Virtually all of Monday’s metro-based papers covered Sunday afternoon’s massive fire in northern Helsinki. The evening tabloid Ilta-Sanomat devoted a large photo and nearly an entire page to the fire on page six today. The paper reported that 12 homes were made uninhabitable by the daytime blaze which caused huge plumes of thick, black smoke high into the sky that could be seen for miles away.
Luckily, no one was injured in the fire in the northern Helsinki district of Suutarila, the paper wrote. The cause of the fire, which devastated approximately 400 square meters of the building, is still unknown.
Angry Birds-themed parks in Espoo spark outrage
Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet (€) (HBL) featured a front page story about the dismay of city councilors who say that the mayor’s and other top officials’ decision to pay hundreds of thousands of euros - completed without the competitive bid process - for Angry Birds-themed playground sets.
Espoo City Councilor Mari Nevalainen told HBL she was accused of "defamation" by city workers when she requested information about how the deal between city administrators and Angry Birds’ owners Rovio Entertainment actually went down.
According to law, the paper writes, city spending for items or services valued at more than 30,000 euros are required to go out to bid, but this process was not followed. For building projects the threshold for bidding requirements is 150,000 euros.
Rovio, an Espoo-based international entertainment giant, reportedly sold three of the playground sets to the city for 203,000, 266,000, and 242,000 euros each, the paper wrote. Nevalainen said, apart from the questioning the way city money was spent, also asked: "which other Espoo companies get free advertising and visibility?"
Tastes of the world for cooking adventures found in Tampere
Aamulehti featured a three-page spread in it’s 'People' section about the independently owned and operated international grocery store scene in Tampere. The paper featured seven shops in the city that carry imported delicacies from the Middle and Far East, and also interviewed a few of the owners.
The owners interviewed by Aamulehti included Mohammad Eskandari, an Afghan who moved to Finland 10 years ago and runs a Halal and grocery store with his son. When asked who shops at his store he replied: "The whole world comes here, also Finns to some extent."
