Tanja Karpela, a Finnish Centre party MP and a former culture minister, announced Tuesday she would not stand for re-election in next year's general election.

Ms Karpela said she had decided after lengthy consideration to pursue new challenges.

Ms Karpela, winner of the 1991 Miss Finland contest, is a third-term MP. She served as culture minister between 2003 and 2007.

Päivi Räsänen, the leader of Finland's opposition Christian Democrats, said Monday that Matti Vanhanen (centre), the prime minister, should cut short his visits to Tanzania and South Africa over the Finnish dockers' strike.

Ms Räsänen said the timing of the visits was inappropriate.

"Is not the prolonging of the port strike the kind of emergency that requires the prime minister's active involvement back home?"

The prime minister is scheduled to return to Finland on Thursday.

STT

Mikko Puumalainen, Finland's deputy justice chancellor, on Monday issued a strongly worded statement faulting the finance ministry for dragging its feet in drafting new legislation on the taxation of used cars imported from other parts of the European Union.

Mr Puumalainen said the ministry had done nothing to make car taxation compatible with EU membership until the European Court of Justice's ruling last year.

Finland joined the union in 1995.

The EU court ruled a year ago that Finland's practice of levying VAT on used cars imported from other member states violated the union's single market rules.

The deputy justice chancellor added that the finance ministry's lack of action had led to unreasonable work and case loads at Customs and at administrative courts.

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Finnish regional daily Aamulehti on Monday quoted the transport ministry as saying it was drafting a bill to authorise garages to provide roadworthiness inspection services in an effort to lower prices.

Under current legislation the same facility is not allowed to both service and inspect road vehicles.

Anneli Tanttu, the head of the ministry's transport safety unit, told the paper that the rate of increase in inspection fees had outpaced inflation.

Fees have risen many-fold since the government privatised roadworthiness inspections in the mid-1990s.

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Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, said Saturday she would consider issuing a political statement declaring post-second world war trials of Finland's wartime leaders as breaches of the rule of law.

The 1945-6 trials, which most Finns prefer to call "war responsibility trials" instead of the less palatable heading used by the allies, saw Risto Ryti, president in 1940-4, six wartime cabinet members and an ambassador jailed for waging war against the Soviet Union in 1941-4, a conflict known as the continuation war in Finland.

Two Finnish Centre party MPs said Friday they backed direct government funding of the country's public broadcaster.
Tuomo Puumala, a deputy leader of the Centre party, said in a statement that a lump-sum tax had been the wrong way to go in the first place.

"In that case Nalle Wahlroos as well as somebody living on a basic pension would have paid the same amount," Mr Puumala said, citing the managing director of Sampo Bank.

Two Finnish lawyers said in a report Friday that the country's head of state or prime minister could issue a statement labelling postwar trials of Finnish leaders as a breach of the rule of law.

The 1946 trials, which most Finns prefer to call "war responsibility trials" instead of the less palatable heading used by the allies, saw Risto Ryti, president in 1940-4, six wartime cabinet members and an ambassador jailed for waging war against the Soviet Union in 1941-4, a conflict known as the Continuation war in Finland.

Matti Vanhanen (centre), Finland's prime minister, said Thursday that leaders of the ruling parties had settled a row over the decision-making process pertaining to crisis mangement troop deployment.

Mr Vanhanen said the secretariat of the constitutional committee had found a solution that satisfied all ruling party leaders.

But he refused to disclose any details about the agreement.

Suvi Lindén (cons), the Finnish transport minister, announced Thursday she would not carry forward the government's plan to replace the licence fee with a tax, citing a lack of backing in Parliament.

The minister said the matter would be postponed to the next legislative period, meaning after next year's general election.

The government had planned to fund the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) with a lump-sum tax it prefers to call the media fee.

The Finnish government said in a statement Thursday it had decided to change the name of the education ministry to "the ministry of education and culture".

Pending Parliament's approval of the change, the new name will enter into force in May.

"Finnish ministries have been named in a way that best describes the key mandate of each ministry," the statement added.

"Cultural policy is a broad social policy area coordinated by the ministry of education. It covers areas such as cultural heritage, cultural exportation, multiculturalism and international cooperation."

STT