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The 10 most popular Yle News stories of 2014

It's been a news-packed year in Finland. Relations with Russia were the topic for a number of our most-read stories of the year, but there was also room on the list for parliament's vote to allow same-sex marriage and the most-read news item Yle has ever published online, in any language.

Samaa sukupuolta oleva pari seisoo yhteisen sateenvarjon alla helsingissä.
Image: Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva

Yle News published more than 3,400 articles in 2014, but some of them got more attention than others. Here's a list of the most popular work we did this year.

10. Restaurant Day celebrates Finland’s growing culinary diversity

Sometimes old stories gain traction. This one, from 2013, was posted on Reddit, prompted a discussion about food regulation, and got more than 20,000 page views this year.

9. Video: Finnish divers find century-old German sub

Back in June, Finnish divers released a video of a German submarine wreck dating back to the First World War. The lead diver on the trip describes the wreck as 'probably the best-preserved WW1 ship wreck in the world', so take a look now if you didn't first time round.

8. Swedish paper lists 11 reasons to love Finland

Finland's bigger brother to the west can seem a little arrogant to Finns, but when the Swedish tabloid Expressen published '11 reasons to love Finland' it became a smash hit on social media.

7. Rouble collapse hits Finland, Forex stops buying Russian currency

Russia has been high on the Finnish news agenda this year, and the year-end economic news hasn't been good. This story gathered a lot of readers as the Russian central bank struggled to defend the rouble.

6. Authorities probe suspected violations of Finnish airspace

Russia's military has increased its presence in the Baltic and other neighbouring regions this year, and there have been several incidents involving airspace incursions. This story from May was the seventh most-read story of the year.

5. Helsinki ranked 5th best city to live in, New York and London out

Everybody loves a good news story, and when Monocle named the Finnish capital as the fifth most livable city in the world, our readers lapped it up.

4. Where in the EU are your kindred spirits? Take our test!

Ahead of the European elections, Yle sent journalists Eve Väyrynen and Sean Ricks off on a tour of Europe to gauge the mood among different electorates. As part of the effort Yle's Plus Desk made this interactive test that proved a hit with readers in Finland and across the world.

3. Third Russian airspace violation in a week; Finland steps up air surveillance

And Russia pops up again in August, with an article on Finland's response to several reported incursions by Russian military planes.

2. Finnish parliament approves same-sex marriage

Finland is the last Nordic country without legislation allowing same-sex marriage. There's been a long-running campaign to change that, and when it came to a vote in parliament it brought worldwide attention. That day brought the most traffic Yle News has had in 24 hours, with the exception of one article...

1.****Alko recalls Fireball liqueur over propylene glycol concerns

And finally, the most-read story of the year--in fact the most-read Yle story of all-time, in any language-- was about alcohol. When the Finnish state alcohol retailer Alko discovered a compound close to antifreeze in Fireball cinnamon whisky, it was withdrawn from sale. The product has its fans though, and our story was read more than 1.9 million times.

Sources: Yle News