Free Republic

As a country, Finland is armed to the teeth. There are more than 1,6 million legal weapons in the weapons register, spread out among nearly 650,000 owners. On a per capita basis we have the fourth largest number of small arms in the world, right after the United States, Yemen, and Switzerland. According to a Swiss estimate, Finland has an estimated 2,375,000 legal and illegal firearms - that is, one gun for nearly every second Finn. The good news is that the law requires a permit to own even a slightly heavier weapon, and most licenced gun owners are upstanding...

Police investigating the Finnish college massacre are looking into possible direct links with the country's last mass shooting Detectives believe gunman Matti Saari, who killed ten people at a college in the town of Kauhajoki, may have had contact with the killer of eight people at a school in Jokela last November. They are examining email and telephone records and suggestions the guns for both massacres could have come from the same shop. Tuesday's shooting was an almost carbon copy of that in November. Pekka Eric Auvinen, 18, also posted warnings on YouTube. Both gunmen shot themselves and died later...

Finland's prime minister has called for gun laws to be tightened after a school shooting that left 11 people dead. Matti Vanhanen said he believed handguns should no longer be used outside shooting ranges. Matti Juhani Saari shot fellow students at a college in western Finland before turning his gun on himself. It emerged that he had been questioned by police after posting on the internet a video clip of himself at a shooting range, but had not been detained. Valid licences Mr Vanhanen told Finnish television: "We have to tighten the law significantly. "In terms of handguns that can...

Matti Juhani Saari, a trainee chef, arrived at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality at 11am local time with a pistol, ammunition and explosives in a large black bag, then pulled on a balaclava and began his killing spree in a classroom where 20 people were sitting an exam. "He was very well prepared," said Jukka Forsberg, the caretaker. "He walked calmly. He didn't say anything. He was cold-blooded." Describing how he first realised what was going on, Mr Forsberg said: "I heard the sound of shooting and hysterical girls' voices. Then two girls came towards my room and said a...

Many people may be dead following a shooting at a high school in Finland, police have said. The individual with the gun is still inside the vocational college in Kauhajoki, 120 miles from Helsinki, and students are being evacuated.

The US debt rescue plan has sought inspiration from the work to tackle the Swedish banking crisis at the beginning of the 1990s. "I have been in the USA several times this year to explain what we did," said Bo Lundgren at the Swedish National Debt Office. "There can be significant similarities," Lundgren added. Lundgren was finance minister in the 1991 right-wing government and, together with current and former Riksbank heads Stefan Ingves and Urban Bäckström, was the architect behind the bank support committee (Bankstödsnämnden or Bankakuten) which did much to alleviate the crisis that raged in the Swedish banking...

My Scandinavian brothers and sisters in Norway and Denmark were raped by Nazi Germany during WWII. Finland was viciously attacked by the troops of Stalin, an army mostly consisting of young Russian farmer sons who never where told why they had to go to Nordic territory and have their throats slit in the cold winter night by a "puukko knife". These small countries, small even from my nation's perspective (I'm Swedish), fought back like hell and in the end they triumphed. Look at the performance of these countries of today. I'm not asking anyone to whine over the hardship the...

This is the time for Bush and other NATO leaders to give high priority and visibility to discussions with Finland, which is considering joining NATO. If Finland joins, Sweden might follow, Swedish officials say. Alliance members also should move now to bolster the defenses of the three Baltic NATO members -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- as Kurt Volker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, has recently suggested. The holding of no-notice joint maneuvers with the Baltic states would be one way to catch Russia's attention.

The brave little nation of Finland declared itself independent from Russia in September 1917. This act was "approved" by the newly formed nation of Bolshevist Russia shortly after. Later on, Kreml changed its mind concerning this issue. Especially Stalin. Luckily enough, this initial acknowledgement by Russia/Soviet didn't result in any false sense of security among the Finns. They had no reason to. Finland was - at least formally speaking - under German hegemony until 1918 (when WWI ended) and was, furthermore, plagued by a civil war raging between patriots and Communists the very same year. This wasn't the first time...

