US business magazine Forbes on Thursday included Antti Herlin, the main owner of Finnish lift and escalator maker Kone, on its list of US dollar billionaires.

Mr Herlin is the first Finn to be featured on the Forbes list.

Forbes estimated Mr Herlin's net worth at about 1.3 billion US dollars, earning him 773rd place along with 54 other well-heeled people.

Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican telecommunications tycoon, topped the Forbes list with a fortune of some 53.5 billion dollars.

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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.

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Suvi Lindén (cons), the Finnish transport minister, announced Thursday she would not carry forward the government's plan to replace the licence fee with a tax, citing a lack of backing in Parliament.

The minister said the matter would be postponed to the next legislative period, meaning after next year's general election.

The government had planned to fund the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) with a lump-sum tax it prefers to call the media fee.

The tax would have been levied from all households regardless of television or radio ownership.

Ms Lindén added the government had also shelved its plans to create an independent organ to oversee the public broadcaster.

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The Finnish government said in a statement Thursday it had decided to change the name of the education ministry to "the ministry of education and culture".

Pending Parliament's approval of the change, the new name will enter into force in May.

"Finnish ministries have been named in a way that best describes the key mandate of each ministry," the statement added.

"Cultural policy is a broad social policy area coordinated by the ministry of education. It covers areas such as cultural heritage, cultural exportation, multiculturalism and international cooperation."

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Finland's Civil Aviation Administration (Finavia) said in a statement Thursday it would introduce incentives to carriers to raise passenger numbers.

Finavia added it would reimburse carriers three euros for each extra passenger this year and two euros next year.

"We want to be involved in supporting the aviation business together with the airlines," said in the statement Kimmo Ruotsalainen, Finavia's marketing director.

"Finavia aims to provide a cost-efficient business environment. Even before the discount, we were one of Europe's cheapest airports." Finavia runs 25 airports.

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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.

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Finnish national daily Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday quoted a Taylor Nelson Sofres poll as indicating that the National Coalition party remained the country's biggest party with a rating of 23.1 per cent, down by a tenth of a percentage point from a similar poll carried out in November last year.

The poll gave the opposition Social Democrats 21.3 per cent, up by eight-tenths of a point, with the Centre party in third place with 19.9 per cent, down by a tenth of a point.

All changes fit in the margin of error, stated as two percentage points either way.

Commissioned by the paper, TNS interviewed about 2,900 people in February and March.

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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.

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Finnish Christian newspaper Kotimaa on Thursday quoted its poll as indicating that a slim majority of the country's lawmakers opposed same-sex marriage.

Kotimaa said it had asked all 200 MPs whether the Marriage Act, which dates back to 1929, should be amended to be sex-neutral.

The paper added that 54 per cent of the 126 MPs who took part in the poll had said they were opposed to a sex-neutral Marriage Act.

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.

IN A REPORT released on Monday 8 March to mark International Women’s Day, human rights organisation Amnesty International stated that the Nordic countries, often hailed as beacons of sexual equality, had not sufficiently dealt with sexual violence. Amnesty also singled out the Finnish government for leaving women particularly vulnerable.

The human rights group said in the report that whereas Denmark, Norway and Sweden had adopted national action plans to address violence against women, Finland had not.

The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said in a statement Wednesday that the country was clear of swine influenza but the agency went on to urge members of the public to carry on having themselves vaccinated in preparation for the next flu season.

According to the agency about half of the population had been vaccinated.

"It has been estimated that if about two-thirds of the population was vaccinated swine influenza would not become an epidemic again," the THL statement said.

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The Finnish government said Wednesday that the country's animal welfare enforcement system had room for improvement.

Jaana Husu-Kallio, the director-general of the Food Safety Authority (Evira), and Matti Aho, a senior official at the agriculture ministry, underscored that Finland's animal welfare legislation was fit for purpose.

"It does not need amending," Mr Aho said.

"What do need to be bolstered are the actions of the overseeing authorities."

The European commission's Food and Veterinary Office said in a report released on Wednesday that while Finnish food safety and animal welfare oversight was on a sound footing overall, local councils' human resources were too low.

Last month, the Finnish authorities were spurred into action by the airing of shocking footage shot on Finnish fur farms by Oikeutta Eläimille, an animal rights group.

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Turku city council said Wednesday it had no plans to sell a sagging bridge to be blown up by a film production company.

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat had reported that Solar Films had contacted the council to buy the bridge in the centre of the city in southwestern Finland, adding the company wanted to blow it up.

Jarkko Virtanen, a deputy mayor, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that he was not aware of any such contact between the council and Solar Films.

"The whole idea sounds rather absurd," he added.

Mr Virtanen pointed out that given the bridge's central location explosive charges would be out of the question should the council decide to demolish the bridge.

Myllysilta was closed at the weekend.

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