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President Barack Obama has nominated a lawyer who raised campaign money for him in the 2008 and 2012 elections as ambassador to Finland. The lawyer, Charles C. Adams Jr., is the managing partner at the Geneva office of the international law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. He was among a group of Obama fundraisers in 2008 that raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the campaign. In 2012, he was among Obama's top fundraisers, bringing a minimum of $500,000 to the president's re-election effort.

Tuesday, 3 June 2014Dr James Thompson Renée Zellweger cropped.jpg Cold Winter theory is very simple: warm blooded, warm climate adapted humans drifted North in search of game, and perished unless they could hunt, cope with the climate, and plan wisely so as to live from one winter to the next. Hence, survivors had more forethought, more behavioural restraint regarding immediate gratification, and a whole lot of other changes to help them adapt to hunting and later farming in cold climates. If any of this is true, people living in the far North should be very bright. All the short-term-ist, happy...

A Finnish citizen who wanted the state to recognize her new gender after surgery and remain legally married to woman at the same time lost her case at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday (16 July). Heil Hamalainen underwent male-to-female gender reassignment surgery in 2009, years after she married her partner. But Finnish law does not recognize same-sex marriages. State authorities said that for Hamalainen to have her new gender recognized, she would need to turn the marriage into a civil partnership or get a divorce—something the couple refused. …

Archaeologists in Finland are celebrating the discovery of a number of artefacts in Lapland, northern Finland. A series of surveys by the forestry watchdog Metsähallitus has unearthed hundreds of hunting pits, several prehistoric habitations, pottery shards and a stone spearhead. The most exceptional part of the archaeological find was a stone spear tip or a possible prehistoric knife, which was discovered close to the Norwegian border. The stone implement has been uncovered by high winds as it lay in a sand pit. Experts estimate that the rough blade had been used during the Stone Age or the early metal age,...

A coalition of religious activists in Finland using MassResistance materials has blocked a “gay marriage” move in the Finnish Parliament, overcoming a well-funded and well-organized push by the homosexual lobby. On June 25 the Finnish Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted 10-6 to reject the "gay marriage" bill. The vote followed lobbying by coalition members and the distribution of MassResistance materials to all members of Parliament. In addition, the MassResistance video “What 'gay marriage' did to Massachusetts” was broadcast on national TV in May. This represents a serious setback for efforts to bring “gay marriage” to Finland any time soon. The...

Twelve EU countries have warned investors not to do business with Israeli settler entities, amid a security crisis in Israel and Palestine. The group includes: Austria; Belgium; Croatia; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Ireland; Luxembourg; Malta; Portugal; Slovakia; and Slovenia. Portugal published its statement on Wednesday (2 July) and the others came out on Thursday. France, Italy, and Spain put out similar communiques earlier this week. Germany and the UK already did it months ago. Poland is expected to publish a warning shortly. The Irish foreign ministry said the action “has been coordinated at EU level”. …

Deacon Anders Hamberg being ordained by Bishop Teemu Sippo at Saint Henry's Cathedral in Helsinki (Photo courtesy of Saint Henry's Cathedral: henrik.katolinen.fi) Among the recent positive developments of Catholicism in the Northern countries, Deacon Anders Hamberg was ordained a priest on Saturday, June 7th, as only the sixth Finnish-born Catholic priest since the Reformation. The ordination took place in Saint Henry’s Cathedral in Helsinki, in both Swedish, the mother tongue of Fr. Hamberg, and Latin, and was celebrated by the Bishop of Helsinki, Msgr. Teemu Sippo S.C.I. Father Hamberg had been ordained a deacon by Bishop Sippo on September...

Finland should seriously consider joining NATO because of Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine and could hold a referendum on the issue some time after its 2015 election, its defense minister told Reuters. Opinion polls show only one fifth of Finns favor joining the Atlantic alliance but Carl Haglund said he expected that to change if Finland, which shares a 1,300 kilometer border with Russia, had an honest and open debate about NATO membership. "I think the grounds for NATO membership are stronger than ever," Haglund said in an interview scheduled for publication on Wednesday. "It shouldn't come as a surprise...

