Flights from Helsinki to Copenhagen are cancelled on Tuesday morning due to unidentified drones over the Danish capital's Kastrup airport, reports the daily Helsingin Sanomat.
Both Oslo and Copenhagen airports were closed for several hours overnight due to drone sightings.
The Finnair flights to Copenhagen were scheduled to take off at 6:35am and 11:15am. The airline’s communications manager Sanna Silvennoinen told HS that no other flights have been diverted or grounded due to the airport closures.
Danish and Norwegian police said that two or three drones were spotted over each airport late Monday and early Tuesday.
Kastrup reopened to traffic around 1:30am after the drones disappeared. Oslo's Gardermoen airport followed suit shortly before 5am Finnish time, the paper says.
Danish police are investigating the sightings in partnership with the intelligence service PET, the Danish Armed Forces and Norwegian police.
Earlier on Monday evening, Oslo police detained two people from Singapore who had flown a drone in a forbidden area near Akershus Castle in central Oslo, where there were military operations. On Sunday evening, Oslo police detained an Italian man who was flying a drone in a restricted area near the royal palace. It is so far unclear whether these incidents were related to the airport sightings.
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HBL: Finland is an outlier on Palestinian statehood
The main Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet notes that Finland is among a dwindling minority of countries that have not recognised Palestine as a state.
Late on Tuesday, France followed recent announcements by the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal by recognising Palestinian statehood at the UN. A day earlier, Denmark took a major step towards recognising Palestine. When its process is completed, Finland will be the only Nordic country that has not done so.
This means that Finland is part of a shrinking minority of approximately 40 UN countries, corresponding to approximately 20 percent of the world's population, which have not recognised Palestine.
Finland's passivity is not going unnoticed, says Timo R. Stewart, Middle East researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
"Of course, this could damage Finland's reputation," he tells HBL. "I think it is noteworthy that we are one of the few countries in Europe and the whole world that has not recognised Palestine. Yes, there are larger countries like the US and Germany and next to them we are a small player, but it seems contradictory when Finland values a rules-based world order and we want to take an active role in conflict resolution," he adds.
Maps of countries that have not recognised Palestine are circulating widely on social media. In Europe, Italy, Germany, Austria and Finland stand out.
"People ask themselves what these countries have in common," says Stewart.
There are historical reasons for Germany's stance, he notes, pointing to the Holocaust. The other three countries were all allies or co-belligerents with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Other 'no' countries include Greece, Myanmar and Cameroon.
In Finland, it is mainly internal discord that is holding things back, the paper says. While President Alexander Stubb has said that Finland could recognise Palestine, the government is divided on the subject. The NCP and the Swedish People’s Party are in favour of recognition, while the Christian Democrats and the Finns Party reject it.
"Finland's foreign policy will lose credibility if the government is unable to reach a consensus on the issue," warns Stewart.
If Finland wants to appear consistent on this point, Stewart says it should scrap its arms deals with Israel, such as the 316-million-euro purchase of the David's Sling air defence system. Similar decisions have been made by Spain, for example.
"It seems like a relatively small measure if we, let's say, would boycott Eurovision if Israel is participating, but at the same time conduct extensive arms trade with the country," he says.
MT: Chernobyl fallout still affects Finnish forest mushrooms
Elsewhere, the agricultural paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus reports that Finnish nature still contains traces of radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986 – especially in wild mushrooms.
At the time, authorities imposed restrictions on eating mushrooms from Pirkanmaa, Eastern Häme and Kymenlaakso in central and southeastern Finland.
Finnish mushrooms still contain radioactivity, even in amounts exceeding the limit values and sometimes from areas that were considered safe, MT reports. The species most sensitive to radioactive caesium are milk-caps, tooth fungi, velvet boletes and wrinkled rozites, also known as granny's nightcaps.
However, according to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk), the amounts are so small that eating domestic mushrooms does not pose a health risk.
This autumn Stuk is collecting mushroom samples from the public to study how much caesium is still left in them in various regions and species. It promises to publish the results next spring. If you’d like to submit samples, details of the Mushrooms 2025 campaign are available on the Stuk site.
1.27pm: Changed agricultural daily to agricultural paper
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