BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Middlesbrough target Estonia international

MIDDLESBROUGH have opened talks with Estonian winger Tarmo Kink – but Dundee United’s Craig Conway remains Gordon Strachan’s leading target on the flanks.

Kink has been given permission to speak to Boro officials, even though his Hungarian employers Gyori ETO are yet to agree a deal that would enable the 24-year-old to move to Teesside.

Kink, who has made 42 appearances as a left-winger for the Estonian national side, is keen to join Boro permanently, but his future could be determined by the outcome of the club’s ongoing discussions with Dundee United over Conway.

Those talks have stalled over a failure to agree a fee for the 25-year-old, who has made more than 120 appearances since joining the Tangerines from Ayr United in 2006.

Dundee United officials are refusing to lower their £1.2m valuation of Conway, even though Boro have steadfastly refused to raise their original bid of around £750,000.

Further talks are planned for this week, and Strachan remains hopeful of reaching a compromise agreement that will enable Conway to join his squad ahead of the opening game of the Championship season on August 7.

Estonians wary of price hikes ahead of eurozone entry

Tallinn - Estonians are fearful that prices will rise when the country adopts the euro, a survey released by a local newspaper showed Tuesday.

The country is to become the 17th member of the eurozone and the first former Soviet republic to join the eurozone in a little over five months' time.

The survey carried out for the Postimees newspaper showed that price increases were a worry for two-thirds of respondents, followed by fears that taxes would increase as a result of switch to the euro on January 1.

Around one-third of respondents said they thought the euro would boost economic growth in the Estonian economy, which is exiting recession after a 15-per-cent drop in gross domestic product (GDP) last year.

A similar number said they were worried their wallets would not be suitable for the new euro coins and banknotes.

In another survey released Tuesday by the European Commission on subject of future euro adoption by European Union member states, Estonia was ranked as the only country where half of respondents said they felt well-informed about plans to adopt the currency.

Estonia spends more on national defense than Latvia or Lithuania

From among the three Baltic States, Estonia spends the largest amounts of money on national defense, writes LETA/Postimees Online. Estonia would be able to mobilize the biggest army among the Baltic States during the times. Lithuania, on the other hand, has the most-developed air force.

Researcher of the International Centre of Defense Studies Tomas Jermalavicius explained the differences with Estonia and Lithuania having drawn different conclusions from the events of the year 1939. Lithuania had beforehand spent immense amounts of money on national defense, which had no impact on the maintaining of independence and hence Lithuanians have perceived the events as a military failure. Estonians, on the other hand, view the 1939 events as a political failure and hence put much more confidence in the military capacity.

"It is simple – the Estonian society is prepared to pay for national defense," said Jermalavicius.

Although it spends more on national defense than its Baltic neighbors, it cannot be stated that Estonia spends a lot on this area – the fact is rather that Latvia and Lithuania spend extraordinarily little on national defence, being among the lowest-spending countries among the NATO Member States.

Unlike Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have also abandoned the reserve army system, maintaining professional armies and the voluntary military organizations.

Juhan Tere

Estonia must now focus on social issues

Now that Estonia has achieved its grand objective of becoming a member of the eurozone, it is time to find a next national challenge, says Raivo Vare, chairman of the supervisory board of Estonian Development Fund.

"A state without a purpose is a state on the verge of collapsing. The society does not yet understand the problems ahead or ways of solving them. I think that it is time to start improving our living standards which means that we must now focus on the social issues," said Vare.

This view was shared by Eiki Nestor, an MP for Social Democrats. "I think that the next objective is clear -to increase the quality of life of people living in Estonia.

Having become a member in many elite clubs that have some of the world's most development countries, Estonia ranks dead last in many social issues," said Nestor.

Anatoli Kanajev, board member of Transiidikeskuse AS, said that since there is no development without change, it is time to focus on such social issues as medicine, education and pension system. "The objective should be to achieve a notable improvement in the quality of life of all residents of Estonia."

Toomas Hõbemägi

Northern Ireland 3-0 Estonia

Northern Ireland's women enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win over Estonia in their World Cup qualifier at the Coleraine Showgrounds.

Helen McKenna struck the woodwork in the first half but scored the opener with a spectacular left-foot shot from outside the box in the 53rd minute.

McKenna grabbed her second of the game when she passed the ball into the net from a few yards out.

Julie Nelson made it 3-0 with a well struck free-kick in the 69th minute.

