BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

He left a note, stole a truck and fled into a hail of bullets ....!

Sister says ex-con brother was suicidal and hoping the police would kill him.

By Nick Ferraro

The sister of the man wounded by police Wednesday night in downtown Hastings said she believes he was trying to commit "suicide by cop."

"I'm going all the way out. Once they pull me over or anything I'm shooting them until I run out of bullets," Roman Tokarev wrote in a note his sister Olesya Good's husband found Wednesday before she alerted police.

Hours later, officers shot Tokarev, 27, after he allegedly pointed a gun at them and tried to ram their squad cars during a chase.

"After thinking about everything and seeing everything that happened, I think he was trying to make the police shoot him to death ... kind of commit his own suicide by them shooting him," Good, 29, said.

Tokarev, who emigrated from Estonia with his family in 1996, was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday after surgery to remove a bullet lodged near his heart, his sister said.

"The way it sounds, he was shot six to eight times," she said, adding he was hit twice in the arm and twice in the leg. "His left hand is totally paralyzed."

Tokarev had been living at his sister's home in Elk River and under intensive supervised release — reserved for high-risk offenders — through the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

He was released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater on May 4 after serving time for a 2005 aggravated robbery conviction in Hennepin County.

Explosives cargo held up at Haldia dock

The local police have withdrawn a no-objection certificate it had given earlier to cargo ship M V Fani, which has been waiting at sand heads to unload 12,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the Haldia dock, saying the company in Jharkhand that has imported the explosives had declared it was carrying fertilizers.

The ship had sailed from Muuga in Estonia and the consignment was headed for the Indian Explosives Limited, a private company, for its plant in Gomia in Jharkand. An employee of the dock said several consignments of explosives were unloaded and stored in violation of the security guidelines in the past.

Rakvere awarded title of Estonian Child and Youth Friendly City

Stenbock House - Today, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Elle Kull, President of the Estonian National Committee of UNICEF, presented to Rakvere the title of Child and Youth Friendly City. The city earned the title by joining the UNICEF movement, which values, in addition to security and a happy environment for children, urban citizens awareness of children´rights.

In 2008 and 2009, the UNICEF Evaluation Committee observed a number of Estonian cities, and based on its findings it was decided to award this year’s child and youth friendliness certificate specifically to Rakvere. During the evaluation period, above all, collaboration between the city, business operators and non-profit associations improved.

The Prime Minister thanked the leaders and people of the City of Rakvere for their single-minded work towards making the urban environment more child friendly. For children to be able to feel happy in their home city matters not only to this one city but the entire nation and people, he said. The Prime Minister also expressed delight that there were already 12 Child Friendly Cities in Estonia.

Estonia joined the UNICEF movement in 2004, and the title has been previously earned by: Haapsalu, Jõhvi, Kunda, Kuressaare, Narva, Põlva, Pärnu, Saue, Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi. Amongst European cities, there are over two hundred title holders.

President Ilves sent his condolences to the Russian Head of State after a tragic train accident

"I send my heartfelt condolences to you and the entire Russian nation commemorating those who perished tragically in the accident involving the Moscow-St. Petersburg train on November 27th," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wrote in his letter of condolence to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Head of State. "My thoughts are with the families of the victims and I wish all those who were injured a speedy recovery."

Office of the President
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Kohtla-Järve mayor, businessmen detained

The security police detained yesterday Jevgeni Solovjov, mayor of Northeast Estonian town of Kohtla-Järve and two local businessmen, Nikolai Ossipenko and Rinat Hamidullin,  under suspicion of bribery.

Ossipenko's company N&V has for years won large road maintenance contracts and together with Hamidullin who owns a construction company built a house for the mayor for free.

The security police searched through 20 offices, companies and homes and confiscated about 20 computers.

We are investigating four public tenders. The most recent one was a 229 million kroons four-year contract for road and green maintenance in Kohtla-Järve that was won by Ossipenko's N&V," said the prosecutor, adding that the winner of the tender is suspected to have already agreed before the tender was announced.

Ossipenko has refused to comment.

Former high-ranking police officer Koit Pikaro who has now retired said that Ossipenko knows the police from inside out and has money. "He has been corrupt for all his life and could get off easily also this time. Perhaps charges will be brought, but considering the court practice in Northeast Estonia, I would not see him get convicted," said Pikaro, adding that even members of the local mafia have admitted that Ossipenko is too strong for them.

Search called off for man overboard

A search and rescue operation for a man who fell off a cruise ship off the coast of Hanko was called off Sunday morning. The man is now presumed drowned. Authorities said they did everything they could to find him, but to no avail.

