BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Baltic Jews, politicians, and school children mark Holocaust Remembrance Day

By TIMOTHY JACOBS (Associated Press Writer)
Associated Press
01/27/2005

Baltic leaders attended ceremonies in Poland on Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp while Jewish groups, government officials and students commemorated "Holocaust Day" in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, and Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas joined other world leaders at the ceremonies in Poland as their countrymen gathered to mark the region's own Holocaust history that claimed the lives of more than 90 percent of the prewar Baltic Jewish population.

Many Latvian Jews and government officials, including Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks, attended ceremonies Thursday in the capital, Riga, and at a holocaust memorial in the nearby town of Salispils, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the capital, the site of another Nazi-run concentration camp.

Discussions were held about the Holocaust in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday and later a candlelight vigil was planned at a monument in Klooga, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Tallinn, the site of an Estonian concentration camp where nearly all the Jewish prisoners were killed over a two-day period in 1944.

Schools throughout the Baltics showed films or held forums as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex - where more than 1.5 million people perished - was liberated by advancing Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. Since 1996, Germans have set the day aside as Holocaust Remembrance Day to focus on the crimes committed in their name.

This marks the third year the date has also been recognized as Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Baltics.

The Holocaust claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 Jews in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

MAPS

Silver Spoon Awards 2004

The Estonian Gastronomy Society presented the first Silver Spoon awards this January. City Paper urges its readers to support this project: ask your favorite restaurants to take part. And ask the bad restaurants to take part so that they may be smitten from the earth.
Silver Spoon category and winner
Best gourmet restaurant : Stenhus
Best ethnic food : Sushi house
Best family-friendly restaurant : Georg Ots Spa Restoran (Saaremaa)
Best café : Crepp
Best new restaurant : Sisalik
Best chef : Michael Bhoola (Pegasus restaurant)
Best wine service : Stenhus
Best interior : Stenhus
Best service : Restoran Kadriorg

Estonia's top ten richest businessmen by dividends in 2005

Eesti Ekspress daily has published a list of Estonian businessmen who earned most in 2004 from dividends.

The biggest dividends were taken out in 2004 by Endel Siff who is shareholder of N-Terminal Grupp and Trans-Kullo which itself has a half-share in Pakterminal oil terminal in Port of Muuga. Siff took out EEK 15.6 million (1 million euros) in dividends in 2004.

Second in the list was Aadu Luukas, who is also a shareholder in N-Terminal Grupp and Trans-Kullo, but who received EEK 15.2 million in dividends in 2004.

Sergei Glinka, shareholder of Worldwide Invest that develops a coal terminal in the Port of Muuga, earned 15 million kroons in dividends. The same amount was taken out by his business partner, 28-year-old Maksim Liksutov, from Worldwide Invest which belongs to Russian businessmen.

Fifth was Tiit Kuuli, large shareholder in FCM Group, a construction company. Kuuli received EEK 12 million from dividends.

Sixth was Vjatcheslav Leedo, chairman of Saaremaa Laevakompanii that operates a ferry line between mainland Estonia and the two largest islands Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. Leedo earned EEK 11.6 million in dividends.

No. 7 was Toomas Annus, large shareholder of Merko Group, who earned EEK 10.4 million.

Eighth was Lev Kleimov who is shareholder in transit trade companies Koviton and Diklerk which lease out railtanks. Kleimov made EEK 9.1 million in dividends.

Ninth and tenth position was shared by Vladimir Konkov and Lembit Lump. Konkov is another shareholder in Koviton and Diklerk, while Lump owns Bonaares investment company. Both Konkov and Lump earned EEK 8.9 million.

Source : BBN – Eesti Ekspress

Estonian tax board claims EUR 16 million from offshore companies

The Estonian tax board has issued tax claims worth EEK 244.3 million (16m euros) to offshore companies registered by Raivo Karu and Divec.

The tax board has initiated 518 tax audits on the basis of documents confiscated by the tax police in 1999 in Divec, Estonia's largest provider of offshore services.

Of these tax audits, 500 tax audits have been completed resulting in 202 tax claims. 54 of them were made to private persons and 148 to companies.

As a result of completed tax audits, tax board is claiming EEK 218 million. Criminal cases have been opened in the amount of 304 million kroons.

Source : BBN

City of Tallinn to file a new lawsuit for control over Skoone Bastion

City of Tallinn says it will file another lawsuit to force Mahyd & Skoone to turn over the Skoone Bastion to the City.

Eesti Päevaleht reports that the city has offered the bastion to Tivoli International that plans to build an amusement park in Tallinn for an estimated EEK 1.5 billion.

The city claims that although the supreme court upheld its claim to void the rental contract made with Mahyd & Skoone for fifty years, the company has not transferred the property to the city.

Although the company is believed to have filed a lawsuit against the city to the European Court of Human Rights, city representatives say that it does not affect their right to the bastion.

“We have no information that such a lawsuit has been filed,” said a city representative.

The city is claiming EEK 20,000 from the company for every month that it delays with transferring the property to the city.

Source : BBN

Government plans to cover Estonia with wireless Internet network

The ministry of economic affairs and communications plans to turn the obsolete NMT mobile communications network into a wireless Internet network.

Today’s Äripäev reports that if the plan is approved, the whole of Estonia could be covered with WiFi in a few years’ time.

Edvard Saarma, head of the telecommunications department of the ministry of enomic affairs, says that the government has for several years searched practical use for the analogue NMT network which is the predecessor of GSM network and is no longer in use.

Saarma says that although the NMT network that operated on 450 MHz frequency was based on analogue technology, digital technology known as CDMA is not available. One of the advantages of CDMA is that one base station has up to 40 kilometres of coverage, against 5 kilometres of NMT network.

Saarma said that four companies have already expressed interest to develop the pan-Estonian wireless network on the basis of NMT base stations. “We plan to invite bids for the project next year,” said Saarma.

He added that one concern that the ministry has is that the new network is not used for third-generation or 3G mobile communications. Three companies have so far paid EEK 70 million each for the 3G license.

Source : BBN

Passengers angry at EasyJet

  About fifty passengers who left London in early Monday morning for Tallinn onboard low-cost airline EasyJet reached Tallinn only after midnight.

The plane made a stopover in Copenhagen because of a technical problem and spent hours repairing a technical problem.

„The captain said before the stopover that it should be around twenty minutes,” said one of the passengers.

„Then we sat a whole hour in the aircraft without anyone giving us any explanations and were then then asked to move to the passenger terminal.

Passengers claimed that although the aircraft arrived in Copenhagen around 10 am, mechanics started to repair the plane only at around 7.30 pm.

Passengers were allowed to board the plane at 8 pm, but had to wait several hours. The plane took off only at 11 pm and arrived in Tallinn after midnight.

Source : BBN - EPL

Baltic fish too polluted to sell - WWF

Fish caught in the Baltic Sea are too toxic to be sold on the EU's market, warns a report by the environmental organisation WWF.

In the past two decades, annual fish harvests have contained more than 30 kilos of dangerous PCB's. Herring has 50 times the amount of bromated flame retardants as fish caught in the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition, fish such as Baltic salmon and herring exceed EU limits of dioxin content. Dioxin levels have long been a concern, but WWF's report shows that there has been no improvement in the situation. The EU has granted Sweden and Finland permission to catch and sell this fish domestically until the year 2006.

Local fishermen are understandably worried that a large percentage of their livelihood might be lost. The WWF has called on the EU to tighten regulations on chemical dumping in order to improve the Baltic's condition and preserve local fishing industries.

The WWF says that many fish species are now having trouble reproducing because of chemical contamination. Pollutants are also affecting seal and bird populations that depend on the fish.

