between one and three new nuclear power stations.

The Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela) said Wednesday that the number of housing support claimants had jumped by more than 15 per cent to about 450,000 last year, a figure not seen since 1994 when Kela began processing housing support applications.

Kela added that housing support claimant numbers had risen because of rising unemployment.

STT

The Finnish government said in a statement Tuesday it would close eight emergency response centres, with the remaining seven based in Kerava, Kouvola, Kuopio, Oulu, Pori, Turku and Vaasa.

Anne Holmlund (cons), the interior minister, took the decision on which emergency response centres would be axed.
The eight centres are to be closed by 2015.

The government decided to reduce the number of emergency response centres in 2007.

A Finnair long-haul jet was forced to return to Helsinki-Vantaa early on Tuesday over a technical fault.

Finnair said the fault in the aircraft's avionics system was not critical and added that the aircraft had returned to the hub because repairing the fault would have been difficult in Bangkok.

The 172 passengers were transferred on to another flight to Bangkok that was scheduled to take off at 2pm.

STT

Finland's struggling flag carrier Finnair said Tuesday that its overall traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, had fallen in February by 9.3 per cent year-on-year, with scheduled traffic picking up by just over two per cent.

"The faint glimmer of a recovery is no more than that," Christer Haglund, a Finnair spokesman, said in a statement.

"Ticket prices are still low, so emerging growth has brought no significant financial boost yet."

Finnair's passenger load factor stood at 80.2 per cent in February, up by about four points from the year-ago period.

STT

Suvi Lindén (cons), the Finnish communications minister, was quoted as saying by regional daily Kaleva on Tuesday that the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) fee, a lump-sum tax that will replace the licence fee, should be set at between 190 and 195 euros a household a year.

"This is a reasonable level and will safeguard the Broadcasting Company's current operations," Ms Lindén was quoted as saying.

The YLE fee is to enter into force in 2012 and is to be paid by all households and businesses regardless of television or radio ownership.

A social affairs and health ministry working group is currently mulling reduced rates for low earners. According to Kaleva the working group is set to hand its proposal in a fortnight's time.

Ms Lindén repeated that YLE's management and the public broadcaster's oversight must be separated.

STT

Finnish drug maker Orion was the first company affected by a series of stoppages by managerial staff in the country's chemical industry that began on Tuesday.

Over the next couple of weeks about 7,500 managerial staff working in the country's top 20 chemical companies are to take part in the strikes.

Pay and conditions talks between the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN) and the Chemical Industry Federation broke down late on Monday.

STT

The Finnish Supreme Administrative Court on Monday dismissed Eveline Fadayel's appeal against the Immigration Service's decision to refuse her residence permit application.

The ruling means the police will send the ailing woman back to her native Egypt.

With no family in Egypt, Ms Fadayel, 65, has lived with her sons in Vantaa in southern Finland for almost three years.

STT