Alexander Stubb is set to become Finland’s next prime minister, and he said he wants the country to join NATO. This could cause problems since Russia has “warned” Finland, along with Sweden, over a relationship with NATO and even told NATO that Moscow will respond if the organization builds near Russia’s borders.  .... "We have to aim at maximising [sic] Finland's national security and being part of decision-making, and that happens best as a NATO member," Stubb told Reuters. .... Finland borders Russia, and due to Moscow’s aggression towards Ukraine, the country is concerned with national security. Russia issued a stern warning at...

(Reuters) - Finland's EU minister Alexander Stubb, who wants to cut taxes and take his neutral country into NATO, won the leadership of his ruling conservative party on Saturday, putting him on track to become prime minister later this month.

HS: Officers see growing threat from Russia 26.4.2014 10:24 | updated 26.4.2014 10:28 The results also indicate an increase in support for NATO membership, with nearly two in three saying this would be the best security option for Finland. An officer preps soldiers ahead of an exercise at Helsinki's Santahamina military base. Finnish military officers are concerned about Russia’s intentions, according to a survey published in the leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday. Four out of five officers who responded to a poll by the daily believe that the military threat from Russia has increased.A majority of those interviewed said...

Do Finland want to start World War III? It's something to think about if Finland wants to join NATO, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergei Markov. Enlarge Do Finland want to start World War III? It's something to think about if Finland wants to join NATO, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergei Markov. It's not Russian hatred against Finland, but if Finland joins NATO, it shows that the country has a Russia-complex, said Markov, who is a political scientist, to the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. - If Finland wants to join NATO, they should think first . Will...

At the start of morning assembly in the state-of-the-art Viikki School here, students’ smartphones disappear. In math class, the teacher shuts off the Smartboard and begins drafting perfect circles on a chalkboard. The students — some of the highest-achieving in the world — cut up graphing paper while solving equations using their clunky plastic calculators. Finnish students and teachers didn’t need laptops and iPads to get to the top of international education rankings, said Krista Kiuru, minister of education and science at the Finnish Parliament. And officials say they aren’t interested in using them to stay there. That’s in stark...

Cynics are three times more likely to develop dementia than those who have faith in humanity, a study has shown. Believing that others are motivated by selfishness, or that they lie to get what they want, appears to radically increase the risk of cognitive decline in later life.It could mean that grumpy old men and women should be screened more closely for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Cynicism has previously been linked to health problems such as heart disease, but this is the first time it has been associated with dementia.“These results add to the evidence that people’s view on life...

Finland’s Ministry of Defence Carl Haglund says he believes Russia’s actions in Ukraine have brought Finland and Sweden closer to NATO now than they ever were in the past. During his party’s conference in the southern coastal city of Hanko on Saturday, the Swedish People’s Party (RKP) Chair Carl Haglund spoke of the Ukraine crisis and its ramifications, defending Ukraine’s right to sovereignty and self-determination. “In a free Europe, every country is free to decide on its own development, without an army situated behind the border threatening to barge in,” said Haglund. Haglund says he is of the opinion that...

Gdansk, Poland If only Ronald Reagan -and Pope John Paul- were here to see what freedom and prosperity their little project has brought the Polish people over the last quarter-century now... but I think they're looking down with a smile. Small wonder the Poles are more than ready to fight in order to defend their hard-won liberty (and booming economy) from the Russians... and why the Ukrainians have now said "Hey!- that's what we should have been doing for the last two lost decades..." Photo presentation at Reaganite Republican-

Euronazis: Who Supports Putin in the West? 26.04.2014 | 22:33S.Parkhomenko, T.Stezhar Full list of foreign observers to a Crimean pseudo-referendum has become public. Names of “friends of Putin� (who doesn’t stop claiming that there has been a “fascist coup� in Ukraine) will make you consider very carefully, who should be called a fascist. Names of “friends of Putin� will make you consider very carefully who should be called a fascist. / REUTERS Back in early March of 2014, two weeks ahead of the pseudo-referendum and annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, in one of the Russian newspapers, a prominent historian and religious...

The last time the Russian "Doomsday Plane" was seen in the air doing its trademark loops at 27,000 feet telegraphing Vladimir Putin was somewhere nearby, was on March 31, just days after the formerly Ukrainian region was annexed by the Kremlin. Until today, when over the past 4 hours, the Tu-214 has been quietly circling in position just shy of Finland and the Baltics, where as it is known, NATO has been depositing hundreds of western soldiers in a "defensive" build up.

