... 2000, Britain put into effect "controversial plans" to permit asylum seeks to "receive vouchers to buy food and clothes," and further to "disperse asylum seekers around
the country." The voucher program would be scrapped in 2002 -- to be replaced by the issuance to asylum seekers of special identification cards.... 1952, Miina Sillanpää (right) died in Helsinki, Finland. Born Vilhelmiina Riktig in 1866, 1 of a peasant couple's 9 children, she changed her name on becoming a maid in at age 18. In time she worked also as a journalist, and "was an early advocate of women's trade union rights and a staunch supporter of social welfare legislation." In 1907 she was among the 1st 19 women elected to Finland's Parliament (below; photo credit), and she served in that
body off and on for nearly 4 decades. In 1926 Sillanpää was elected Minister of Social Affairs, making her Finland's 1st woman government minister.
