News You May Have Missed

About 25,000 commute by bicycle to centre of Helsinki in summer, but each year only about 10 serious accidents happen.

The Finns are upset that Bush rejects Finnish President Halonen's request for a meeting, but he found time for the Swedish Prime Minister

A CIA web page ranks Finland 24th in the world in "account balance" with assets of over +$8 billion. The U.S. is last with -$862 billion. (Current account balance "is a country's net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and from the rest of the world during the period specified. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.")