Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (Centre) spoke in the Parliament House on Thursday, 24 September. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

MINISTER OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS Mika Lintilä (Centre) reveals he is ready to re-adopt the business cost support scheme and revise its criteria to ensure the support is targeted better to tourism industry operators in Finland, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Lintilä expressed his readiness to re-start the scheme at a business seminar organised on Thursday by Helsingin Sanomat and Aalto Executive Education.

Members of the Nordic Resistance Movement participated in a protest in Helsinki on 6 December 2017. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)

THE SUPREME COURT of Finland (KKO) on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi organisation with members in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The ruling is historic, according to Helsingin Sanomat: not a single organisation has been ordered to cease and desist in Finland since the 1970s.

Annika Saarikko, the chairperson of the Centre Party, outlined the platform of the centre-right party in Helsinki on 18 September 2020. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

MINISTER of Science and Culture Annika Saarikko on Friday raised eyebrows with her first keynote speech as the chairperson of the Centre Party.

MTV on Friday highlighted that Saarikko delivered a version of the speech that did not refer to the newly approved objectives of the centre-right party to bring an additional 150,000 people to the ranks of the employed and raise the employment rate to 77 per cent by 2026.

Viking Amorella was photographed arriving at the Port of Långnäs in Åland on Wednesday, 23 September 2020. The ferry was towed to a repair yard in Naantali on Thursday. (Niclas Nordlund – Lehtikuva)

VIKING AMORELLA, the passenger ferry that was evacuated after running aground south of Långnäs in Åland on Sunday, has been towed to Turku Repair Yard in Naantali, Southwest Finland, reports YLE.

Before the roughly 200-kilometre, one-day towing operation, the passenger ferry unloaded its cargo at the Port of Långnäs.

Medical professionals at a drive-in coronavirus testing site in Vantaa on 12 May 2020. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

THE NUMBER of laboratory-confirmed coronavirus infections jumped by 149, from 9,046 to 9,195, in Finland between Monday and Tuesday, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

THL on Tuesday pointed out that that 135 of the infections are new, meaning they were detected in the past two weeks.

A patron wearing a face mask at the counter of a pub in Helsinki on 19 August 2020. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)

RESTRICTIONS to the late-night sales of alcohol could be warranted also in Finland, estimates Lasse Lehtonen, the director of diagnostic services at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS).

Lehtonen on Saturday told Iltalehti and YLE that a fairly large proportion of new coronavirus infections in the country have been linked to nightlife, restaurants and parties.

Jaska Siikavirta and Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and Taneli Puumalainen of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) briefed the media on the coronavirus situation in Finland on Thursday, 24 September 2020. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

THE FINNISH INSTITUTE for Health and Welfare (THL) on Thursday announced it has supplemented its recommendation for the use of face masks to include public indoor spaces and events where avoiding close contact with others is impossible for the eventuality that the coronavirus epidemic moves to the acceleration phase in Finland.

Using face masks would thus be recommended in upper secondary and higher education institutions, as well as indoor spaces such as shops, cinemas and shopping centres.

Terrafame produces metals such as nickel, cobalt and zinc at its mine and production plant in Sotkamo, Finland. (Kimmo Rauatmaa – Lehtikuva)

TRAFIGURA, a Singapore-domiciled minority shareholder in Finnish state-owned metals producer Terrafame, is suspected of channelling hundreds of millions of euros to tax havens in transactions that have raised red flags about money laundering.

YLE on Monday reported that major multinational banks have filed reports on tens of billions of euros' worth of transactions by Trafigura to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Department of Treasury.

Viking Line’s MS Amorella ran aground south of Långnäs on Åland Islands on Sunday. (Handout – Finnish Border Guard)

PASSENGERS AND CREW aboard MS Amorella, a passenger ferry operating between Turku and Stockholm, were evacuated after the ferry touched the seabed south of Långnäs on Åland Islands at about 12.35pm on Sunday.

The ferry was carrying around 200 passengers and 80 crew, according to Viking Line.

Pedestrians in the rain on Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki on 29 July 2020. (Olivia Ranta – Lehtikuva)

MAYOR OF HELSINKI Jan Vapaavuori (NCP) on Wednesday delivered a stern message to young people about the importance of following the instructions adopted to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

“I’m urging you to follow all the instructions, for real,” he stated in a news conference broadcast on the website of the City of Helsinki.

Viking Amorella was grounded outside the island of Järsö in Åland on Monday, 21 September 2020. The seabed at the site is soft and muddy, meaning the ferry should sustain no additional damage when towed to port. (Niclas Norlund – Lehtikuva)

PASSENGERS EVACUATED from Viking Amorella on Sunday may have to wait for their luggage for several days, reports YLE Åboland.

The passenger ferry remains grounded outside the island of Järsö in Åland Islands, Finland, after running aground south of Långnäs at 12.35pm on Sunday. All of the roughly 200 passengers on board and part of the crew were evacuated from the ferry during the course of Sunday.

The cities of Helsinki and Tallinn are hosting the third World Summit on Digital Built Environment, WDBE, for experts in the field of urban development. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the WDBE is partnering with Epic Games and Zoan to bring the guests an immersive virtual event experience like nothing before.

The WDBE brings participants from over 50 countries together September 29–30, 2020 around the unlimited possibilities of digitalisation as an enabler of a more socially, culturally, ecologically and economically sustainable urban future.

Passengers hauling luggage across a boarding bridge to board a ferry bound for Tallinn, Estonia, in Helsinki on 6 July 2020. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

LEISURE TRAVELLERS from Estonia and Sweden will soon be greeted with instructions to quarantine upon their arrival in Finland, YLE and Helsingin Sanomat revealed on Tuesday.

Both Estonia and Sweden have reported over 25 coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks, warranting their inclusion on a list of countries that are subject to internal border controls maintained by the Ministry of the Interior.

Scania on Monday confirmed it will close the bus and coach body manufacturing plant of its subsidiary SOE Busproduction Finland in Lahti. (Samuli Ikäheimo – Lehtikuva)

SWEDISH COMMERCIAL VEHICLE MAKER Scania on Monday confirmed it will discontinue the production of bus and coach bodies in Lahti, Finland, Pekka Timonen, the Mayor of Lahti, stated to STT.

The 342-employee production plant is operated by SOE Busproduction Finland, a subsidiary of Scania.

Vandalism on the rise in Sweden/TT NEWS AGENCY,Lehtikuva

While the average person is buying eggs for their household needs, a youth gang in Sweden is now using them to create chaos.

Youths have been witnessed throwing eggs at buildings, store fronts, houses, parked cars, moving cars and even directly at families who are enjoying their day at the park.  Police were able to locate the stores which the youth gang was buying eggs from, and made the store owners aware of the current situation.