Helsinki - Finnish-based Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said Thursday its operating profit dropped 21 per cent for third quarter 2008.

Operating profit for the quarter was 1.46 billion euros (1.98 billion dollars), compared to 1.86 billion euros for the corresponding business period 2007.

Net sales dropped 5 per cent in the quarter to 12.2 billion euros.

Nokia estimated that its share of the global handset market in third quarter 2008 was 38 per cent, compared with 39 per cent in the third quarter 2007 and 40 per cent in the second quarter 2008.

Washington - The United States praised Martti Ahtisaari for dedicating his life to ending conflicts around the world after the former Finnish president won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

"The United States warmly congratulates President Ahtisaari and commends the Nobel Committee for its wise decision to award the Nobel Prize to Martti Ahtisaari," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Helsinki - A row continued to rage Friday in Finland over the hiring and subsequent firing of a female chief editor, allegedly due to her same-sex relationship.

Some 30 female students from Tampere College, north-west of Helsinki, staged a protest Friday outside the editorial offices of the Aamulehti daily, Finnish news agency STT reported.

Aamulethi is owned by the Alma Media group that had recently named Johanna Korhonen editor-in-chief of the Lapin Kansa newspaper, also part of the group.

Helsinki - A Finnish prosecutor was to probe police over events in the run-up to a school shooting in western Finland a week ago that claimed 11 lives, reports said Tuesday.

The probe was linked to the fact that police had allowed the 22-year-old man who killed 10 people to keep his gun.

The gunman, identified as Matti Saari, had been interviewed by a police officer Monday, on the eve of the shooting after he had posted videos on the internet of himself firing a gun at a shooting range.

The day after the interview Saari went on a rampage, shooting 10 people - eight female students, a male student and a male teacher.

Helsinki - All 10 victims of a school shooting in the west of Finland a week ago were shot at close range, police said Monday.

The victims - eight female students, one male student and a male teacher - were taken to Helsinki for formal identification and autopsies after the bloodshed on September
23 at the trade school in Kauhajoki.

The gunman, identified as Matti Saari, 22, died the same day of self-inflicted injuries a few hours after the rampage.

Lead investigator Jari Neulaniemi told reporters that the victims had been shot at close range, some had been hit in the chest or head.

It was still not clear if any of the victims died of asphyxiation or burns due to fires Saari set after the shootings.

London, Sept. 26 : The YouTube gunman who carried out a mass school shooting in Finland telephoned a friend as he slaughtered his classmates.

Killer Matti Saari, 22, had boasted 18 months ago that he was going to shoot many people in a school, but later claimed to be joking.

Only three people escaped from the classroom where Saari, a trainee chef, opened fire at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland on Tuesday.

Ten people died before the gunman killed himself.