The Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church's Turku archdiocese said Friday that Kari Mäkinen, a bishop at the archdiocese, had won the church's archbishop election, beating Miikka Ruokanen, a professor of dogmatics at the University of Helsinki, by a handful of votes.

Dr Mäkinen is to replace Jukka Paarma, due to retire in June, as the head of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church.

In the runoff vote, Dr Mäkinen received 593 votes against Dr Ruokanen's 582.

STT

A Finnish justice ministry working group proposed Thursday that the parking fine ceiling should be raised to 80 euros from the current 50 in order to bring fines abreast with public transport penalty fares.

The working group also proposed that private companies should be allowed to impose penalties for unauthorised parking on private property.

The working group handed its report to Tuija Brax (green), the justice minister.

STT

Passers-by have found sensitive evidence in a rubbish skip outside Helsinki's police headquarters in Pasila, freesheet Voima reported on Wednesday.

According to the paper the evidence unearthed from the skip and documented by a jogger includes autopsy photographs, a partly torn passport and a recording of the questioning of a woman convicted of three murders.

Jari Liukku, the deputy chief of police, said the material had ended up in the skip during a move, adding an administrative inquiry was underway.

STT

THE NATIONAL Discrimination Tribunal of Finland has banned a practice whereby provision of rental accommodation to Roma tenants is decided together with a representative of the Roma community.

The Tribunal concluded that the practice is in breach of the constitution, which states that Finns enjoy the right to freely choose their place of residence. It also violates the Administrative Procedure Act, according to which the authorities must treat all of their clients equally.

The Tribunal formulated its decision with a view to the approach taken by the City of Järvenpää. The city stopped liaising with a Roma contact person at the beginning of February, but according to the Ombudsman for Minorities, contacts regarding similar practices came from other localities.

Finnish parliamentary elections will be shifted from March to the third Sunday of April, beginning in the spring of next year. At the same time, the first round of the presidential election will be pushed forward one week. The government accepted the proposals to be submitted to parliament on 4 March.

Similarly, the law would be changed to allow the carers of people entitled to home-based voting, to vote along with their entitled charges.

Small parties would generally benefit, but a three per cent threshold could spell danger for the Swedish People’s Party.

Finland’s minor political parties will have reason to celebrate come 2015. Current figures suggest they will pick up parliamentary seats thanks to planned electoral reforms.

Under a model of reform partly approved by the government on 4 March, parliamentary seats would be distributed by crunching the total number of nationwide votes with the current d’Hondt method. Constituency-specific results would be calculated under a new format. The reform would benefit middle-sized and minor parties at the expense of the major players.

Advertising deemed unfit for children has come under increased scrutiny.

TELEVISION advertisements are mainly directed at adults, but their most eager audience may be children. Short and snappy, ads are all but tailored to a short attention span, and children make the catchy jingles their own. And the advertising that appears in a child’s environment attracts a great deal of attention.

Media psychologist Tarja Salokangas has been told by many adults that they remember the advertisements from their childhood better than the TV series themselves.

Internet and mobile communication have become an essential part of most people’s daily routine in Finland, but some of us can still remember life before broadband.

The fax machine was one of the icons of the 1980s office, and together with brick-sized mobile phones, marked a turning point in modern business communications.

Now twenty years later, most of us can scarcely imagine working life without an internet connection and a daily flood of emails to check through.

A majority of the divided Supreme Administrative Court decided that humanitarian reasons were no grounds for Finnish residency.

AN EGYPTIAN grandmother will not be allowed to stay with her son in Vantaa. On 8 March the Supreme Administrative Court turned down an appeal against the refusal of a residence permit to, and deportation of, Eveline Fadayel.

Fadayel, who was born in 1945, could be expelled from the country in the coming weeks.

Exceptionally heavy snow loads piling up on rooftops have caused accidents and alarm across Finland in recent weeks. Large industrial buildings and sporting arenas with flat roofs have been particularly worrisome. On 6 March a floorball hall was closed in Helsinki due to danger of the roof collapsing under heavy snow. In late February two people were injured when a steel-framed sports hall collapsed in Järvenpää. Accidents involving snow and ice sliding down from rooftops have claimed lives and injured many.