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Wednesday's papers: Killer on the loose, pension cuts loom, wheelchair racer wins big, Moomins uncensored

Dailies in Finland go into an assortment of news from a killer being sought by police, the downsides of a new pension reform, wheelchair racing star Leo-Pekka Tähti winning Sports Personality of the Year and classic Moomin television episodes airing.

Muumit Rivieralla.
The Moomin TV series used to be shown on Yle, but can now be seen on C-More – completely uncensored. Image: © 2012 Handle Productions Oy, Pictak Cie © Moomin Characters™

A convicted killer known for drowning his victims has fled custody and is being sought by Finnish police, tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports.

The 51-year-old Pekka Tapani Seppänen was sentenced to 14.5 years in prison on Tuesday, but could not be located after the hearing. Police are still on his trail.

"We started a search immediately using a number of patrols," officer Kimmo Wetterstrand says in the paper. "This is very high on our list of priorities."

Locals in Kontiolahti say they are scared for their lives. While the families of the victims say they have been content with their level of safety and care, one anonymous family member said that Seppänen should have been detained following with arraignment in December.

Seppänen is not deemed to be dangerous to people outside his circle of acquaintances.

Pensioners strapped, Tähti a star

Meanwhile, Tampere region paper Aamulehti looks at the effects of the new pension reform that came into effect at the beginning of the year, and the facts aren't pretty.

The reform notably raises the pension age of all Finnish adults in working life, leading to a new concept, a so-called pension target age. By working until the target age, workers will be compensated for the cuts to their pension they face while they work.

However, AL points out, not all employees in all fields even necessarily live to be 63 years old, and people may not have the capacity to work until the specified age. Pension moneys are accrued starting at 17 years of age.

More happily in Helsingin Sanomat: in a historic first for Finnish sports, Paralympics star Leo-Pekka Tähti has been chosen as Sports Personality of the Year by the Sports Journalists' Union. Tähti's sport of choice is wheelchair racing, in which he has won a total of four gold medals.

Moomins rebooted

It sounds unlikely, but the beloved Moomin animated television series had three darker episodes that were never aired. That is about to change as the 26 first episodes of the series will be made available via the C-More pay TV company, according to Ilta-Sanomat.

The three censored episodes involved violence in the form of Japanese samurai swordplay, characters using curse words and even demons appearing to harass the denizens of Moominvalley.

Controversially, the paper reports, the series is also being re-dubbed by new voice actors. The Moomin series, based on Tove Jansson's iconic characters and produced in Japan in the early 90s, is a staple of the childhood of most Finnish millennials complete with voice acting that is an indelible part of the juvenile experiences of many.