The man fell off the Tallink Victoria which was en route from Tallinn to Stockholm via Mariehamn. The man went overboard before ten p.m. on Saturday night.

Nearby cargo vessels and three cruise ships joined Coast Guard helicopters and boats in the search for the man.

"This area has been very carefully combed, but without result," says Coast Guard officer Keijo Parhiala. "When it's a question of a human life, we put everything into it. We use whatever units are available."

After hours of searching, the civilian vessels returned to their routes while the Coast Guard continued until four a.m. Generally, hypothermia sets in between half an hour to an hour if the water is six or seven degrees Celsius.

"In the autumn there is a high risk of freezing very quickly. We are rarely able to save anyone in these times," says Parhiala.

The Coast Guard has released no information on the identity or the citizenship of the man lost at sea.

Traffic offenders prefer detention to fine

More and more Estonians who are fined for violating traffic offenses prefer to spend time in house of detention rather than pay a fine.

According to law enforcement authorities, judges in Tartu alone are reviewing about 70 applications from drunk drivers and speeding offenders asking to replace their fines with detention.

They are quite happy to go to a house of detention, especially those who are unemployed," said Reet Rosenthal, a court bailiff from Tartu.

According to the police board, about 10% of all people currently in detention are traffic offenders.

Ironically, unlike in criminal procedures, fines imposed for misdemeanors such as traffic offences cannot be replaced by community work.

By law, one day in detention is equal to 600 kroons in fine. Since keeping a person in custody costs the state 350 kroons a day, the state is actually forced to pay extra instead of the state collecting a fine.

it means that the maximum traffic fine of 18,000 kroons could be served in 30 days and it costs the state 10,500 kroons in maintaining such an offender.

The capacity of detention houses in Estonia is 410 people. At present, about 90% of the places are occupied.

Secretive Estonian businessmen charged for manipulating stock prices

Toomas Tool, one of the richest Estonian businessmen who owns whole blocks in Tallinn Old Town, has been charged for manipulating stock prices.

According to aripaev.ee, prosecutors have submitted to court a criminal case where Tool and former SEB stockbroker Karoly Kirber are accused of manipulating the securities market.

Äripäev wrote on Friday that with the help of Swedish small investor Stefan Andersson who lives in Estonia and speaks Estonian, Äripäev had discovered some strange movements with stocks of real etate group Arco Vara involving SEB and Toomas Tool.

The paper suspects that stockbroker Karoly Kirber who by now has resigned from SEB may have manipulated stock prices to drive up price of Arco Vara stock. Kirber has denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors acted on the suspicion that the Finance Inspectorate filed in February 2009. The investigation was carried out by the economic fraud unit of North Police Prefecture.

Toomas Tool is being accused of having instructed Kirber by phone between July 14 and 21 to sell large quantities of shares of Arco Vara that were held in the securities account of Toomas Tool's wife in SEB and which he was authorized to use. The objective was to drive the price of Arco Vara stock lower from the level of 0.56 euros a share that enabled Tool to put pressure on other large shareholders of Arco Vara.

"The Amazing race" recap : Mud, more mud and vocabulary troubles ...

Bucky's back with a rundown on last night's muddy episode of The Amazing Race.  

This week’s leg of The Amazing Race begins with the Globetrotters, who finished first last week, departing at 2:23 a.m. to catch a ferry for a 16-hour ride across the Baltic Sea to Estonia.  They get to the ferry terminal and find that the next ferry leaves at 5:45 p.m.  This means, I calculate in my head, that they will arrive in Estonia almost a day and a half after they left the previous pit stop, even though it’s not all that far from Sweden to Estonia.  Why do the producers do that?

We learn that Sam and Dan have made up and agreed that bickering is no way to compete, which means that more bickering is on the way, I think.  We also learn that Matt has worn his black bandana, a signal to the other teams that he and his father mean business and are in the race to win it. 

In Estonia, the teams have to take a set of keys, figure out which one opens the door to the clubhouse of a secret Estonian society, go downstairs into the most secret part of the clubhouse and get a candelabra with a room number on it.  Then they are to go to the room and figure out how to read a secret scroll for directions to the next clue box. 

All the teams start working on this task, except for Gary and Matt, who have to perform their penalty Speed Bump for not being eliminated last week.  This turns out to be less like a penalty and more like a short vacation:  Take a five-minute sauna on a “saunabus,” which is just what it sounds like — a sauna on a bus.  Matt, however, walks around asking “What’s a saunabus?”  (That’s OK … I didn’t know there were places where they have saunas on buses, either.)  They eventually figure out what it is, find it and get into the sauna, where Matt is seated next to a very attractive Finnish girl dressed in a towel.  She looks at Matt with her sky-blue eyes and asks, “Why are you wearing that dorky black bandana?”  Ha Ha ha.  No she didn’t.  I just made that up.