Medieval slave trade routes in Eastern Europe extended from Finland and the Baltic Countries to Central Asia April 15, 2014 University of Eastern Finland Summary: The routes of slave trade in Eastern Europe in the medieval and pre-modern period extended all the way to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. A recent study suggests that persons captured during raids into areas which today constitute parts of Finland, the Russian Karelia and the Baltic Countries ended up being sold on these remote trade routes. The routes of slave trade in Eastern Europe in the medieval and pre-modern period extended all the...

The West’s standoff with Russia over Ukraine is triggering debate over the adequacy of defence spending and cooperation to confront a more assertive Russia across Europe. In Finland and Sweden, an important element in this debate is whether the two countries should join NATO, STRATFOR reported. While the events in Ukraine strengthen the argument for NATO membership, general support for the idea is still lacking in both countries — such a step would represent a big shift from Finland’s and Sweden’s strategy of avoiding too strong a military alignment with the West in order to prevent any conflict with Russia....

There is no large Russian military presence in East Ukraine, head of EU intelligence, Commodore Georgij Alafuzoff, has said. The spy chief has dismissed multiple accusations from the West alleging Russian involvement in the unrest in the region. In an interview with Finnish national news broadcaster, Yle, Alafuzoff said the Russian military had nothing to do with the seizing of government buildings in eastern Ukraine. “In my opinion, it’s mostly people who live in the region who are not satisfied with the current state of affairs,” said Alafuzoff, referring to the situation in East Ukraine. He went on to say...

An Israeli hacker team published on Tuesday images and personal details of members of the Anonymous hacker collective who participated in the OpIsrael attack against Israeli sites earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Israeli Elite Force gained access to the computers of 16 Anonymous members and was able to capture screenshots and photos of the anti-Israel hackers with their own webcams. The Israeli team published the information in a Dropbox document via their Facebook page, saying, “Anonymous, next time do not mess with us.” The file includes the names of the attackers, their countries of origin, and usernames and...

Finland has launched a range of erotic gay stamps, featuring a man in police uniform sitting on the shoulders of a naked man, and another with a man looking in between some naked legs. The stamps are to commemorate the life and work of the artist Touko Laaksonen, more commonly known as Tom of Finland, reports Pink News. The stamps, which will be available from the Autumn, are being launched by the Finnish Postal Service, Itella. In a statement they said: “His emphatically masculine homoerotic drawings have attained iconic status in their genre and had an influence on, for instance,...

CBS/ReutersMarch 5, 2014, 11:01 AM Vladimir Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize OSLO -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize but the conflict in Ukraine is also likely to be on the Nobel committee's agenda. A record 278 candidates, including 47 organizations, received nominations for the 2014 prize, said the Norwegian Nobel Institute's director, Geir Lundestad. Committee members who met on Tuesday added their own proposals with a focus on recent turmoil around the globe. "Part of the purpose of the committee's first meeting is to take into account recent events, and committee...

Archeologists have uncovered a unique funerary monument of the first millennium AD on the territory of Opolye, Suzdal. The discovery of this Finno-Ugric burial ground is a real event for archeologists. In the excavation around 300 square meters large there have been unearthed 11 tombs that make it possible to reveal the earlier unknown facts of ancient history. The monument dating back to the 3rd-4th centuries has kept Finnish jewelry and is evidence of a rich militarized society, where cattle breeding played an important role. All entombments are located in a row. Judging by their size at least four of...

‘Red Festival’ In Udmurtia 19 November 2010, 07:50 Nadezhda Volokitina The Udmurts are the most red-haired Finno-Ugric people, the most red-haired nation in Russia, and as far as the rest of the world is concerned, they are inferior only to the Irish in this respect. The so-called ‘Red Festival’, which gathers a lot of people, takes place annually in the capital of Udmurtia, Izhevsk. There organized such contests and competitions as ‘Mother, Father and I are a Red Family’ (the most red-haired family contest), ‘Mischievous Gingers’ (the most red-haired child contest), as well as ‘red’ pet contests for cats, dogs,...

Eighteen countries, including five of the world’s leading arms exporters, ratified a landmark treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade on Wednesday, giving a significant boost to the campaign for the treaty’s entry into force. […] Five of the world’s top 10 arms exporters—Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain—turned in their ratification documents at the ceremony. The other 13 were Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Among the hold-outs is the United States, the world’s largest weapons exporter. The Obama administration has signed the treaty but there is strong resistance in...

STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) - When Russian warplanes staged a mock bombing run on Sweden last year, air defences were caught napping. It was the middle of the night and no Swedish planes were scrambled.

Is the Republican Party's Middle East policy up for bid? For four days ending Sunday, a quartet of presidential hopefuls trooped to Las Vegas to attend the annual gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Impresario: Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas-Macau casino mogul whose fortune is estimated at $39 billion -- 8th richest man on the planet -- and who dumped $92 million into the election of 2012. Adelson kept Newt Gingrich alive with a $15 million infusion of ad money, gutting Romney, and then sank $30 million into Mitt's campaign. This time Sheldon wants to buy himself a winner. Ari Fleischer,...

Russian military drills near neighboring Finland have provoked concern that northern Europe may be the next focus of Moscow's seemingly renewed appetite for redrawing its borders. Troops and jet fighters from all four military regions of Russia were deployed Sunday about 150 miles east of the Finnish border, according to the English-language newspaper Finnbay. The Russian defense ministry said in a statement that the exercises were pre-planned and that more than 50 fighter pilots took part. Finland was part of the Russian empire for 108 years, from 1809 until Russia’s withdrawal from World War I in 1917. The Karelia region,...

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ex-advisers has claimed that the ex-KGB agent ultimately wants to reclaim Finland for Russia. Andrej Illiaronov, Putin's economic adviser between 2000 and 2005 and now senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, said that "parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland are states where Putin claims to have ownership." "Putin's view is that he protects what belongs to him and his predecessors," he said. When asked if Putin wishes to return to the Russia of the last tsar, Nicholas II, Illiaronov said: "Yes, if it becomes possible." Illiaronov admits...

THE HAGUE, March 24./ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian crisis has not adversely affected bilateral relations between Finland and Russia, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said in The Hague on Monday. Helsinki traditionally maintained friendly relations with Moscow, Niinisto said adding he intended to continue bilateral meetings with Russia if it was in Finland’s interests, though last week's EU summit recommended that EU members cancel such meetings. Niinisto also pointed out the importance of continued negotiations to avert a deeper crisis in Ukraine.

Watchdogs from several European countries have noticed no indication of a massive build-up of Russian military that would threaten the security of neighboring states, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Sunday. According to Mr. Antonov, as many as seven inspection groups paid visits to Russian border territories over the past month. “Our facilities and deployment areas along the Russian-Ukrainian border were twice checked by the Ukrainian military,� he noted.Monitors from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland scrutinized Russia’s military camps stationed on its borders with neighboring nations. “It must have been a simple...

n September 1941, a medical officer performed a deed so heroic he was awarded an Iron Cross by the German high command. With little regard for his own safety, and in the face of heavy Soviet shelling, Major Leo Skurnik, a district doctor who had once fostered ambitions of becoming a concert pianist, organised the evacuation of a field hospital on the Finnish-Russian border, saving the lives of more than 600 men, including members of the SS. Skurnik was far from the only soldier to be awarded the Iron Cross during the Second World War. More than four million people...

Finnish YouTube user might not know how to speak many languages, but she sure sounds like she can. In a video uploaded on Monday 19-year-old Sara mimics what different dialects sound like to her. As she moves from language to language, she makes absolutely no sense yet sounds as if she speaks it fluently. For full disclosure, I wouldn't be able to fact-check most of the languages she speaks anyway. It's only when she gets to her American-English impression that her talent is confirmed. "Yeah, I mean, uh," she starts in her American accent, sounding as if she's a native...

SOCHI, Russia -- Teemu Selanne led his team around the ice, with a bronze medal draped around his neck, after he finished off his sixth Olympics with a sweet victory. If the Finnish Flash is retiring and hanging up his skates after the NHL season, he picked a pretty good way to go out on the world's stage. The final game at the Olympics turned out well for Finland's Teemu Selanne, who will go out on a high note, writes Pierre LeBrun. Story Selanne scored two goals and Tuukka Rask had a 27-save shutout, helping Finland rout the United States...

Jonathan Quick will leave Sochi empty handed, but not quietly. Humiliated after a 5-0 loss to Finland in the Olympic bronze-medal hockey game Saturday, the U.S. goaltender harshly criticized his team’s effort a day after losing to Canada in the semifinals. “It shouldn’t be too hard,” he told NBC. “We do that all year long. We’re professionals. We play back-to-backs all year long. “There’s no reason we show up and not piss a drop.” Quick also took responsibility for his own play. “My job is to stop the puck, and I didn’t do that very well,” the Los Angeles Kings...

