Two armed men burst into a home in central Finland early Tuesday morning, Aamulehti writes. Allegedly, the men violently took a man from inside the home in Iisalmi and forced him into a car, intending to drive to a cash point to withdraw money. However, police spotted the car along a road in Sonkajärvi and said they thought it looked suspicious.
The would-be thieves relinquished their gun, quickly surrendered and were arrested without incident. The men are suspected of aggravated robbery and aggravated deprivation of liberty. The abducted man was taken to a nearby hospital but apparently his injuries were not serious, Aamulehti wrote.
Gas expensive, but could be worse
The business publication Taloussanomat writes that Finnish drivers of gasoline-fuelled vehicles pay about 120 euros per year more than the EU average.
However there are other EU countries, the paper notes, where it is more expensive than in Finland. Taxes make up the lion’s share of the cost of petrol here and Finland ranked fifth most expensive across the EU. But just across the Gulf of Finland, gas prices in Estonia are the lowest, Taloussanomat writes.
The most expensive petrol can be found in the UK, where drivers cough up on average 1.63 euros per litre. In second place is the Netherlands at 1.61 euros. Italy 1.57 euros, Denmark 1.54 euros and in fifth place Finland which paid 1.53 euros per litre of 95E octane gasoline. The prices were compared on August 10, the paper writes.
In nearby Estonia the same fuel costs 1.16 euros per litre and in Sweden the price is 1.42 per litre.
Zebra crossing gender commotion
A minor internet hubbub was raised when newspaper Savon Sanomat wrote that the Finnish Transport Agency was going to design new zebra crossing signs to appear to more gender neutral, Swedish-language Hufvudstadsbladet explained.
Shortly afterwards the internet lit up with lively debate about gender equality, but according to HBL, the agency said there was a misunderstanding about their plans.
“Unfortunately there’s now the misunderstanding that current traffic signs would suddenly be replaced with new ones,” HBL quoted the agency’s Per-Olof Linsen saying. “This is not the case.”
The agency says it is suggesting that new laws currently being written up would include the provision that traffic signs appear more gender-neutral.
“But no sign will be changed simply to make it more gender-neutral,” Linsen told the paper.
The ubiquitous white triangle surrounded by blue borders with a silhouette figure walking on a zebra crossing has many variations around the world. On Jerusalem streets, for example, it is clearly a man wearing a hat, in Sweden it looks like a woman with a dress, and Finnish zebra crossing signs currently feature a male-looking figure.