Eastern Europeans charged in payment processor hack

A group of Eastern Europeans was charged with hacking into the network of payment processor RBS WorldPay and using counterfeit debit cards at ATMs around the world to steal more than $9 million, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Four of the defendants allegedly collaborated to break into the RBS WorldPay network on November 4, 2008, where they got access to the account numbers for prepaid payroll cards used by employees to withdraw salaries from ATMs, according to the indictment from a federal grand jury in Atlanta. The defendants allegedly reverse-engineered the PINs associated with the accounts from the encrypted data on the network.

The defendants then allegedly raised the account limits on the compromised accounts and provided a network of "cashers" with 44 fake debit cards, according to the Justice Department. The cards allegedly were used November 8, 2008, to withdraw money from more than 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities, including in North America, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan, in less than 12 hours.

Obama and Estonia

U.S. warship pays visit to Estonia

TALLINN  - A U.S. missile destroyer, which was a target of a terrorist attack in 2000, has arrived on a friendly visit to the port of Tallinn, the U.S. Embassy in Estonia said.

USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer, will stay in the Estonian capital until today, Tuesday. The program of the visit is focused on a variety of cultural and sports events.

After the visit, the warship is scheduled to return to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.

The destroyer, which was named after Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, entered service with the U.S. Navy on June 8, 1996.

On 12 October 2000, the Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide attackers in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured, and the ship was damaged.

In 2005 Cole participated in BALTOPS 2005 naval drills with the Baltic states.

Lativan experts say meteorite crater is a coax

RIGA - The excitement last night in Latvia was over a great big, smoking crater supposedly created by meteorite.

But after rushing to the scene this morning, experts are saying the hole is just too tidy to be real.

Fire and rescue officials in the area near Latvia's border with Estonia received a called about the alleged meteorite last night from a supposed witness. A military unit that was sent to the site found radiation levels to be normal.

Today, a geologist from the University of Latvia says "it's artificial, dug by a shovel." That's the consensus among the scientists investigating the 27-foot wide by nine foot deep crater.

One nature conservationist says it appears whoever was behind the hoax burned a pyrotechnic compound at the bottom of the crater to try to make it look real.

Experts say Earth is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, bust most burn up in the atmosphere and a meteorite large enough to create a crater as big as the one in Latvia would be unusual.

It's not yet clear whether police will open an investigation into the hoax.

Hannah and Beckham !

A TINY detail like Estonia not qualifying for the World Cup has not stopped the country’s leading pop star from planning a tournament song.

Hannah, who sang both national anthems when England played Estonia at Wembley in October 2007, has set her sights on singing for England — and with David Beckham.

‘I’m a big fan of his new beard,’ she says. ‘Maybe I could even top the Three Lions song that you hear all the time.’ Perhaps not surprisingly, Hannah and Beckham are both represented by Simon Fuller’s 19 Management company.

Estonia on the way to limiting freedom of assembly ?

Estonian parliament has adopted changes to a controversial law which could restrict participation in mass protests.

The law deals with, among others issues, the procedure of amending the Criminal Code and the law on foreigners.

Earlier this year the lawmakers also proposed and voted for amendments introducing criminal responsibility for calls for mass protests and preparation for them, as well as for distributing false information about Estonia which put at risk public security. They also implied the possibility of stripping naturalized citizens of their status for getting involved in mass protests.

In July, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves dismissed the draft law, which sparked wide disputes in the country. The president said that Estonian laws should prevent crimes against the state and punish people for actions undermining Estonia’s independence, territorial integrity and constitutional order. At the same time, Hendrik believes that it is unacceptable to limit democratic freedoms, especially freedom of assembly and expression.

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Several politicians and public figures have criticized the proposed amendments, saying they would affect Estonia’s democratic development.

Man pleads guilty to manslaughter of Estonian

A 26-year-old north Dublin criminal has been jailed for 11 years for the manslaughter of an Estonian man attacked as he sat with his girlfriend watching planes take off from Dublin airport.

Ian Daly of Moatview Drive in Priorswood was on trial at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of Valeri Ranert (aged 28) of Westend Village, Blanchardstown on April 30, 2007 at Naul Road in Swords.

He had pleaded not guilty to murdering the divorced father-of-one and to hijacking the victim’s Volkswagen Golf on the same occasion.