Lesbian couple denied mortgage in Sweden by intolerant Swedbank clerk

Sara Evaldsson and Maria Engström of Sweden had decided to move in together in Maria’s home town of Västerås. They had good credit ratings, permanent jobs, and had secured a good price for a two bedroom apartment that they wanted to buy. Unfortunately, when they visited Maria’s bank in May of last year, they were given a huge problem. The clerk at Swedbank in Skiljebo informed the couple that the amount- 490,000 kronor, was a lot of money and insisted on a ten percent deposit.

When the couple asked about why, the clerk stated “You should reconsider your personal situation and continue to live in different places.” The comment shocked the pair. After all, it sounded not unlike a comment one would expect form someone who is homophobic and trying to push the idea that homosexuality is wrong.

“We were shocked. We wondered what on earth she meant. We also wondered whether a heterosexual couple would have been given the same advice. We were also surprised that she said it was a lot of money, as we knew that it was a bargain,” the couple has stated.

The couple approached Nordea, a rival bank for Swedbank, and were granted a mortgage. “They said immediately that it was a good purchase and that one of us alone would almost have qualified for that mortgage,” Maria told The Local. The have since renovated the apartment and it is worth almost twice what they bought it for.

They have also reported the incident to Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman.

FlyLAL Charters changes its name to Small Planet Airlines

FlyLAL Charters (Vilnius) in July 2010 decided to change its name and brand. The company will be now known as leisure carrier Small Planet Airlines.

This summer Small Planet Airlines operates a total of seven Boeing aircraft and performs flights from Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Italy. The airline possesses the Air Operator Certificates (AOC) granted by three European countries (Lithuania, Estonia and Poland) and has started certification process for acquiring the fourth in Italy. Small Planet Airlines performs charter flights inside the EU as well as to other countries.

The current Boeing 737 Classic aircraft will be gradually replaced with Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, more modern and capable of flying longer distances. This will enable Small Planet Airlines in cooperation with tour operators to offer a broader range of destinations. The first two Boeing 737NG aircraft will arrive in summer 2011.

Step forward Kaia Kanepi

2010 has seen many “tennis firsts” typified with Francesca Schiavone becoming the first Italian lady to lift a major at Roland Garros.

Last week landed us with another – an Estonian’s name etched on to a WTA title for the first time. That name is Kaia Kanepi as she lifted the Palermo Open much to her country’s delight. This isn’t just a flash in the pan either. She is the only Estonian woman to have reached the WTA Top 20 players in the world (ranked at 18 in May 2009) and she also became the first Estonian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter final at the 2008 French Open, a feat she repeated at Wimbledon this year.

She rates clay as her best surface so it will be no surprise to those following her career that Palermo is her first tour victory. But for those who do not, let us give you another insight in to a first-timer in the WTA winners’ circle.

Kanepi was born June 10, 1985 in Haapsalu, Estonia to her real estate broker father Jaak and homemaker Anne who both also played tennis. She began playing aged 8 and topped the ITF Junior Rankings before turning pro in 2000. She still lives in Haapsalu and currently plays without a full-time coach or agent. Her former coaches include Luca Appino and fellow Estonian player Mait Kunnap.

Venice Biennale too expensive for Estonia

Estonia is reguarly represented with its own pavillion at the Venice Biennale.

The costs involved could be better spent on other projects, criticises the daily Eesti Päevaleht:

“The bitter truth is that neither the Ministry of Culture nor the Cultural Fund pay artists salaries, but they do support any and every trip to exhibitions abroad. The Venice Biennale is probably the only project for which artists are paid directly, but the majority of artists will never take part in it, whether because of disinterest, the kind of art they do or other reasons.

… It’s not right that the function of modern art should be reduced solely to its ability to be exhibited, while all other aspects are consciously and systematically blended out. The Centre for Contemporary Arts should also ask itself critical questions from time to time about what is being shown abroad and why. Probably not all too much would happen if Estonia stayed away from Venice now and then and invested the money at home instead.”

Heat wave warms Baltic Sea to tropical levels

WARSAW - A heat wave searing the Baltic region has warmed the usually frigid waters of the Baltic Sea to temperatures usually seen in more tropical climes.

Just shows that we only had to talk about it to bring a change .... The heat wave has gone (just for the time being)

"The highest sea temperature recorded recently along the Polish Baltic coast was 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 Fahrenheit) at the Pucka Bay," Alicja Kanska, a meteorologist with the Polish meteorological and hydrological institute in the Polish Baltic port city of Gdynia told AFP.

