BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Computer virus spreads by offering jobs

Estonian computers are being infected by a virus purporting to offer job opportunities, exploiting the country’s rising unemployment rate, Bloomberg reports.

A computer worm called Zeus, which copies Internet banking passwords and other personal information, started spreading yesterday, the Estonian Informatics Center, said in an e-mailed statement today.

The message says: “Don’t lose hope. We will find you a new job for free,” and is followed by a list of some of Estonia’s biggest employers, the center said.

Registered unemployment rose to a record 11.7 percent this week, according to the data released today on the Tallinn-based Labor Market Board’s Web Site.

Saaremaa old windmills

Watch more Saaremaa videos at tripfilms.com

British Navy chief met with wounded Estonian soldiers

Britain's First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Sir Mark Stanhope who is visiting Estonia met on Tuesday with soldiers wounded on foreign missions.

The admiral met today with Minister of Defence Jaak Aaviksoo and the two paid a joint visit to the rehabilitation center of the East Tallinn Central Hospital where soldiers returning from missions are receiving treatment.

Stanhope shed light on the British rehabilitation system and experience in conversation with 15 soldiers who are getting treatment for injuries sustained on missions.

The admiral also met with Commander of the Defence Forces Lt. Gen. Ants Laaneots and Navy Chief Capt. Igor Schvede.

Stanhope and Schvede spoke about the participation of both countries' vessels in trainings and operations, action in the composition of NATO's permanent naval units, and exchange of mine countermeasures know-how.

The British Navy chief said Estonia and Estonian troops were making an impressive contribution to the Afghanistan operation. He also said Estonian seamen were highly competent partners. By specialising in mine countermeasures, the Estonian Navy made the optimum choice, he observed.

Estonian dairy farmers hold a protest action

The Estonian Farmers Central Union organised a protest action against the milk price policies of big supermarket chains on Friday, bringing a load of manure to the Rocca Al Mare shopping centre and giving away free milk, writes LETA.

“In protest against one of the initiators and continuers of the so-called milk war, the Prisma supermarket, we bring to their doorstep what farmers shill have for free and what is not mortgaged to banks – a nice big load of fresh and aromatic cow manure,” the Farmers Central Union announced.

They also brought to the parking lot a half a tonne of fresh milk that they gave away to people for free.

The farmers warned that the protest action will not be the last one. “If the retailers do not end the milk war, similar actions will take place by other Prisma supermarkets and shop chains that sell drinking milk at an unethical price.”

The protest action aims to point attention to the fact that in local supermarket chains, the price of milk is too low. Farmers are of position that while in Prisma stores, a litre of milk in plastic bag costs 3.70 kroons, the price level should be 7.50 kroons.

Estonia will increase tax on alcohol and tobacco in 2010

Juhan Tere

The Estonian government agreed yesterday on principle on next the state budget 2010 and in order to cover spending in this budget, the state will increase the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco, Estonian dailies write.

It was agreed that the spending will amount to 89 billion kroons and the revenue volume will be 84 billion kroons. If the decision of the government is finalised, next year the excise tax on alcohol will increase by 10% and excise tax on tobacco will be raised by 20% by the beginning of 2011.

Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi said that the tobacco excise tax has to increase by the beginning of 2011 by 20 percent as compared to the current level.

The Riigikogu decided already in summer that the tobacco excise tax will increase by 5 percent from January 1, 2010, i.e. by an average of 1 kroon per pack. A 20 percent tobacco excise tax increase means that by the beginning of 2011 latest, a pack of cigarettes will cost 4-5 kroons more than it does now. Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi did not rule out the possibility that the time schedule may be brought forward either.

Although the government hopes to get around 650 million kroons from raising alcohol and tobacco excise tax next year, Ligi hoped that the excise tax increase has a positive influence in this year’s budget context too.

Earlier experience has shown that a month or two before the excise tax increase, the sale of alcohol and tobacco products will surge and thus, more excise tax will be collected. Ligi said that thus the excise tax increase will add a bit certainty that Estonia’s this year’s budget will fit into the criteria necessary to join the Euro.

Estonia bourse urges privatisations as Baltics gain

By David Mardiste

TALLINN - Estonia's sale of shares in its main telecoms company should be followed by more privatisations to further attract investors, the head of the nation's stock exchange said on Friday after a recent bounce in Baltic markets.

Analysts have warned that the bounce could be short lived, after TeliaSonera's proposed buyout of key telecoms companies of Estonia and Lithuania re-ignited interest in the markets of the recession-hit region.

"We have seen a clear increase of interest among foreign investors towards our securities market after TeliaSonera's takeover bid," said Andrus Alber, chairman of the management board of the Tallinn office of Nasdaq OMX.

