Open image viewerSome locals in Ylitornio turned to tow trucks to rescue their cars from the flood waters
Image: Risto Koskinen / YleYle News22.5.2023 10:14Numerous roads in and around the towns of Tornio and Ylitornio were still cut off by flood waters on Monday morning
and the water level is expected to remain at peak readings for another couple of days
While flood waters have begun receding in the upper reaches of the Tornio River valley
more southerly areas continue to be inundated by waters that rose over the weekend
According to the Finnish Environment Institute
the flooding in the Tornio and Muonio river valleys in the west of Finnish Lapland is the most severe in 55 years
The flood water level in Tornio was reported to be at the same reading during the early morning hours of Monday
there are currently a dozen roads blocked in the region
Flood waters have cut off highway VT 21 at Ylitornio and traffic is being directed to a detour
the Lapland Rescue Services says that it has had no reports of major damage or loss of life
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The Finnish-Swedish border in Ylitornio last week (Image: Lehtikuva)
THE LATEST DATA ON COVID-19 INFECTIONS IN FINLAND has revealed that a number of municipalities that are on the border with Sweden now have some of the highest rates of infection per 100,000 people in the country
with several places having higher rates than the capital region
According to <a href="https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/92e9bb33fac744c9a084381fc35aa3c7">data from THL</a>
all municipalities that are on or close to the border with Sweden
have infection rates that are higher than the Helsinki region
Ylitornio has 718 confirmed cases per 100,000 people
while Kolari and Kittilä have 464 and 420 per 100,000 respectively
Helsinki has a total of 408 confirmed cases per 100,000 people
Sweden has followed a controversial approach to tackling the pandemic, opting to place relatively few restrictions on its citizens. As a result, Sweden has among the highest rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the world. Although cross-border traffic has been severely restricted between the two countries, activity has <a href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/health_officials_concerned_as_traffic_across_finnish-swedish_border_triples/11346628">risen markedly</a> in the past few weeks
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the victim was 13 years old and the perpetrator was 16
Open image viewerFile photo of Lapland District Court
Image: Juuso Stoor / Yle Yle News4.11.2024 16:20Lapland District Court handed a 22-month suspended prison sentence to a 16-year-old found guilty of the rape and sexual assault of a 13-year-old in a school bathroom
The court also ordered the defendant to carry out 60 hours of community service
pay 21,000 euros in compensation to the victim as well as cover all legal costs
The compensation was awarded to the victim because of the pain
suffering and mental distress the rape and sexual assault caused
the court said a custodial prison sentence was not handed down in this case because the defendant is a minor — between the ages of 15 and 17 — and had no previous criminal convictions
The court said compelling legal reasons to impose a custodial prison sentence were not found in the case
the court heard the perpetrator had violently assaulted the victim
including by grabbing the child by the throat
The victim also suffered very serious psychological consequences as a result of the attack
The attack took place in a bathroom at Ainiovaara school
in the town of Ylitornio on the Finnish-Swedish border
in the middle of the school day last December
Finland <a class="sc-iCmUMC eAECGk yle__article__link" href="https://yle.fi/a/74-20010723" role="link">passed a new sex crimes law</a> at the beginning of last year, which states that sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 constitutes the rape of a child.
The incident came to light when the victim told school staff.
According to Yle&#x27;s information, the defendant in the case was of foreign background and will not return to the school. The defendant will also not be publicly identified because they were a minor at the time the crime was committed.
Finnish Customs saysAuthorities in Finland have made another big snus smuggling bust
Open image viewerFile photo of police dog and snus tins
Image: TullenYle News20.11.2018 13:22•Updated 20.11.2018 13:48Finnish Customs say an Estonian man orchestrated the smuggling of some 5,000 kg of snus from Sweden to Finland this year
The oral tobacco was then distributed to sellers on the black market
A total of 11 individuals are suspected of involvement in the ring
Police in Helsinki also arrested a number of Finnish men suspected of distributing the snus
If the smuggled snus was sold in Finland and taxed (which is not possible under Finnish legislation as it stands now)
Customs estimates the sales would have netted the state some 2.2 million euros in taxes
Pasi Lukkarinen of Finnish Customs explained to Yle News that this figure is reached by applying the excise duty regime for tobacco to the estimated revenue generated by the smuggled snus
In this case that means the price would be 61 cents per gram of snus
and the excise duty due to be paid to the tax administration would be 37 cents per gram
although the product is popular and widely sold in neighbouring Sweden
Police are investigating the case as smuggling and tax evasion
The alleged Estonian ringleader allegedly arranged the transport of snus deliveries from Sweden at Finnish border crossings in south-western Naantali and Turku as well as in Lapland&#x27;s Tornio and Ylitornio
Snus is illegal to buy and sell in Finland and - with the exception of Sweden and Denmark - across the EU
But it remains legal to import the oral tobacco product to Finland for personal use
Snus is usually packaged in round plastic tins that contain around 42 g of the tobacco product
Finnish Customs regularly reports major incidents of snus smuggling. The <a class="sc-iCmUMC eAECGk yle__article__link" href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finnish_customs_snus_smuggling_ring_evaded_46m_in_taxes/10408332" role="link">most recent case</a> was a group found to have smuggled some 12 tonnes of the tobacco to Finland in 2016-2018.