"The water is definitely warmer than usual -- it's rare that Baltic water temperatures rise to this level," she said, adding that summertime temperatures in Baltic waters average 20 degrees Celsius.

"Rarely have we had such sustained tropical air masses bringing average daytime temperatures of 33-34 degrees Celsius over the region of the Polish Baltic for a week as is now the case," Gdynia meteorologist Marcin Czeczatka told AFP Friday.

This week's highs are still shy of the record 36.3 degrees recorded in 1992 along Poland's Baltic coast, he said.

Polish beach lovers will be disappointed at the weekend, says Czeczatka, as a cold front is expected to bring rain to the Polish coast and see temperatures plunge to around 20 degrees Celsius for several days before returning to average Polish summertime daytime temperatures of around 20 degrees.

Some 700 kilometres (400 miles) to the north of Gdynia, Baltic waters in Estonia have also warmed to a rare temperatures.

"The Baltic Sea temperature is well above the average and today on Friday at Narva-Jõesuu beach near the Estonian-Russian border it is as high as 26 degrees Celsius," Ivo Saaremae from Estonian meteorological and hydrological institute told AFP.

Tallinn Airport saw cargo volume plunge 82% in two years

While the number of passengers travelling through Tallinn Airport has increased by tenth, in June the airport handled 53% less cargo than a year earlier and 82% less than in June 2008.

Tallinn Airport served 127,058 passengers in June 2009, and 139,294 in June 2010.
However, in cargo handling, the airport handled only 690 tons of cargo this June, down from 1,486 tons a year earlier.

In comparison, in June 2008 Tallinn Airport handled as much as 3,770 tons of cargo. This is about 82% more than this year.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Baltic prime ministers send letter of gratitude to Barack Obama for US policy of non-recognition

Stenbock House - Today the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania sent US President Barack Obama a joint letter expressing their gratitude to the USA for its policy of non-recognition of the incorporation of the Baltic States in the USSR. The policy commenced exactly seventy years ago.

The letter – signed by Andrus Ansip (Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia), Valdis Dombrovskis (Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia) and Andrius Kubilius (Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania) – states that the restoration of the independence of the Baltic States at the end of the last century became possible due to the principled foreign policy of the United States of America.

“On July 23, 1940, the acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles began a long-lasting non-recognition policy of illegal Soviet occupation and annexation which enabled the diplomatic representations of the Baltic States to continue working and gave their people strength and hope to go on campaigning for their freedom,” the letter states.

“We, the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the American people for their courageous and highly moral action and congratulate you, Mr. President, on this anniversary of the successful foreign policy that has made the United States of America a beacon of freedom for all oppressed nations and aspiring democracies.”

_____________________________________
Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/
press@riik.ee

Returning Gatlin ready to run 'anywhere under the sun'

WASHINGTON — Disgraced former 100-meter world record holder Justin Gatlin says he's ready to run "anywhere under the sun" when his four year doping ban ends Saturday, the New York Times reported Thursday.

His comeback race could be August 3 in Rakvere, Estonia where organizers of the BigbankEstonia GP Final said they would be happy to have the once dominant Gatlin compete.

"We are ready to take him because he is a very fast and interesting athlete," meet manager Taavi Espret told the Times.

Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion and former world record holder, has completed a serious year of training, dropping 20 pounds to try to recapture his lost status as the fastest man on the planet, the newspaper said.

Three months after equaling the world record in 2006, Gatlin was suspended for four years after testing positive for a testosterone precursor.

Expo-centre launched in Tallinn Airport

Estonian Expo-Centre was launched in the Tallinn Airport on Thursday, writes LETA/National Broadcasting.

The objective of the centre is to present products by Estonian enterprises and take them to business travellers who visit the airport as well as to create valuable foreign contacts for local enterprises.

“Tallinn was deemed suitable as nothing interesting took place in the airport here,” said Jan Vistisen, a Danish businessman who is the owner of the Expo-Centre.

Vistisen added that the Tallinn Airport is one of the best locations in Estonia where the attention of foreign entrepreneurs could be attracted.

The Expo-Centre has room for 120 enterprises; by now more than 50 companies have joined the centre.

Juhan Tere

Borjomi named top brand in Estonia

The Estonian Varska Vesi and Georgian Borjomi mineral water products were named top-selling brands in Estonia this week.