"The Estonian state should also use this possibility to bring some state-owned companies to the stock exchange and provide new investment opportunities for our investors after the government decided to sell Telekom shares," he told Reuters.

Estonia has discussed selling its state-owned energy firm, but no concrete moves have yet been made. There are no signs that Lithuania or Latvia are ready to sell any state assets.

West Coast Estonian Days continue a great tradition

The recently concluded West Coast Days show that there continues to be a need for gathering of Estonians and their families to rekindle friendships and bathe in a culture familiar to us.

Now it is true that the attendance has shrunk over the years, but those who come show an amazing amount of loyalty. In this respect the West Coast gatherings differ from ESTO or Laulupidu in Tallinn. The West Coast Estonian Days (or LEP) draw people who have been attending it perhaps even from its inception. Because of its dependable attendance and predictable and varied menu, it has drawn people also from the other side of the continent and even from overseas.

This year’s LEP was held in Seattle, in Washington State. Such have been held every two years starting in 1953 in San Francisco. The site alternates between the major population centers on the West Coast: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, each with perhaps 100 to 200 families with Estonian roots.

This year’s “Days” were well organized. The events were in a compact area, and the attendees had a choice of budget conscious college student level accommodations, to tourist level motels, all within walking distance of all events. The halls for the events were optimally sized by judging that they were all nearly full or totally full. The chairman of the events, Tom Napa, explained that it was quite a challenge to reserve the halls as much as two years in advance, since it was not known how well LEP would be attended given that Laulupidu and ESTO were also held on the same summer.

Austria in the market for Estonian design

TALLINN - Austrian companies are looking for seven Estonian producers for co-operation in the sphere of design; at the moment three local companies have displayed interest, the daily Aripaev reported.

Ilona Guryanova, chairwoman of the Estonian Association of Designers, said a delegation of Austrian designers wishing to develop co-operation relations with Estonia and looking for business partners from the country would come to Tallinn in the framework of the Tallinn Design Nights cultural festival.

"There is another group of producers and entrepreneurs who are looking for possibilities of production in Estonia as well as subcontracting, but with the opportunity of selling their products in Vienna or in the whole of Austria," she told the paper.

Vahur Vosa, member of the board of Fellin Furniture OU, said he did not yet know what the Austrians' eventual interests were. But he said that the company was interested in co-operation.

Võsa said that Fellin's products were not mass products. As a result the company had been looking for opportunities on foreign markets in order to provide its trademark and Estonian design there.

Russian Foreign Intelligence used Estonian detective bureau to recruit him, Herman Simm alleges

Herman Simm, the former high-ranking Estonian Defence Ministry official, sentenced for high treason to twelve and a half years imprisonment, claims that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was using for his recruitment the information collected by the well-known detective bureau SIA, connected with so-called tapes scandal as a result of which the then Minister of Interior of Estonia Edgar Savisaar and together with him the whole government has fallen.

Herman Simm in Soviet uniform

It follows from the earlier classified Security Police (KaPo) of Estonia report that still in the end of 1994, Simm received in «an operative way» from Moscow security firm Vityazi a diskette which allegedly belonged initially to the SIA, Eesti Ekspress writes. The diskette contained 500 pages of the operative and search information on known people of Estonia. In particular, the SIA reportedly was watching also Herman Simm.

"As the Vityazi were formed by mainly former employees of the KGB and special division Alpha, I counted it really very dangerous from the state point of view», said Simm who from December, 1994, headed the Police Department of Estonia.

In the winter of 1995, Simm reported about the diskette to the Minister of Interior Kaido Kama and the chief of the KaPo Juir Pihl. However, after elections a new government came to power and the Ministry of Interior was headed by Edgar Savisaar.

Estonia wood exports fall

Exports of wood and related products from Estonia fell in July, it has been revealed.

Figures released by Statistics Estonia show that 568 million kroons (£36.2 million) worth of such goods were exported over this period, a decline of 20 per cent when compared to the same month of the previous year.

However, wood and related products fared better than the overall export market in the country which declined by 26 per cent when compared to July 2009.

Overall, the country sold 8.1 billion kroons worth of goods overseas.

A spokesperson for Statistics Estonia claimed that this decline has been reflected across the European Union (EU).

Renewable energy will grow to 25% of all energy consumption in Estonia

Juhan Tere

The Estonian government approved on Thursday of the proposal of the economy ministry to compile an action plan of renewable energy till 2020, according to which the share of renewable energy will grow to 25% of all energy consumption in Estonia, E24/LETA reported.

Economy ministry’s energy sphere deputy chancellor Einari Kisel said that Estonia has sufficient potential to fulfill that aim much sooner than that.

“Decisions already made in the renewable energy sphere allow hoping that Estonia will fulfill the aim faster,” he said.

