Finland

A Tass press agency reporter has defected with his wife and two children while on assignment in Finland by crossing into neighboring Sweden, emigre sources said today. The sources said Raivo Ojasaar, 39, an Estonian who had been posted in Helsinki since 1981, may have continued to West Germany or the United States to seek asylum.

Maria Strandlund of Sweden beat Petra Thoren of Finland, 7-6, 6-2, Sunday in the final of the women's $10,000 Stavanger Open tennis tournament. Both were unseeded among the 32 players entered.

What is believed to be the first professional boxing card in the Soviet Union has been scheduled for May 10 in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, the International Boxing Federation announced. The program will include six bouts and feature a bantamweight fight between Alain Limrola of France and Antti Juntumaa of Finland.

Regarding "Path of Destruction?" on Panama's Darien Gap jungle [Sept. 21]: Your country used to be wilderness. Then your forefathers, overcrowded EU escapees, killed the Indians and turned it into a "teak farm." Now your generation has changed its wilderness into a "plastic theme park." Timo Alonen Kuopio, Finland

Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday pledged American support for the three Baltic states and announced $18 million in additional U.S. aid to them. Quayle, arriving from Finland, expressed America's support for Estonia which, with Latvia and Lithuania, regained independence from the Soviet Union in September.

President Clinton will visit Denmark on March 21 after his meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, the White House announced Tuesday. It will be the first visit to Denmark by a sitting U.S. president, said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry.