Finland

HELSINKI (AP) — Swedish investigators found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminary investigation said Friday.

Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigators carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significant methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.

HELSINKI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Tuesday urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership of the NATO defence alliance.

Hungary and Turkey are the only two remaining NATO members to not yet have ratified the applications.

"All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later," Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders.

HELSINKI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Finland and Sweden will joint NATO at the same time, their prime ministers said on Friday, presenting a united front to Turkey which has raised questions about both their applications.

The Nordic neighbours asked to join the alliance in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey which accused the two of harbouring groups it deems terrorists.

HELSINKI, Oct 26 (NNN-AAP) – A one-million-euro-technology prize, has been awarded to an Australian professor, for an invention that has transformed the production of solar energy.

Technology Academy Finland (TAF), announced yesterday that, the 2022 Millennium Technology Prize has been awarded to Professor Martin Green, from the University of New South Wales. The prize was awarded to Green by Finnish President, Sauli Niinisto.

14 October 2022; MEMO: Finland has violated the rights of its child nationals stranded in detention camps in north-eastern Syria, according to United Nations child rights experts.

In a statement by the UN Child Rights Committee, which consists of 18 independent experts tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it stressed that "Finland has the responsibility and power to protect the Finnish children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them".

10 October 2022; MEMO: Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, said that she hopes her country's NATO membership will be approved by Turkiye as soon as possible, Turkish local media reports.

According to the report, Marin said that they discussed the approval process of her country's NATO membership with Erdogan in Prague last week.

HELSINKI/STOCKHOLM, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Europe found evidence of detonations, strengthening suspicions of "gross sabotage", Sweden's Security Service said on Thursday.

Swedish and Danish authorities have been investigating four leaks after the pipelines, which link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis, were damaged at the start of last week.

HELSINKI (AP) — Neighboring Russia’s attack on Ukraine helped shape the general election held Saturday in Latvia, where divisions among the Baltic country’s sizable ethnic-Russian minority are likely to influence the makeup of parliament and war-induced energy concerns will preoccupy the next government.

Several polls showed the center-right New Unity party of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins emerging as the top vote-getter, with up to 20% support.

HELSINKI/VAALIMAA, Finland, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Finland said on Thursday it would close its border to Russian tourists at midnight, shutting off the last remaining direct land route to the European Union for them as thousands of Russians seek to avoid conscription into the war in Ukraine.

The government said the move would lead to a significant drop in cross-border traffic after almost 17,000 Russians crossed the border into Finland during the weekend.

JOUTSA, Finland, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Finland has shut down a section of one of its main highways for five days for the first time in decades to allow its fighter jets to practice landings and take-offs on a reserve road runway.

The Nordic country, which is applying for NATO membership following neighbouring Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has a dozen similar reserve runways designed for wartime use around the country.