The development of the original, ancient Sami huts project in the Laplandiya part of Russia was called “In the land of Standing Stones”. Even though the majority of Lapland is primarily Finnish territory, there are northern parts of Russia that encompass it too. The excursions in the Russian Lapland feature interesting facts about the unique pattern of the birches and different shapes of Christmas trees.

The Finnish military was the target of international criticism this week for using a training manual that described homosexuality as an “obstacle” to service and categorised it as a mental disorder. 

A report by the Finnish Parliamentary Ombudsman attributes the controversial material to the Centre for Military Medicine, which is responsible for the health of conscripts and the Finnish Defence Forces personnel. The Defence Command maintained that the military does not consider homosexuality to be a mental illness.