Sighs of relief were likely heard from members of the opposition party the Green League on Monday when government negotiators announced that the Ministry of the Environment and other ministries would not be merged, and remain largely as they were before the elections, Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday.
Ville Niinistö, leader of the Green League, the paper wrote, was satisfied that the incoming government is keeping the environment ministry. “Finland needs the Ministry which ensures and cherishes the public interest of a clean environment,” the paper quoted the Green League leader.
Niinistö continued by saying it would have been a conflict of interest if the environment ministry would have been shifted to the auspices of a ministry in change of industrial policy, the paper wrote.
Nearly 700 Mediterranean boat refugees may reach Finland
Hufvudstadsbladet and other papers wrote about EU plans to send 688 extra refugees to Finland, in order to deal with the influx of refugees arriving to Europe from the Mediterranean Sea. The EU Commission suggested that refugees arriving to Europe from North Africa should be distributed evenly throughout the EU. Finland’s quota would be 688 more refugees. But an increase in Finland’s quota, the paper writes, needs a qualified majority vote.
Last year Finland took in a total of 3,650 asylum seekers, Jorma Kuuluvainen from the Finnish Immigration Service told the paper, and he said that Finland has the preparedness to take in 688 more refugees. But he said, with the new government coming in, how the vote will go is another matter, the paper wrote.
Maternal instinct saves 16-month-old girl from Meningitis
Iltalehti wrote about 16-month-old Meea, who after suffering for five days with a fever that wouldn’t go down, was brought to a local health care centre in Vantaa last week. Her mother was already very worried, the paper writes, but the health care centre physician sent them home.
“I said quite directly there, that it’s not alright, the fever hasn’t gone down at all and we must do all possible tests,” the mother was quoted by IL. However, since the tests the medical centre did perform came back within norms, the health centre assumed the girl simply had a bad case of seasonal flu or a virus.
The next day things got much worse for little Meea. Further tests showed an increase in inflammation levels and white blood cells – so she was transported to the children’s department at Jorv Hospital in Espoo. There the 16-month-old girl became lethargic, absent and tearful – and then she began vomiting throughout the evening, the paper wrote.
Finally a spinal tap was performed on her and it took a half hour to determine that the girl had bacterial meningitis, which if left improperly treated can be fatal.
Happily, it wasn’t fatal, though Meea is still on an intravenous drip, but she’s getting better all the time now that she’s getting the right treatment, the paper wrote.