However, Daly, also a father-of-one, changed his plea to not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter on day four of his trial today. This was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the jury of nine men and three women was excused.

Detective Garda John Collins told Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, that Mr Ranert and his girlfriend, Jelena Sirokova, drove to the lay-by beside the runway at the back of the airport around midnight on Sunday April 29, 2007.

About an hour later a number of men arrived in a Ford Fiesta, he said. After initially asking for a light, two of the men surrounded the couple’s car and smashed in the side windows. One of them then kicked Mr Ranert in the head, rendering him unconscious.

They dragged the forklift driver from his car and kicked him to death in front of Ms Sirokova before stealing his car and fleeing.

Mr Ranert was lifeless as he lay on the roadside and pronounced dead an hour later in Beaumont Hospital. He died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

The detective said a mobile phone found beside the victim was registered to Ian Daly.

He was arrested the following September, and told gardaí that he had been out “on a bender” all weekend at the time of the killing.

When you marry an Estonian, you inherit the entire family

All sorts of stories about Eastern Europe circulated in the early 90s. One was that for a pair of Levi’s blue jeans you could buy a car. It was said that for a pack of Marlboros you could have anything smaller. The women were purportedly both gorgeous and dangerous, capable of weaving especially wicked webs.

A few years after arriving in 1992, I married an Estonian woman. None of the warnings that circulated in Canada turned out to apply to Liina. What they should have warned me about were the standard marital issues which apply in every culture.Like the fact that when you marry the wife, you inherit the family.

-from Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe by Vello Vikerkaar

Vello Vikerkaar, the foreign Estonian columnist for Postimees and Eesti Ekspress, released his first book in Estonian, Pikk jutt, sitt jutt, kogutud lühijutud. But nobody but Estonians could read it.

In order to spread the Gospel of Estonia to the rest of the world, Vello proudly announces the release of his English-language book, Inherit the Family: Marrying into Eastern Europe.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Inherit-...

Estonian start-up Propaganda launches social media "show-off" utility WhosRich.me

Estonia-based startup Propaganda LLC has recently released the web-based social media utility WhosRich, Tigerprises.com/LETA reports.

WhosRich.me makes it fun and easy for people to track their friends' shopping habits.

The utility gives eager shoppers a scene to exhibit publicly their purchases and receive the feedback from mates.

The site has been open to public for less than two weeks.

WhosRich aim is to cater equally for both user groups – those looking to publish their purchases and the ones desiring just to follow what people are buying, the founder of the site Kaarel Kala pointed out.

"The integrity of the users posting on the site is up to other users to decide and react upon. Users who begin to flood the system with posts of stuff they probably haven’t bought will be ignored and most likely not followed by other users," Kala noted.

North East storm took water out of Pärnu river in Estonia

The strong North-Eastern winds that ravaged Estonia Wednesday evening lowered the water level in the South West Estonian Pärnu river by over 80 cm, National Broadcasting/LETA reports.

Due to the low water level, ships could not sail from Pärnu port, the floating restaurant in the centre of the city and yachts in the yachting marina were tilted. The Sauga River that flows into Pärnu river resembled a bigger creek rather than a river.

Pärnu port captain Riho Prints stressed that a flood is always much worse than fall of water level, since it tends to cause damages and bigger accidents can happen with ships at sea and in the port.

He said that the major fall in the river’s water level was caused by a stable and very strong North East wind that swept through all Baltic States. “A vacuum emerged that took water out of the small shallow Pärnu Bay.”

Prints said that the water level fell up to 85 cm during the night. By now it is back to normal, 53 cm below the zero level which is not problem for shipping traffic anymore.

The biggest fall of the Pärnu river water level took place in 1976 and was 1.25 metres.

Estonian authorities have conquered rabies

Estonian Veterinary and Food Board data indicate that rabies, that was mainly spread by fox and raccoon dogs, has been conquered in Estonia with vaccinations that have taken place over the past five years, Postimees Online/LETA reports.

Around two or three cases of rabies a year are still found at areas next to the Russian border.

Veterinary and Food Board project manager Enel Niin said that vaccinating fox and raccoon dogs against rabies doesn’t have exactly a bad effect on their numbers. Still, the number of rabies cases has plunged drastically. “Rabies is a dangerous and difficult disease that always end in death,” said Niin. People can contract the disease too.

All over Estonia, except the areas of cities, 860,000 doses of rabies vaccine are thrown down a plane every autumn and spring. The Estonian state decided to launch such vaccination in 2003 when 814 cases of rabies were registered, 51 in domestic animals. The first vaccination took place in 2005.