The action plan for increase of share of renewable energy is based on the new EU renewable energy directive that sets an aim of renewable energy forming 20 of all energy consumption for the EU.

Since in Estonia, renewable energy consumption formed 18% of final consumption in 2005, Estonia’s aim was set at 25%.

Estonia hopeful on euro after telecom selloff

TALLINN - Estonia's government okayed a 5 billion kroon budget deficit for next year on Thursday which it said would allow it to join the euro after it agreed to sell off the state's stake in its main phone company.

Hammered by an almost one-fifth contraction of economies across the EU's three Baltic Sea states, Estonia is trying to limit its public sector shortfall so it can adopt the euro at the start of 2011.

The government on Thursday approved the sale of its minority stake in Eesti Telekom, worth around 4 billion kroons, and said it had reached agreement on a 2010 draft budget that allowed it to fulfill the Maastricht treaty's fiscal criteria.

It said spending had been agreed at 89 billion kroons ($8.38 billion) for 2010, similar to 2009, with revenues expected at 84 billion kroons leaving a deficit of 5 billion kroons.

That was equal to 2.5 percent of the expected GDP for 2010, although the statement did not say what the final deficit, which includes the social security fund and local authority spending, would be as a percentage of GDP.

In 2008, according to preliminary data from the state statistics office data, central government accounted for 73.6 percent of spending, local government 27.5 percent and social security funds 12.7 percent.

Tiny Estonia is being overlooked by the U.S

Trying to demonstrate its credentials as a reliable member of NATO, Estonia has kept 300 troops in Afghanistan’s most violent areas. With six combat deaths out of a population of 1.3 million, Estonia’s casualties as a proportion of its population are nearly twice those of the U.S.

But Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, appears to have been unaware that Estonia even belongs to the alliance. In his “initial assessment” report on strategy in Afghanistan, McChrystal listed Estonia among “U.S. sponsored non-NATO nations” such as Mongolia and Bahrain. Estonia joined NATO in 2004.

Asked about the characterization, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that it was “just a mistake.” Estonia’s representative in Kabul, Tanel Sepp, also said this must have been a mistake, and that he is looking into the matter.

Many Estonians view the commitment of troops to Afghanistan as an insurance policy that would guarantee NATO help against any Russian threats in the future. Estonia, whose independence was restored in 1991 after being annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, remains wary of an assertive Russia.

“The main idea of NATO is Article 5,” said Sepp, referring to the alliance’s view that an attack on one member-state is an attack on the entire alliance. “For us, participation in Afghanistan is a duty, and part of the burden-sharing among all NATO member countries.”

WW1 Russian submarine found

The submarine wreck was discovered by a research ship of the Swedish Maritime Administration the 10 September. A closer study with a radio-controlled underwater vessel indicate that the submarine may be ‘Gepard’, one of twelve submarines of the Bars (snow leopard) class who operated in the Baltic Sea during WW1.

“We have a strong suspicion that it’s ‘Gepard’, says Hans Oiås, responsible for the Swedish database of shipwrecks, to news agency TT.

The submarine with 40 people in the crew was, according to Oiås, on a mission together with other submarines to guard a line of mines west of the Estonian island Saaremaa. It was reported lost in October 1917, but has now most likely been found after 92 years on international waters, 30 admiralty miles northeast of the Swedish island Gotska Sandön.

The submarine likely collided with a mine and sank to the bottom with the crew onboard. The submarine is split, but besides damages from the blasting the wreck is surprisingly intact. The Russian Embassy has been informed about the finding.

”It’s not everyday you find a submarine. Its’ a little bit exciting and it’s also a piece in the military history and the history of the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea”, Hans Öiås says.

The submarine has eight torpedoes mounted on the deck still in place.

Miss Bikini Luxe Spring 2010 : “Black is Fashion”

MILAN — With supermodels Alek Wek and Sesselee as the stars of the show, Miss Bikini Luxe interprets and promotes the claim “Black is fashion” on the catwalk.

“Miss Bikini Luxe responds through social commitment in favour of black models”, explains Andrea Teofilatto, CEO of the brand, introducing the new Spring/Summer 2010 collection inspired by African Pop.

The outcry on the “not brilliant” presence of “black goddesses” in the fashion system was started by the Independent on Sunday, encouraged by the top model Naomi Campbell.

The brand thus decided to participate and offer support in drawing attention once again to the Black issue with an eclectic collection glorifying the black world; the designers Alessandra and Francesca Piacentini offered to close the catwalk show wearing the Black Shirts realised specifically for this initiative with the original claim “Black Is Fashion”, acting as exceptional testimonials for a project in favour of black & white equality.

On the catwalk, in support of the black “colleagues”, there will also be the white top models Bianca Balti and Carmen Kass, the latter being one of the few top models committed to social issues.