Julia Galvin came to Finland looking for a man that would carry her 120 kg over a 253-metres track - the incentive being the chance to win the wife-carrying world title and beer worth her body weight. In the end the Irish woman was carried by an English man through a pool and across hurdles. She did not make the gold, but said she would keep trying until the title and the beer was hers. "I think I am worth carrying because I am a walking party," she said. Wife-carrying is one of a host of bizarre contests that Finns,...

This is fully in accord with Mark Steyn’s precise observation that “so-called hate speech laws” are “not about facts,” but rather, “they’re about feelings.” Yet facts are really all that should concern us; the rocks Mahmoud Alkhazeh threw at the driver he confronted did not hurt more because they were accompanied by stinging words. Hate speech laws are an assault on truth telling, at precisely the moment when so few dare to tell the truth, and it is for that reason all the more urgently needed.

- In Sweden that is. All the same, if various experts are right, the Nordic countries are not only the richest part of the world, but also global leaders in the domain of QUALITY of life. Therefore, living in this part of Stockholm is probably as good as life gets, or? The article: "The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus. Lund and nearby Lomma in southern Sweden follow closely behind. Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place. The...

HELSINKI: If you can bear dark snowy winters lasting anywhere between three and seven months and are prepared to stand out in a crowd of Finns – tall, blonde and speaking Suomi or Swedish – there is a chance Finland's 'silver economy' needs you. In an extraordinary attempt to lure immigrants to their rapidly-ageing country, Finnish universities have government approval to hawk their wares to Indian and Chinese students. On offer is a world-class education in one of Europe's most wired and well-developed economies and the chance of a good job afterwards. Finland's 'look east' policy is born out of...

THE best schools in the world, it is generally agreed, are in Finland. In the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, which compare 15-year-olds' reading, mathematics and science abilities in more than 50 countries, it routinely comes top. So politicians, academics, think-tankers and teachers from all over the world visit Finnish schools in the hope of discovering the magic ingredient. Journalists come too, and now it’s my turn. And since I'm coming this far north, I want to take in Sweden too. That social-democratic paradise has carried out school reforms that make free-market ideologues the world over weak...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

The technological and economical development of Scandinavia (including Finland) is today more groundbreking than anywhere else in the world. The investments being made in relation to population size is mind-boggling. Despite a mere population of 25 million inhabitants, the combined GDP of the Scandinavian countries today ridicules that of a Russia often viewed to be a "reborn" super power "on the go" (combined Scandinavian GDP is actually 125% that of of Russia - and the gap is widening!!) But, let's focus on telecommunications here; Five bidders have paid €226 million ($346 million) for fourth generation (4G), super-fast mobile telephony licences,...

Yes there is. Read on and you'll find out about it. Capitalist paradise exists here on Earth. However, it comes with a price tag called "competence". Most of the world lacks this "competence" and will have a hard time aquiring it, because it is a matter of spirit, a spirit that I'm convinced most parts of the world ever will fail to aquire. In my opinion, Scandinavia leads the world in true Capitalist endeavour (check out how many multinationals we possess in realation to population size). The explanation for this tradition of entrepreneurship is not Scandinavian "Socialism". Sooner, it is...

Rock art from 5,000 years agoThe Astuvansalmi rock paintings are located on a steep outcrop, resembling a human head, on the shore of lake Yövesi. The site may have been used for ceremonial purposes. Rock paintings created during the Stone Age can still be seen today in dozens of sites around Finland. These awe-inspiring artworks are like windows into the ancient past, revealing tantalising glimpses of long lost cultures. FINLAND’S rock paintings mainly consist of brownish-red figures and markings painted onto steep granite walls, often overlooking waterways. Scenes feature people, boats, elk, fish and mysterious partly human figures that may...

The US Federal Reserve is examining the Nordic bank nationalisations of the 1990s as a possible interim solution to the US financial crisis. The Fed has been criticised for its rescue of Bear Stearns, which critics say has degenerated into a taxpayer gift to rich bankers. A senior official at one of the Scandinavian central banks told The Daily Telegraph that Fed strategists had stepped up contacts to learn how Norway, Sweden and Finland managed their traumatic crisis from 1991 to 1993, which brought the region's economy to its knees. It is understood that Fed vice-chairman Don Kohn remains very...

