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In conflict situations, violence is used against civilians in order to inflict trauma, humiliate, fracture the social and moral fabric of innocent victims, their families and communities. Conflict-related sexual violence (also referred to as CRSV) is a horrific method used by armed actors, terrorist groups, and other malicious parties as a tactic of war, terrorism, or extremist violence.  WHAT IS CRSV? When we talk about CRSV, it can include things like rape, sexual assault, forced abortions, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced marriages, forced pregnancy, and unwanted sterilization. It can mean any kind of sexual violence that is related to a conflict that can be inflicted on men, women, young boys or girls. We can define CRSV by the profile of the perpetrators and the victims.  The perpetrators are often tied to armed groups that can be State, or non-State affiliated. This means that they could be armies, police, and any other authorities that belongs to the country'...

In the summer of 1960, four t eenagers were brutally attacked while enjoying a camping weekend. Police never figured out who the killer was. However, they had many suspects over the years. One such suspect even went to trial. In the first part of the Bodom Lake murders, we looked in-depth at the victims murder scene and subsequent police investigation. In Part 2, we will explore who the suspects were and why police were never able to this anyone to the crime.   SUSPECTS There has been many suspects in the Bodom Lake murders. The first one was a local shop owner by the name of Karl Valdermar Gyllström. His kiosk, located by the lake, was very popular with the campers. Gyllström was also known as "Kiosk man" or "Kioskimies".  Karl Gyllström, the "Kioskimies" Gyllström was very hostile towards the campers. He was known to cut down tents or throw rocks at them. There were some reports of witnesses seeing him leave the campsite, and the witnesses were too afrai...

In previous blog posts of the "Finnish Murders" series, we had a look at the tragic death of Kyllikki Saari , and the unsolved case of the Tulilahti double homicide. At the same time as the trial of Runar Holmström was happening, the horrific murder of the three teenagers in Bodom Lake shocked the already grieving Finnish public.  In this two-part series, we will delve deeply in what is still a fascinating and troubling unsolved murder in Finland. This crime has inspired the name of a very famous Finnish metal band, the Children of Bodom, and has also inspired two horror movies and many other documentaries, podcasts and armchair sleuths.  LAKE BODOM TRIP   On June 4th, 1960, Maila Irmeli Björklund and her friend, Anja Tuulikki Mäki, set out on a camping adventure. Both girls were fifteen years of age and living in the town of Vantaa, Finland. Joining them would be Seppo Antero Boisman and Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, aged eighteen-years-old. They were the girls' boyfriends. ...

This week we have a guest post by Tapani from They Talk YouTube Channel . Please make sure you go and like and subscribe to their channel and watch the video related to this post!  Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union died at the age of 91, on 30th August 2022. He was a highly respected statesman abroad but not so much in his own country, Russia. His relationship with President Putin was especially cold. What did Gorbachev think about Vladimir Putin’s Russia? Our focus here isn’t the last days of the USSR or Mr Gorbachev's life story. We are concentrating on his take on how Russia is today and its current leader Mr Putin. Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin (Credit: Turun Sanomat )  HIS LEGACY After the news about the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev the world has once again remembered, and praised, the part that he played in ending the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In 1990, Gorbachev was given the Nobel Peace Prize “for the leading role he pl...

Russia overtook Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant early in the war when they invaded Ukraine. Since then, world leaders have condemned the Russian military for using the plant as a military base. Nerves are rising as the world wonders, are we heading towards a nuclear disaster worse than Chernobyl? ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR POWER STATION The nuclear plant was built in the Soviet era, near the town of Enerhodar. It has six nuclear reactors. The first five were brought online between 1985 and 1989, and the last one was connected in 1995. The power station handles generating over half of Ukraine's energy deriving from nuclear power, and about a fifth of the whole electricity in the country. Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (credit: Wikipedia) Unfortunately, the plant fell to the Russians on 4th March 2022, after the battle of Enerhodar. Since then, Ukrainian staff continues to run the plant. It has been reported that they are not allowed to leave the plant or take breaks from sh...

  Vladimir Nikolayevich Nikolayev, was born on March 16, 1959, in Novocheboksarsk, USSR. There is not much known about his early childhood or family. What we can find is that he was in and out of prison for much of his life. He was sentenced mostly for theft and robbery. Friends said that he was an alcoholic, unsociable, and liked to cause arguments and be rowdy. Nikolayev was not a sociable person. His life was spent more incarcerated than free. The few months he had between sentences were used to commit the next crimes that would get him jailed. The stints out of jail were usually two or three months. The longest one he had was seven months in 1997, in which he committed these murders. Vladimir Nikolayev's mug shot at the time of his arrest in 1997 (Russian Police) FIRST MURDER AN ACCIDENT The first kill was a complete accident. During an alcoholic argument, Nikolayev hit his neighbors while arguing over light for a cigarette. They started a fist fight and the neighbors fell to t...

We had an international furore when United States House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, arrived on a state visit to the island of Taiwan on 3rd August 2022. Her visit caused Beijing to react extremely angry. The visit, according to Pelosi was to ''show that America has unwavering commitment to Taiwan.'' However, China condemned this visit as a threat to their "One-China" policy. This was the highest level state visit of a United States representative in 25 years, so we can see why this caused some friction between the two nations.  IS TAIWAN PART OF CHINA? Before we move further, lets look at the history of Taiwan. This small island off the coast of the Fujian province of China, came under Chinese control in the 17th century, under the Qing dynasty. They annexed the island in 1693, but had to cede it to the Empire of Japan in 1895, when they lost the first Sino-Japanese war. After the Second World War, the Republic of China, that overthrew the Qing d...