It was over in a flash. A Finnish Flash. For Team USA, however, it was more like a flash finish. Team Finland scored two goals in 11 seconds early in the second period to snap a 0-0 tie en route to a 5-0 victory in the bronze medal game Saturday. Veteran Teemu Selanne, playing in his 35th Olympic hockey game, scored two goals including the game-winner to lead Finland. It was a wonderful conclusion to what has been a splendid Olympic hockey career for a classy gentleman. Selanne scored on a nifty backhand shot at 1:27 of the second period...

As many as 4,000 reindeer die in traffic accidents every year in Finland, the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute says. Most incidents occur in the dark months of November and December, when roads are prone to becoming icy, the Helsingen Sanomat newspaper reports.

SOCHI, Russia -- The Russians dutifully shook the Finns' hands and then skated to the center of a rink built to showcase their return to hockey dominance. When they raised their sticks in a mournful salute, they got more whistles than cheers from their devastated fans. Alex Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk and their teammates had nursed dreams about this week for several years. They were all dashed in 60 frustrating minutes. Russia crashed out of the Olympics in the quarterfinals Wednesday with a 3-1 loss to Finland, extending a historic hockey nation's gold-medal drought past 22 years and putting an enormous...

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An Alaska senator said the State Department called his office today to say that they would be creating a post for a U.S. ambassador to the Arctic. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) introduced the United States Ambassador at Large for Arctic Affairs Act a year ago, pressing Secretary of State John Kerry to make the appointment on economic and national security grounds. Six of the eight Arctic nations currently have ambassador-level diplomats representing their interests before the Arctic Council. The United States will assume the chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2015. “It’s not always easy explaining to Washington bureaucrats how...

The U.S. plummeted 13 slots to 46th overall “amid increased efforts to track down whistle-blowers and the sources of leaks,” Reporters Without Borders warned in an annual report. The trial and conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden were warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly be in the public interest,” the organization said.

Bride’s family protests dance by groom’s relatives during weddingA wedding in Saudi Arabia quickly snowballed into a scuffle between the families of the groom and his bride after relatives and friends of the groom infuriated their opponents by performing the famous ‘penguin dance’, a newspaper said on Sunday. Relatives and guests began to pour into the massive wedding hall in the eastern Saudi town of Dammam when a heated argument erupted before it led to a scuffle between the relatives of the groom and his bride. Friends and other guests intervened and managed to end the fight that threatened to...

Welfare spending in Britain has increased faster than almost any other country in Europe since 2000, new figures show. The cost of unemployment benefits, housing support and pensions as share of the economy has increased by more than a quarter over the past thirteen years – growing at a faster rate than in most of the developed world. Spending has gone up from 18.6 per cent of GDP to 23.7 per cent of GDP – an increase of 27 per cent, according to figures from the OECD, the club of most developed nations. By contrast, the average increase in welfare...

Artifacts included a battle axe, a knife, and a bronze buckle, all associated with burned human bones, initially thought to be dated to around 1000 - 1200 CE before analysis. Similar objects have been discovered in the Baltic Sea area and in Ladoga Karelia. Identical cape buckles have also been found in Gotland. But based on the University of Helsinki analysis, the cremation grave finds date to a time that is significantly earlier -- during the Viking Age between 775-980 CE, based on their application of AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) techniques... ...in the area between the towns of Loviisa and...

The Nordic Council has received recommendations from the expert panel to forbid antifeminist speech in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway). The “Expert panel” was full of radical feminists and profeminist men. In the report antifeminist speech and right-wing extremist hate speech towards immigrants are treated as a part of the same movement. Antifeminist Threats and Harassment must be made Illegal (We recommend that the Nordic governments ensure that threats and harassment on the basis of gender are made illegal. Hate speech online must be prosecuted similarly to hate speech in other public spheres.) Low threshold services...

EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union’s foreign service to open an embassy in Iran. Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament’s Iran delegation, said member states’ ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month. […] The EU already has embassies in other pariah states, such as Belarus. But Iran and the EU remain wary of each other despite the Geneva breakthrough. …

Explanation: What's happening behind those houses? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...