Archaeologists have never before encountered this grisly phenomenon in Mesolithic Scandinavia, and they're hard-pressed to explain it.

It’s a postcard-perfect day on Suomenlinna Island, in Helsinki’s South Harbor. Warm for the first week of June, day trippers mix with Russian, Dutch, and Chinese tourists sporting sun shades and carrying cones of pink ice cream. “Is this the prison?” asks a 40-something American woman wearing cargo pants and a floral sleeveless blouse.

A toy pirate ship launched by two young brothers in Aberdeenshire has sailed the high seas to Scandinavia. Ollie Ferguson, eight, and Harry, five, from Turriff, first launched their Playmobil ship from Peterhead at the end of May. It sailed hundreds of miles to Denmark, where a family sent it on its way. It then made it to Sweden and Norway. The boys launched the pirate ship as part of a bucket list of adventures they have put together.

Denmark, perhaps better known for its fictional, suicide-agonizing prince Hamlet and fierce marauding Vikings than being a nation of the happiest people, has just won that very accolade. Again. The United Nations has made it official: It found Danes to be the happiest people on Earth, in a study of 156 countries. Knud Christensen, a 39-year-old social worker, knows one reason why his compatriots are laid-back - they feel secure...

Taken from the album The Sign

Far-right political parties are making huge gains across Nordic countries as new champions of a working class alienated by the cosmopolitan left. By Julian Coman.