Finland's prime minister, who accused his former lover of hurting his feelings by writing a steamy kiss-and-tell account of their relationship, lost a court case over the book last week but unexpectedly gained popularity. Matti Vanhanen, 52, prime minister since 2003, has been enjoying a wave of support since the disclosure that he likes to take a sauna before sex and enjoys his favourite meal of beef and baked potatoes afterwards. In her memoir The Prime Minister’s Bride, the spurned lover Susan Ruusunen, 36, wrote: “Once, when he kissed me, he said that I tasted better than oven-baked potato.” A...

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7. Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish...

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen. the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spares parts for humans a step closer to reality. "There have been a couple of similar-sounding procedures before, but these didn't use the patient's own stem cells that were first cultured and expanded in laboratory and differentiated into bone tissue,"... the patient was recovering more quickly than he would have if...

The Finnish Chancellor of Justice is currently investigating for possible irregularities and discriminatory treatment after the Swedish School of Social Science released documents relating to their decision to reject an internationally renowned SPACEPOL expert's candidacy for a limited track researcher position. According to SPACEPOL CEO Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, the released documents expose a process of candidate evaluation riddled with inconsistencies and lack of academic integrity. FALSE AND EMBELLISHED EXPERT STATEMENTS The focus of CEO Njalsson's particular concern is on so-called expert comments, requested by the Research Centre Board of the Swedish School of Social Science and submitted by nine...

Finland's prime minister Matti Vanhanen on Monday urged the United States to step up action in reducing global warming and expressed hopes that the next U.S. president would make the issue a priority. Vanhanen, who plans to meet senior U.S. officials including Vice President Dick Cheney Tuesday, praised the U.S. engagement in recent international negotiations to reach a new climate change agreement. But he implied that he would like to see more commitment from Washington to international cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. «All nations need to show determination and leadership in the efforts to tackle climate change. The United...

A city in Finland best known as the namesake to mobile phone giant Nokia is floundering in filthy drinking water after a municipal employee sent thousands of gallons of sewage into the water supply. Thousands have fallen ill -- and the water is still dirty. The 30,000 residents of the small Finnish city of Nokia have long lived according to what city leaders describe as a "principle" etched in stone. "We walk in Nokia boots, we use Nokia toilet paper and we talk using Nokia phones," the saying goes. Indeed, for close to 150 years the city's fortunes have been...

This site has been hacked for at least an hour now, apparently by an illiterate, anti-Christian, teenaged hacker from Finland. I traced down the domain owners and called their North Carolina phone #. They are in today, and know about the hacking, and are trying to fix it at the moment.

The origins of ice-skating have been traced by scientists to the frozen lakes of Finland about 5,000 years ago, when people used skates made from animal bone. Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University have calculated that skating on the primitive blades would have reduced the energy cost of travelling by 10 per cent, suggesting that it emerged as a practical method of transport and not as recreation. Southern Finland has been identified as the most likely home of skating through an analysis of the shape and distribution of lakes in central and northern Europe, which shows that the early Finns would...

The political think-tank Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) says that Finnish membership in NATO would not be a permanent blot on the country's relationship with Russia. Nonetheless Finland should be aware of what would be required if the country joins the alliance. The Institute published a long-awaited report on NATO's place in Europe, its role in crisis management missions, and what it might mean for Finland to become a member. The report stopped short of making a recommendation on whether to join. "Finland should only seek NATO membership if it is ready to assist other members if they are...

Tuusula, Finland — The YouTube killer who shot dead eight members of his school in Finland before turning his gun on himself had internet contacts with an American teenager who was planning a shooting spree in a high school in Philadelphia, it was claimed yesterday. The disclosure could turn upside down previous assumptions about the dynamics of school massacres. Until now, teenage killers were regarded as depressed loners whose imagination had been stoked by aggressive computer games. Now it seems that information may have been shared by potential killers over the Internet: a virtual community of young people who idolize...

HELSINKI, Finland - A teenage killer's deadly school rampage has put Finns on the defensive about their relationship to guns. With 1.6 million firearms in private hands, the Nordic nation is an anomaly in Europe, lagging behind only the U.S. and Yemen in civilian gun ownership, studies show. ...