Borjomi's sales grew by 70 percent this year in Estonia compared to 2009, the company said.

From January to July 2010, Varska Vesi's turnover grew by 96 percent. Experts forecast an increase in the figure in July.

According to the Shelver distribution network, mineral water sales doubled this year due to the unusually hot summer weather.

"This summer has been particularly hot - not only in Estonia, but in all the Baltic States," a Borjomi representative told Trend. "We assure our consumers that we will maintain our strong presence on the market."

I never have heard of ot myself ... It just shows ..!

ADL rips Estonian march honoring Nazi SS division

The Anti-Defamation League is urging Estonia officials to condemn a march there honoring a division of the Nazi SS.

The march in Vaivara, the home of the largest of the 22 concentration and labor camps established in Estonia by the Nazis during World War II, is scheduled for July 31 to honor an Estonian division of the Nazi SS that fought in a 1944 battle against Soviet troops.

"Opposing Soviet repression is one thing, but celebrating the Nazi SS is quite another," said Abraham Foxman, ADL's national director, in a statement released Wednesday. "Unfortunately, in the past we have seen Estonian officials participate in such events rather than oppose them.

"Vaivara should evoke mourning and reflection, not celebration," said Foxman, a Holocaust survivor. "A telling choice once again lies before Estonian officials. They, along with responsible members of Estonian civil society, should unequivocally condemn the planned march in Vaivara."

Estonia to participate in supplementing UNESCO world heritage list

Estonia will for the first time participate in the work of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Sunday, writes LETA/Postimees Online.

The 34th session of the World Heritage Committee will take place from July 25 to August 3 in Brasilia and Estonia will take part in the event for the first time as a committee member.

Estonia’s delegation of seven members will be headed by professor Mati Kalm from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Urve Sinijärv from the Ministry of Environment.

The committee will deliberate on 32 new applications to be added to the world heritage list – 24 according to cultural criteria, six according to natural criteria and two on the basis of both criteria.

Swedbank second-quarter profit beats estimates as Baltic loan losses fall

Swedbank AB, the largest bank in the Baltic countries, said all Nordic lenders should pass European Union stress tests after it reported a second consecutive quarterly profit.

Second-quarter net income was 1.57 billion kronor ($212 million) after a net loss of 2.01 billion kronor a year earlier, the Stockholm-based bank said today. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was an 808 million-krona profit.

Swedbank and other Nordic lenders suffered soaring losses on bad loans last year as the Baltic region suffered the steepest recession in the European Union. Loan losses have dropped for five straight quarters after peaking at 6.85 billion kronor in the first three months of 2009 and that decline will continue, Swebank’s management said today.

“Loan-loss provisions of 963 million kronor were significantly better than expected, driven by halving provisions in the Baltic division,” Henrik Christiansson, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London, wrote in a note to clients. “We expect significant consensus EPS upgrades.”

Estonia’s impresario of culture

There are many talented people in the world, though not all of them have reached the highest levels of success in their lives. Having talent is not always enough. Success comes about by hard work, by effort. Laine Janes is one of those unique people who have all these features: she is both talented and a hard-working person. The reward of her efforts is the success she has gained and the great respect and trust she receives among her colleagues.
Janes is a combination of elegance and intelligence. She is a person who has been devoted all her life to music. She has worked as a director of Vanemuine Concert Hall, as well as in the Estonian Academy of Music, where she held the position of head of the Tartu branch. She is an experienced lecturer and teacher, and is currently studying for her doctorate in philosophy and history.

This talented woman is as well working to preserve and support the unique cultural heritage of Estonia. She also helps in developing, acknowledging and promoting Estonia’s fine arts and sports, both in Estonia and abroad.
As a member of the Reform Party, she is one of the most successful and powerful female politicians in Estonia.
Janes found time to sit down with The Baltic Times to discuss her latest achievements, as well as upcoming events and this year’s cultural highlights.

How did you arrive in this position of culture minister, and how long have you been working in it?

Tiiu Kuik : Vogue - Spain - Fall/Winter 2010/11

Last time we saw Tiiu Kuik, she was decked out in all black underneath the hot desert sun, but for her most recent work shot by Pancho Saulo’s Michelle Ferrara she takes on virginal white. Published in Vogue Spain’s recent bridal supplement, Tiiu plays the sexiest bride ever in short hemmed, revealing dresses styled by Marina Gallo.