The Baltic is very sensitive to pollution because it is practically an inland sea; clean water flows very slowly into it to replace polluted water. An added problem is that chemicals break down very slowly in the Baltic because it is so cold.

Source : BBN

Textile workers, bus drivers may go on strike

Both trade unions of textile workers and bus drivers are threatening to go on strike.

Trade union of textile workers in Kreenholm, Estonia’s largest textile industry that employs over 4,000 people in Northeast Estonian town of Narva says employees will go on strike against the company’s wage and redundancy policy and plans to move more operations to Russia.

The trade union of bus drivers is threatening that if its demands for a wage increase of are not met, bus drivers would go on strike in bigger cities. If it fails to produce results, they say that they would interrupt the rural bus transport service.

Krenholm announced this week that it plans to start subcontracting some work to Russia this spring and says it may transfer some of its production to Russia in the long run.

"This is true, we have started to transfer some of our sowing operations to Russia," admitted Thomas Widstrand, CEO of Boras Wäfveri AB which owns Krenholm.

At the same time Widstrand emphasised that Krenholm was not going to set up a company in Russia and lay off sewing operations in Narva, in Northeast Estonia.

The company plans to buy subcontracting from its Russian partner that has up to 50 people.

Last year was the most difficult for Krenholm in its history: the company made redundant a number of people, sales fell, losses mounted and the company's debt burden is over half a billion kroons.

Boras Wäfveri acquired Krenholm ten years ago. The Estonian company employs 4,400 people and has announced plans to reduce it to 3,000.

Source : BBN

New head of Estonian Air focuses on filling vacant seats with passengers

Borge Thornbech, the acting chairman of Estonian Air says that the key for further growth of Estonian Air is filling empty seats.

“Last year the airline carried a little over half a million passengers which is a little above 50 percent of our seating capacity,” said Thornbech who this month took over as acting chairman of Estonian Air after the supervisory board fired the former chairman Erki Urva.

Urva was recalled as chairman of Estonian Air when it became known that the airline’s profit fell from EEK 80 million in 2003 to around 5 million in 2004.

He admits that this is the area where low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair are still better than Estonian Air.

Estonian Air that last year carried over 500,000 passengers may itself become a low-cost airline.

Olev Schults, chairman of the supervisory board of Estonian Air, has said that the airline has two options for future development: whether to remain a classic quality airline or become a low-cost airline.

SAS Group and Cresco which own 66 percent of Estonian Air have asked the new management board to provide a vision for future development.

Source : BBN

Sale of Estonia's second-largest brewery up 64 per cent

A Le Coq reported that its sales went up 64 percent last year, mainly in the water, cider and long drink segment.

The company sold over 100 million litres of beverages of which 83 percent were domestic sales. Beer accounted for 47 percent of sales.

It is estimated that the market share of A Le Coq in the beer market is 34.6 percent.

The company is owned by Finnish group Olvi Oy and owns 96 percent of Cesu Alus in Latvia and 83 percent of Ragutis brewery in Lithuania.

Source : BBN

Four Estonians hospitalised after boat accident in Thailand

Four Estonians were hospitalised on the 24th in Thai boat accident which killed seven people.

In addition, two Finnish citizens were involved in the boat accident which took place near Koh Samui, Thailand, early Tuesday morning.

The rescue operation was unorganised and at least one boat passed the accident site without stopping. Reportedly there was also an argument about who got to board the rescuing vessel.

At least seven people died in the accident and 10-20 people are unaccounted for.

Source : BBN

Baltics’ largest travel agency Estravel posts record sales in 2004

Estonian travel agency Estravel announced record sales in 2004 at EEK 603 million, up from 577 million in 2003.

The company’s pre-tax profit in 2004 was EEK 18 million, up from 14.4 million in 2003.

Most of the sales came from corporate customers. “We have strengthened our position as Estonia’s leading corporate travel agency,” said Anne Samlik, board member.

The largest foreign destinations for Estonian travellers were Finland, Sweden, Germany, UK, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium and Spain.

Estravel operates sales offices in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu,
Jõhvi, Kuressaare and Haapsalu and sales offices in Riga and Vilnius.

Estravel is the largest trave agency in Estonia and the Baltic states. Baltic’s second-largest travel agency is West Express BTI in Lithuania.

Estravel that was founded in 1988 belongs to Finnish national airline Finnair.

Source : BBN

Estonian exports up 19 percent in a year, imports increase 37 percent

Exports were up 19 percent year-on-year and 2 percent up month-on-month.

In November the share of EU countries (25 countries) in exports was 78 percent. Exports to CIS countries formed 11 percent of total exports.

Imports increased 37 percent in November year-on-year and fell 1 percent month-on-month.

In November the share of EU countries (25 countries) in imports was 72 percent. Imports from CIS countries formed 11 percent of total imports.

According to preliminary data, Estonian trade deficit was EEK 3.4 billion in November, down from 3.7 billion in October.

By special trade system, the value of Estonia’s foreign trade, which takes into account both the trade with the EU countries and third countries was EEK 17.6 billion, of which exports were 7.1 billion and imports were 10.5 billion.

Source : BBN

Kari Hiltunen takes over as CEO of Baltics’ largest hotel

  Sokos Hotel Viru in Tallinn, the largest hotel in the Baltic states, has appointed Kari Hiltunen as its new CEO.

Hiltunen took over as CEO of the Finnish-owned hotel from 20 January.

Hiltunen joined Sokos Hotel Viru from Reval Hotel Olympia where he worked as CEO. In earlier times Hiltunen has been employed by Hotel Viru as sales and marketing manager.

Arttu Laine, Baltic area manger of SOK, said that Hiltunen is a true hotel professional and has excellent knowledge of the Estonian hotel marketplace.

Former CEO of Sokos Hotel Viru, Markku Tarnane, remained missing in the Asian disaster where he was vacationing with his family.

With 516 rooms, Sokos Hotel Viru is the largest hotel in the Baltic states. The hotel increased sales of room nights 18.5 percent year-on-year and has average occupancy of 68 percent. The company increased its sales 17.4 percent in a year.

Sokos Hotel Viru belongs to the Sokos Hotels chain.

Source : BBN

Savisaar wants government to resign because of budget fraud

  Edgar Savisaar, chairman of opposition Centre Party, is demanding resignation of the government because of poor budget revenues.

Savisaar made a statement on Friday in which he said that the fact that only 95.8 percent of budget revenues in 2004 were met is a disgrace.

“Isn’t it time for the government that failed to meet the budget target to step down?” asked Savisaar.

“The reason for budget deficit was clearly poor planning which we in the opposition pointed out, but which Parts and Veskimägi kept to deny,” said Savisaar, adding that it was the first time that the budget revenue target was not met since Estonia regained independence.

On Friday the ministry of finance made a statement in which it claimed that real budget revenues exceeded expenditure by more than EEK 2 billion..

The ministry ways that budget revenues in 2004 were EEK 46.67 billion, while budget expenditure was EEK 44.61 billion.

The ministry said that Savisaar keeps to forget that if Estonia fails to collect the planned amount of EU aid it will also reduce its corresponding expenditure.

Source : BBN

Danes confirm interest to build a Tivoli amusement park in Tallinn

Danish Tivoli International has submitted to Tallinn city governments its vision on the future amusement park in Tallinn.

The representative of the city government, Kairi Teniste, told Äripäev that Tivoli International remains interested in developing an amusement park in Tallinn on the location of the Skoone bastion near the Tallinn Old Town.

The project could cost as much as EEK 1 billion (about 64 million euros). According to Teniste, the earliest that the amusement park could open doors in Tallinn is 2007.

Last week Tivoli International presented its vision on how it plans to rent the Skoone bastion.

“The vision that was presented by Tivoli was similar to the concept that they presented earlier,” said Teniste. “What is important is that Tivoli is keen to develop the project in Tallinn.”

The City of Tallinn says it needs two weeks to draft the terms for developing a Tivoli amusement park in Tallinn and promises to take into account national heritage restrictions.

One factor which may slow down the development of the amusement park is the lawsuit filed by Mahyd & Skoone in the European Court of Human Rights. Mahyd & Skoone claims its 50-year rental contract for the bastion is still in force.

Source : BBN

Updated Photo-Albums of Estonia : 1090 in all

Please regularly check the albums on the left side for updates.

Autumn : 13 pics

Carmen Kass 1999-2004 : 240 pics

Estonia : 23 pics

Estonian Air : 9 pics

Estonian Youth : 86 pics

Fun and strange : 35 pics

Golden Tallinn : 27 pics

Night Life : 167 pics

Summer : 7 pics

Tartu : 30 pics

Tiiu Kuik : 282 pics

To-morrow Estonian Supermodels : 75 pics

Traditions : 32 pics

Virumaa : 25 pics

Winter : 39 pics

Kremlin May Not Renounce Pact That Carved Up Europe

The Associated Press

The Kremlin said Saturday that the 1939 pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that divided much of Eastern Europe can only be re-evaluated historically, indicating Moscow does not support annulling the treaty. Estonian President Arnold Rüütel raised expectations Thursday that the Kremlin would renounce the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact during this year's 60th anniversary celebrations of the Nazi defeat in World War II -- a symbolic move long sought by the three Baltic nations placed in the Soviet sphere of control under the secret treaty. Rüütel told Estonian radio that President Vladimir Putin had told him during a Kremlin meeting that Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, considered annulling the 1939 nonaggression pact "the right thing to do." The Kremlin initially refused to comment, but Dmitry Peskov, Putin's deputy press secretary, said Saturday: "At present, only the historical evaluation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is possible. There is no possibility of its juridical evaluation due to current realities." He did not elaborate, but the statement appeared to extinguish hopes in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which joined the European Union last year, that the pact might be annulled during Moscow's May celebrations. The pact, named for Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, carved up much of Eastern Europe between the two countries. Russia has invited the three Baltic leaders to Moscow on May 9 for World War II anniversary celebrations, but only one, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, has agreed to participate, and she has called on Russia to denounce the pact.

Peskov said that "from the Russian point of view, the best step in the development of Russian-Estonian relations would be the signing of a political declaration on the fundamentals of relations and a border delineation treaty" during the 60th anniversary celebrations.

TSUNAMI : now more than 1540 photos

Now with 380 pictures added

AND 280 000 Deads !

Any informations still welcome. Help is still needed and will be through very many years by millions.

Original Caption Released with Image :

Displayed in blue color is the height of sea surface (shown in blue) measured by the Jason satellite two hours after the initial magnitude 9 earthquake hit the region (shown in red) southeast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004. The data were taken by a radar altimeter onboard the satellite along a track traversing the Indian Ocean when the tsunami waves had just filled the entire Bay of Bengal (see the model simulation inset image). The data shown are the changes of sea surface height from previous observations made along the same track 20-30 days before the earthquake, reflecting the signals of the tsunami waves.

The maximum height of the leading wave crest was about 50 cm (or 1.6 ft), followed by a trough of sea surface depression of 40 cm. The directions of wave propagation along the satellite track are shown by the blue arrows.

Model Simulation :
Simulated changes of sea surface height caused by the earthquake two hours after the initial shock. The simulation was performed using a computer model and provided for public access via internet by Kenji Satake, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan (http://www.ioc.unesco.org/itsu/templates/itsu/images/animation.gif). Wave crests are shown in red and troughs in blue. The track traversed by the Jason satellite was also shown. The simulated crests and troughs along the track are in agreement with the satellite observations. The map provides a basin-wide perspective for interpreting the satellite observations along a single track.

Image Credit :

NASA/JPL/CNES/National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan

Larger Image : .tif