Police in Finland have found a suicide note written by an 18-year-old student shortly before he went on a gun rampage at his school and killed eight people. Pekka-Eric Auvinen said goodbye to his family and explained his hatred towards society, the police said.

A Columbine-type massacre tragically went down at a school in Finland the other day, leaving eight dead plus the shooter. According to AHRP, there's evidence that the young shooter was on SSRIs and that they made him "aggressive," a well-documented but often overlooked problem with these drugs. AHRP reports that, although Finnish press accounts include the SSRI information, the possible SSRI connection was stripped from British and American press accounts of the shooting. Now, if the shooter had been drunk or stoned or diagnosed with schizophrenia, they would have included that information, so why would they trim out mentions of...

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A pupil who killed eight people on Wednesday in a school shooting in southern Finland and turned the gun on himself has died at the hospital, the head of the medical response team said. "I can confirm he died of brain injury. The number of fatalities in now at nine," Dr. Eero Hirvensalo told Reuters, adding the toll would not rise further as the other injuries were minor.

TUUSULA, Finland (AP) - An 18-year-old student opened fire in a Finnish high school Wednesday, killing seven students and the principal before turning the gun on himself, police said. The teenager, who was not identified, shot himself in the head but survived and was taken to a hospital in ``extremely critical condition,'' police spokesman Tero Haapala said. The attack at Jokela High School in Tuusula, some 30 miles north of the capital, Helsinki, shocked the Nordic nation, where gun ownership is fairly common by European standards but deadly shootings are rare. ... Police said at a news conference after the...

TUUSULA, Finland (Reuters) - At least seven people died when a gunman opened fire at a school in southern Finland on Wednesday, hours after a video was posted on YouTube predicting a school massacre. A teacher at Jokela High School told Reuters the gunman was one of its pupils. "At this moment its seven (deaths) or more, higher," Dr Eero Hirvensalo, the head of the medical response team, told Reuters. The YouTube video, set to hard-driving music, shows a still photo of a school that appears to be Jokela High School. The photo then fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture...

WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons published a study yesterday entitled, "The Breast Cancer Epidemic." It showed that, among seven risk factors, abortion is the "best predictor of breast cancer," and fertility is also a useful predictor.  The study by Patrick Carroll of PAPRI in London showed that countries with higher abortion rates, such as England & Wales, could expect a substantial increase in breast cancer incidence. Where abortion rates are low (i.e., Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic) a smaller increase is expected. Where a decline in abortion has taken place,...

WHERE DO FINNS COME FROM? Not long ago, cytogenetic experts stirred up a controversy with their "ground-breaking" findings on the origins of the Finnish and Sami peoples. Cytogenetics is by no means a new tool in bioanthropological research, however. As early as the 1960s and '70s, Finnish researchers made the significant discovery that one quarter of the Finns' genetic stock is Siberian, and three quarters is European in origin. The Samis, however, are of different genetic stock: a mixture of distinctly western, but also eastern elements. If we examine the genetic links between the peoples of Europe, the Samis form...

Scandinavia has been rated as the best place to live, that’s according to a ranking by Reader’s Digest. Using a range of environmental and social indicators based in part on the UN’s Human Development Index, the survey rates countries on care of the environment and quality of life for their citizens. Finland tops the 141-nation list, followed by Nordic neighbours Iceland and Norway, with Sweden coming in at fourth place. And the Swedish capital comes top of the Reader’s Digest ranking of 72 world cities when it comes to quality of life. Cities were rated according to quality of public...

PARIS (AFP) - Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest. An aerial picture shows the port in Helsinki in 2006. Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest.(AFP/File/Pekka Sakki) Finland comes top of the 141-nation list, followed by Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and then Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia. At the bottom of the list is Ethiopia, preceded by Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Chad. The...

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia decided Thursday it will not allow a German-Russian consortium to conduct a survey of its exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea for a planned underwater gas pipeline. The survey was necessary for a possible rerouting of the 750-mile pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. "Each coastal country has full sovereignty and a right to make decision involving its own waters," Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in a news conference. "Furthermore, we think the Baltic Sea is not a proper place for such a pipeline." Estonia's refusal...

I would guess that the Finnish establishment is beside itself with glee over this development, for they take it as evidence that Muslims are assimilating, joining the political process, becoming responsible Finnish citizens. But look at the party program: "The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland." Most Finns, like most Westerners, have no idea what Sharia has in store for them....

Helsinki, Sep. 12, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Europe's first Islamic political party has formed in Finland. The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Party spokesman Abdullah Tammi acknowledged to reporters that to date the party has enrolled only a few dozen members. The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children...

Helsinki, Sep. 12, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Europe's first Islamic political party has formed in Finland. The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Party spokesman Abdullah Tammi acknowledged to reporters that to date the party has enrolled only a few dozen members. The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children...

Iraqi Sunni and Shiite delegates made progress at secret peace talks in Finland, negotiators said Tuesday, cautioning that their Northern Ireland-inspired agreement would have to be endorsed by top leaders in Baghdad to have any chance of succeeding. Organizers said the four-day meeting at an undisclosed location in Finland brought together high-level delegates from the feuding groups to study lessons learned from successful peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland. The talks ended Monday with all parties agreeing on a list of principles to start negotiations to end sectarian violence. "And at the end of our discussions, we had...

Iraqis agree on secret peace plan: Iraqi Sunni and Shia representatives have agreed on a peace plan during secret talks in Finland. "Participants committed themselves to work towards a robust framework for a lasting settlement," said a statement issued on Monday by the Crisis Management Initiative, a conflict-prevention group that organised the meeting. In an agreement released by CMI, the participants "agreed to consult further" on a list of recommendations to begin reconciliation talks, including resolving political disputes through non-violence and democracy. The recommendations also included the disarming of factions and forming an independent commission to supervise the disarming "in...

Representatives from Iraq's Sunni and Shia groups attending secret talks in Finland have agreed a set of principles aimed at ending sectarian violence.Politicians from Northern Ireland and South Africa also attended the four-day meeting, to share their experiences of bringing divided communities together. The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, was one of the chairmen of the talks. The event was organised by a conflict prevention group based in Finland. The group, Crisis Management Initiative, released a statement late on Monday, saying the participants had "committed themselves to work towards a robust framework for a lasting settlement". This includes...

Sweden and Norway’s military chiefs have called for stronger cooperation between the two Nordic countries, arguing that it will reduce overall expenditure. In an article published in the daily ”Dagens Nyhter”, Sweden and Norway’s top military leaders are proposing closer military ties including cooperation in the purchase of submarines and tanks and other military equipment. They’d also like to see joint training and education initiatives. Sweden’s Håkan Syren and Norway’s Sverre Diesen are presenting the proposals to their respective Defence Ministries. Swedish Minister of Defence Mikael Odenberg told the newspaper ”Svenska Dagbladet” that he is positive about the idea. The...

26.6.2007 at 19:32 Oliver Dulic, the speaker of the Parliament of Serbia, is calling for a formal inquiry into allegations that Martti Ahtisaari, the UN special envoy for Kosovo, has accepted bribes from an Albanian organised crime figure in exchange for recommending independence for the Serbian province, US-based news portal Serbianna.com reported on Monday. Bosnian news agency Focus had reported over the weekend that Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's federal foreign intelligence agency, had uncovered bank accounts held by Mr Ahtisaari that had received two million euros and that on at least two occasions he had received cash payments of more than...

What is a fair voting system for the European Union? It looks as though, thanks to Poland, European leaders will be forced to debate this difficult question at their summit this week. Since the simplified draft treaty is substantively identical to the old and rejected constitution - minus some cosmetics - the voting system proposed is going to be the same one: passage of legislation requires a coalition of countries representing at least 55 per cent of the member states and 65 per cent of the population. The Poles have threatened a veto unless the second of those two numbers...

Norwegians have the highest job loyalty in Europe, and all of the Nordic countries are happy at work. The European Employee Index (EEI) survey carried out by Danish consultancy Ennova, covered 20 European nations. The EEI showed that besides being loyal, in terms of job enjoyment Norwegians were second only to Danes. "We are part of a Nordic tradition of cooperative relations in the work place that is completely unique in an international context," said *Even Bolstad, head of HR Norway, Ennova's cooperative partner in the survey. "The five Nordic nations are all in the top ten in all categories...