Building the Koidula customs station will be 400 million kroons cheaper than planned

Juhan Tere

One of the biggest construction projects in Estonia in recent years, the Koidula railway customs station at the Estonian-Russian border, will be 400 mln kroons cheaper than initially planned, Estonian National Broadcasting/LETA reported.

A third of the station has been completed and the work is ahead of schedule. Currently builders of several countries are building four railway sections. Bridges, foundations for roads, the electricity and water supply is complete. The construction of the complex is unusual for Estonia not just because its sheer size but because of the landscape – nearly two million cubic metres of soil has to be relocated. During the winter, the construction work will be paused.

The Koidula station will rejoin the Valga-Koidula-Tartu railway triangle and enable to relaunch transit traffic in the Koidula-Valga-Riga direction. Initially the complex was planned to cost 1.4 billion kroons but now the cost is estimated at 1 billion.

The railway customs station should be completed in July 2011 and it should be able to service over 40 trains a day. The station should bring to the Estonian state 300 mln kroons a year. Since the road is shorter transit cargo can again be transported via South East Estonia. It will also be possible to relaunch Riga-St Petersburg passenger train transport.

2010 budget spending in Estonia will remain at 2009 level

Juhan Tere

Estonia's government agreed to keep 2010 budget spending at the same level as in 2009 to ensure meeting European Union deficit terms next year.

Budget spending will equal 89 billion kroons, the Cabinet agreed in a late-night session yesterday (on September 22), according to an e-mailed statement from Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's press office.

Pensions and defense spending will remain unchanged and education spending will rise by one billion kroons to 11 billion, writes LETA.

The government plans to submit the budget to the parliament on September 30, it said.

Excitement builds among World Cup hopefuls in Estonia

The quest to qualify for the Omega Mission Hills World Cup moves to Europe this week as the European Qualifier is staged at the Estonian Golf and Country Club.

A total of 18 nations, including hosts Estonia, will vie for three places at the US$5.5 million Omega Mission Hills World Cup which will be played from November 26 – 29 at Mission Hills Golf Club, China.

Like the Omega Mission Hills World Cup itself, the first and third rounds of the qualifier will use the fourball better ball format while the second and final rounds will use the foursomes (alternate shot) format.

Scotland’s Alistair Forsyth is hoping to secure his return to Mission Hills this year having teamed up with Colin Montgomerie in 2008 when Scotland were defending champions.

“Mission Hills was brilliant last year,” said Forsyth. “The World Cup has really grown in stature and the organisation of the event was great.

“The World cup is different, it’s a bit special. It’s the only time outside The Ryder Cup that we get the chance to play in a team format and to represent our country. It’s good fun as well. Hopefully we will make it back to China this year.”

Court overturns EU move to cut Estonian CO2

BRUSSELS - A European court has rejected a European Commission decision to impose stricter limits on CO2 emissions from Poland and Estonia between 2008 and 2012, the court said Wednesday.

Under the European Union's market for allowances to emit CO2, called the Emissions Trading Scheme, E.U. governments must set national limits on the amount of CO2 industries can emit in the five years between 2008 and 2012, which must then be approved by the commission.

The commission said in 2007 that the levels of emissions set by Poland and Estonia were too high, and sought to reduce them.

"By imposing (...) a ceiling on emission allowances to be allocated, the Commission exceeded its powers," the Court of First Instance said in a statement.

By Alessandro Torello, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 14 88; alessandro.torello@dowjones.com

Estonian overdue loans increased to 6.5 pct

The share of loans overdue by more than 60 days in the loan portfolio increased less in August than in previous months. The respective indicator grew by 0.2 pp, reaching 6.5 pct of the entire portfolio, Estonian central bank announced.

The quality of loans issued to the construction and transport sector and to the hotel and restaurant sector improved somewhat, whereas problems aggravated in the agricultural sector. Earlier developments continued in respect to loans issued to households - consumer credit constitutes the most of problems with the share of problem loans soaring to 9.5 pct of the portfolio. The quality of housing loans was better than the average of the total financing portfolio, i.e., 4.2 pct of the issued housing loans are overdue by more than 60 days.

Corporate and household loan behaviour has in recent months been influenced by low interest rates, which have considerably reduced monthly loan repayments. In August, both the interest margin and the key interest rate lowered. The latter is positive news to households and enterprises that have already taken a loan. The interest rates on issued loans have fallen to the level of 2005.

The share of loans overdue by more than 60 days in the loan portfolio increased less in August than in previous months. The respective indicator grew by 0.2 pp, reaching 6.5% of the entire portfolio. The quality of loans issued to the construction and transport sector and to the hotel and restaurant sector improved somewhat, whereas problems aggravated in the agricultural sector.