In an interview with the Finnish News Agency (STT) on Monday Seppo Kääriäinen, first deputy speaker of the Parliament, said that he expects a stormy campaign for the general elections in April.

Although Kääriäinen is not convinced that the voting percentage will fall, he commented that if this does happen the changes could proportionally be significant.

The deputy speaker expressed a hope that the candidates would avoid spending large sums of money on buying publicity. Instead he hoped that candidates would try to connect directly with the voters.

Mari Kiviniemi, Finland's prime minister and Centre Party leader, and Jyrki Katainen, finance minister and National Coalition leader, are the clear favourites for Finland's next prime minister, Finnish tabloid Iltalehti reported on Monday.

The survey by Iltalehti asked respondents which candidate would make the best prime minister for the next government.

Some 28 per cent of respondents answered that Katainen would make the best prime minister, while 21 per cent of respondents supported Kiviniemi.

AFTER decades of often uncomfortable and time consuming travel via crowded buses and trains, travellers across Asia and Australasia have welcomed the current boon in low cost airlines that have soared to record profits in recent times. Utilising the internet as its prime booking tool this new spate of budget travel opportunities means that these regions are now more accessible than ever before.

Similarly to Europe, passengers have the option to pay extra for food, drinks, entertainment and organising their seating preference, along with a tiered fee based around the weight of their luggage.

LET'S be honest. Finland has to increase its retirement age. There are some other options, such as drastically increasing taxes or slashing benefits to pensioners, but these are neither politically nor economically viable. That leaves us with having people work longer.

TO her credit, the head of the Social Democratic Party Jutta Urpilainen is talking honestly about the matter. She admitted last week that the SDP will not be part of a government that increases the retirement age. Polls suggest her party won't be in the next government, so it was refreshing to see a frank admission of the political reality her party faces.

Kaleva Koru and Lapponia’s CEO Laura Lares is at the helm of an organisation with an eye on the future as well as the past.

AS THE CEO of both Kalevala Koru and Lapponia, Laura Lares has overseen the operations of two of the oldest and most respected Finnish brands for more than three-and-a-half years. In light of the recent global financial crisis, she spoke to Helsinki Times about the current challenges of running a respected company owned by a non-profit organisation, while maintaining an important link with the companies' rich histories.

HT: Tell us about the history of both Kalevala and Lapponia Jewellery. How did they start and when did the two companies merge?

Nokia and Intel founded an innovation centre in Oulu to develop 3D technology.

In the 1970s, computers were operated through command prompts. In the eighties, the desktop model was introduced, borrowing office staples like the recycle bin. In the future, the view in mobile devices may be quite different.

Nokia and the world's largest microprocessor manufacturer, Intel, opened their first Joint Innovation Center in the University of Oulu on Tuesday 24 August. Its primary goal is to develop new modes of use for mobile devices.

Flushed with ratings success, the True Finns have listed their priorities for a future government.

TIMO SOINI, the chair of the right-wing True Finns, was not shy when listing his party's aims for the outcome of next spring's parliamentary elections. Commenting on 30 August, Soini confirmed that the True Finns wanted a place in government. And while they have a bunch of key priorities, they will not rule out an offer on the basis of a single issue.

Gathered in Porvoo's market square, Soini and his fellow True Finns MPs were evidently basking in the political sunshine: according to a Gallup poll released on 27 August by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE), the True Finns have slightly strengthened their position as the fourth most popular party.

According to Minister of Migration and European Affairs, Astrid Thors, Finland has toughened its family reunification regulations. The changes came into force in the beginning of August. "Foster children are to have been in an actual relationship of dependency to the family reunifier before his or her coming to Finland. This is to ensure that these foster children are in fact in the position of a family member," the minister says.

The conditions for granting a residence permit to an underage person on the basis of a family relationship were also changed in the same legal reform. Now the granting is normally only possible when the child is underage at the time when the decision on the permit application is reached.

A series of high-profile cases of wrongdoing have not dented the reputation of the police.

SUSPECTED cases of malfeasance in recent years do not appear to have undermined Finns' faith in the police.

According to the latest "police barometer", Finns faith in the police force has strengthened slightly over the last three years. Ninety-six per cent of respondents felt that the Finnish police are either very trustworthy, or fairly trustworthy.

Police officers have recently been found in the dock as a result of operations by the Helsinki drug crime squad, undercover purchases by the National Bureau of Investigation...

As the number of suspected cases of narcolepsy nears 20, health officials fear a breakdown in the reporting procedures on suspected side effects.

THE MINISTRY of Social Affairs and Health does not believe that a possible link between the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix and narcolepsy has been subject to a widespread cover-up. According to now-public information, researchers were already aware of a possible link months ago, but withheld their suspicions while finalising a report on the matter.

Commenting on 26 August, Aino-Inkeri Hansson, Director-General of the Ministry's Department for Promotion of Welfare and Health, said: