The national Swedish-language daily, Hufvudstadsbladet, leads off in Gaza City, where an attack on a vegetable market left at least 17 people dead and more than 160 injured on Wednesday as the Israeli offensive gained intensity. The shelling took place during a four-hour ceasefire, which was rejected by Hamas. The Israeli army said the ceasefire did not cover areas where its troops were active. This made it impossible to evacuate the wounded from those zones, making the ceasefire meaningless, according to a Hamas representative.
Meanwhile an international group of peace activists is planning to take supplies to Gaza by sea as soon as possible, but the Finnish Foreign Ministry warns against taking part in the mission. The Swedish organisation Ship to Gaza told Turun Sanomat on Wednesday that it is readying a vessel to sail to the region. Those taking part are from the US and various European countries. The foreign ministry recommends that Finns stay away from Gaza, citing “an enormous security risk right now”.
KL: Russian doubts, productive jobseekers
The business daily Kauppalehti previews Thursday’s corporate results, focusing on Outotec, which has recently been the subject of takeover rumours. The paper notes that the mining technology firm issued a profit warning earlier this week and lowered its outlook for the rest of the year. It partly blamed the slowing of ongoing projects in Russia due to geopolitical uncertainty in the region. On the other hand, Outotec’s order books have grown by four percent since last spring.
Also due to publish quarterly results on Thursday are Metso, Metsä Board, Metsä Group, Pöyry and Valmet.
Kauppalehti also quotes an article published by the financial news agency Bloomberg, which points out that some of Finland’s highest-paid employees have now joined the ranks of jobseekers and those on the dole. Bloomberg quotes a Danske Bank economist as saying that the Finnish economic crisis has particularly hit high-productivity sectors, which means that the impact will be more visible in terms of GDP than the unemployment rate.
MT: Concern over cormorants, dolphins
The national rural daily Maaseudun Tulevaisuus takes a different tack, leading off with research on cormorants. The large black birds have been staging a strong comeback to Finland’s coastal areas in since the late 1990s, much to the chagrin of local fishermen and residents concerned by the impact of their highly-acidic guano on local flora and fauna. This summer’s census found more than 20,000 nests, nearly one-tenth more than last summer. However that represents a slowing in their population growth. The Finnish Environment Institute says that between 2005 and 2009, cormorant stocks grew by an average 41 percent annually. Since then it has averaged five percent per year.
The heaviest concentration is on the Gulf of Finland, where more than 8,000 nests were counted. Altogether cormorants have taken over 71 islands and skerries, totalling some 55 hectares of land.
MT also reports on a small demonstration at the dolphinarium at the Särkänniemi amusement park in Tampere. Roughly a dozen people took part in Wednesday’s action organised by the group Oikeutta eläimille (Justice for Animals). It says the event was held to draw attention to the conditions in which the mammals are kept in the facility, which has been the subject of debate this summer. Some of the protesters climbed onto the dolphinarium’s roof and descended into using ropes. Särkänniemi’s CEO says that the company will not press charges as it was a peaceful demonstration.
