News stories by Linus Atarah

HELSINKI, May 05 (IPS) - The freedom of the press is a universally cherished democratic right, but what may have been overlooked as the World Day Freedom of Information was celebrated on Wednesday is that the ability of journalists to protect their source is increasingly coming under attack by authorities.

HELSINKI, Oct 06 (IPS) - The City of Helsinki added its voice to a growing global call against corporate tax evasion with the passage of a new responsibility strategy that leaves no room for unethical business practices.

Participants at the Fifth International Parliamentarians’ Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) ended their meeting here Friday with a joint pledge to advocate for increased funding for full implementation of the decades-old ICPD Programme of Action.

While much of the world is facing a global financial crisis, made worse by government cuts in social spending, members of parliament meeting here Wednesday agreed the economic crunch is no reason for governments to relax their commitment to women’s reproductive rights and health, made 18 years ago.

When war-torn Somalia was also ravaged by a drought-induced famine last year, which killed tens of thousands and displaced over a million people, international media was quick to blame the Islamist Al-Shabaab for blocking humanitarian assistance from reaching its zone of control in southern Somalia.

In the midst of the debt and financial crises plaguing key European countries, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has joined a growing international chorus calling for the introduction of a global financial market tax and the shutting down of tax havens, saying all that is needed is the political will to do it.

'Since the economic crisis, migrants are increasingly at risk from racism and xenophobia,' president of the United Nations General Assembly Nassir Abdulaiziz Al-Nasser said at a meeting on migration and communication in Helsinki Thursday.

Juha Suoranta had until recently been a professor of sociology, pursuing a quiet academic career in the University of Tampere, unconcerned with issues surrounding asylum for foreigners in trouble.

As Finnish energy major Neste Oil scales up production of its ‘green’ diesel NExBTL, environmental activists fear that more land will go under palm oil plantations at the expense of Southeast Asia’s threatened rainforests.

Nordic welfare state systems, often held up as model in the developed world, are crumbling under the assault of neo-liberal economic policies, say economic experts.