
Money could very well be the root of all evil — though in the latest study of corrupt countries, it's actually the lack of money that sparks trouble. The new report by Transparency International
found that in two-fifths of the world's nations, corruption continues to intensify — a trend that can be traced to economic realities. In the countries found to be the most corrupt, 40 percent are classified by the World Bank as low income.

It may seem like a joke, but wife carrying competition is a serious tradition in Finland. The practice
comes from an early tribal practice of wife stealing. Sacks of rye have been swapped with wives, as the relay race is modeled after the work of 1800's bandit leader Ronkainen, who screened wannabe robbers by testing how they faired racing with sacks.

Finland's popular foreign minister is the latest politician to
lose his job over naughty text messages. Ilkka Kanerva sent over 200 erotic text messages to a stripper, pictured. He initially denied the story when it broke in a gossip magazine, but later confessed to using his taxpayer cell phone to send the messages while attending an EU meeting in Brussels.