Helsinki - Finnish paper and forestry group Stora Enso on Monday said its operating profit has been lowered for fourth-quarter
2008, citing the impact of inventory write-downs and production cuts.

The group said preliminary estimates put the write-down at 670 million euros (881 million dollars).

Full details were due in connection with the full-year report next month.

During the fourth quarter, Stora Enso reduced paper and board production by some 15 per cent - or about 490,000 tons.

Pulp production was cut by about 20 per cent and sawnwood production was reduced by 30 per cent of capacity, the group said in a statement.

A new research revealed that women are more susceptible to the rheumatoid arthritis than men. Due to the disease they are more likely to suffer pain, tiredness and aches.

A consultant, Dr. Tuulikki Sokka in Rheumatology at the Jyvaskyla Central Hospital, Finland, and her colleagues analyzed the links between the disease and the gender.

Stockholm - The ceremony to mark the bicentenary of the separation in 1809 of Finland and Sweden got under way in Stockholm Thursday in the presence of Swedish King Carl Gustaf and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

The year 1809 has different connotations in the two countries - if remembered at all as a historic date, as several speakers and historians have observed.

Helsinki - Three men died Thursday in a shooting incident in the Finnish town of Jyvaskyla, police and local media reported.

The motive for the shooting in the central Finnish town was not known, but one of the victims was believed to have turned his gun on himself, broadcaster YLE reported.

Two of the victims were found outside an apartment building, and a third man was found in an apartment, Finnish news agency STT reported.

Police did not confirm if there were any persons alive in the apartment when they stormed it after being alerted abut the shooting, STT said.

Helsinki - A consortium that plans to build an underwater Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was Tuesday granted extended permission to investigate the sea bed in the Finnish economic zone.

The current permit was due to have expired on Wednesday, but the Finnish government extended it until end of June 2010 after an application from Nord Stream AG.

The 1,200-kilometre long pipeline is planned to run from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald, Germany. The consortium has ruled out a land- based route.

Washington, Dec 8 : Researchers in Finland say they have identified the first potential "biomarker" that could be used in development of a sputum test for early detection of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition that causes severe difficulty in breathing — most often in cigarette smokers.

Vuokko L. Kinnula and colleagues point out that until now, no disease marker for COPD currently exists, despite extensive efforts by scientists to find one.

Previous studies pointed to a prime candidate — surfactant protein A (SP-A), which has a major role in fighting infections and inflammation in the lung.