On Tuesday afternoon it emerged that Premier Juha Sipilä had called a meeting of senior police and ministers after a suspected rape in his home town of Kempele. The premier called the incident "serious, disgusting and reprehensible", and said he'd discussed whether Finland's laws might need changing.
Of course Wednesday's tabloids lead with the incident and the political reaction. Ilta-Sanomat asked Interior Minister Petteri Orpo for comment, and he said that the meeting was not a direct response to the Kempele incident but rather a discussion of general problems and unrest that has been observed in and around asylum reception centres.
This was just as well, as the police have refused to confirm that the two suspects in the rape are, in fact, asylum seekers. It would be odd for the Prime Minister to disregard guidelines followed by rank-and-file officers when discussing serious crimes, as Finland's most well-known online police officer Marko Forss observed on Twitter.
Orpo: Don't label asylum seekers
Nevertheless, Sipilä told IS afterwards that legislative changes are already in the pipeline. In the spring parliament will consider a law designed to speed up deportation of foreigners convicted of serious crimes.
Iltalehti included a quote from Orpo to the effect that new reception centres will have to be approved by police. In practice, according to Orpo, new centres will have to be in places the police can get to quickly should they need to. Orpo also warned against generalising.
"I don't mean to defend (the culprits), but if you consider that there are 30,000 asylum seekers arriving this year, then of course that group includes all kinds of people," said Orpo. "But you shouldn't generalise and label everyone because of a few criminals."
Inactive kids
IS also has a story on an old chestnut: the youth of today. According to Orthopedic doctor Esko Kaartinen of Eira hospital in Helsinki, some kids starting school in Finland are now unable to run.
Kaartinen blames inactive lifestyles and an over-reliance on tablets and other screens to entertain children. Although he couldn't point to concrete statistics on the topic, he said he'd noticed an uptick in symptoms of orthopedic problems, and particularly in neck pain among children.
"This is alarming, as you have to remember that children's bodies cope differently to adults', for example falls rarely cause kids pain," said Kaartinen. "If a child's spine is showing symptoms, then there's usually a serious reason."
To avoid problems, Kaartinen recommends that under-7s get at least two hours' exercise each day, while those aged between 7 and 18 run around for between 1 and 2 hours daily.