BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

tARTuFF : Tartu Film Festival

Aug. 26 - 31
* There’s nothing better than some good romantic movies to set the mood on a late summer night.

Tartu will be hosting a grand open-air film festival, the center of which will be on Town Hall Square which has a huge white screen and 1,000 seats.

The Estonian National Museum will be showing Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog,” his groundbreaking TV series from the late ’80s, which examined moral ambiguities in Warsaw.

More info : www.culture.ee

Saaremaa against wind-driven electricity generators

* Residents of Saaremaa are opposed to the installation of more wind-driven electricity generators on the rural island. Locals in the villages of Pahkla and Unimae have threatened to take the council to court if it allows the construction of six new generators.

The village residents fear that property values will fall due to the unsightly and noisy generators. There are already several wind generators on Saaremaa and the nearby coast of mainland Estonia.

Estonian doctors leave to Finland : + 50% in 5 years !

* The number of Estonian doctors working in Finland has doubled in the past five years. Recent figures show that Estonian-speaking doctors now number 111, a 50 percent increase since 2000.

Only Russian doctors outnumber Estonians in Finland. The northern country’s higher wages and open labor market for medical workers has encouraged the exodus.

First lady outraged by attacks on president

TALLINN - Ingrid Rüütel, wife of President Arnold Rüütel, expressed her indignation over attacks against her husband, saying the media was deliberately trying to wreck the president’s image on the eve of the Aug. 28 presidential ballot. In an online interview with the daily Postimees Aug. 16, Ingrid Rüütel said, “At first such attacks disturbed me and the whole family very much, and I sincerely wished that he would no longer run [in the election – ed.], but recently they’ve become so gross that I’ve developed a desire to protest.”

“The more I read, the more I begin to feel that this action has been undertaken to blackmail me,” she said.
Ingrid Rüütel admitted that it would no doubt be more convenient and peaceful for her husband and the whole family to live out of the public’s eye.

“If some other sensible candidate is elected as the new president, we will both wish him luck,” she said. “But if the new president is boosted to power by mockery and slander of the incumbent, using the basest tricks, I don’t believe a ‘fair, clean and ethical Republic of Estonia’ lies ahead.”
Ingrid Rüütel reminded that the ......

Businesses in the Baltics should brace themselves for a wave of rapid wage increases ... !

* ...... the chairman of the region’s largest banking group, Hansabank, warned this week. Jan Liden, president and CEO of Swedbank, owner of the Hansabank group, rejected any suggestion that the inevitable wage increases should be initiated by businesses in order to “take care” of their employees, who have begun to feel the pinch of inflation and rising property prices.

“Wages will rise faster than you think. Many people have tried to describe the exact timeframe. I can’t, but it will be a very short time,” said Liden, who is also chairman of the supervisory council of the Hansabank Group.
He said his own business, one of the larger employers in the region, understood the need to remunerate its staff well. But he said wage increases should be market-driven, not business-led.
“I don’t think it’s a single corporation’s responsibility for the economic development of a country,” Liden told The Baltic Times. “We want the very best from our employees, and we have to remunerate them well. But it’s not our responsibility to see that the Estonian people have higher salaries,” he added.

As Liden explained, the market economy is supply-and-demand driven, and in Estonia there are “talented, well-educated people in a growing economy.”
“That is where we will see the market mechanics at work,” he told members of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce at Tallinn’s Hotel Olympia on Aug. 21.
He told local business leaders that Hansabank had no intention of changing its name to match that of its Swedish parent company, Swedbank.

“We want to make it clear that the two banks are the same bank, but we have no goals of changing the name any time in the near future. Hansabank will merely be seen as part of Swedbank,” Liden said.
Hansabank became a fully-owned subsidiary of Swedbank last year, although the company has held a 50 percent stake in the Baltic bank since 1998.

In other regions, such as Russia, the company’s subsidiaries will soon begin adopting the Swedbank brand. But as Liden explained, the name Hansabank – or Hansapank in Estonia and Hansabanka in Latvia – was already recognized as a strong and trustworthy brand in the Baltics and should therefore remain.
Speaking about his company’s ......

Musical "Chess" by ABBA ! in Tartu Vanemuine, August 24-27th

* The famous musical "Chess" by former ABBA male soloists Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and British librettist Tim Rice will be played in Estonia’s oldest professional theatre, the Vanemuine, on August 24th-27th, at 19.00 hours.

In the second largest town in Estonia, Tartu, Chess is staged by Swedish producer Georg Malvius who has already produced Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar in the Vanemuine earning the high appraisal of the authors themselves.

The designer of Chess, Ellen Cairns, from Great Britain, is Malvius’s long-time partner with whom he has worked on more than 20 productions in many places in the world. The choreographer of the production is Jüri Nael, the musical director and conductor is Tarmo Leinatamm and the light designer is Palle Palmé from Sweden.

The Vanemuine symphony orchestra, soloists, opera choir, pop choir, ballet troupe and rock band also take part in the production. According to Paavo Nõgene, the executive producer of the Vanemuine, “Chess gives work for more than 300 people both on and off stage.”

The producer, Georg Malvius, has discarded the topic of cold war relevant at the time when Chess was .......

"Mobilestream Oil" announces a request from "Qcell OU Ltd" ......

...... for a quote on a 5,000,000 ton/year oil shale production plant in Estonia.

* WEST BERLIN, N.J. -- Mobilestream Oil, Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets : MSRM - News) is pleased to announce that Qcell OU Ltd. of Estonia, has requested a quote from Mobilestream Oil for an oil shale production plant in Estonia to process 5,000,000 tons of oil shale per year. Representatives from Qcell OU Ltd. ( http://qcell.ee ) have confirmed that they will visit Mobilestream Oil's facility in West Berlin, New Jersey in mid September of 2006 to discuss the use of Mobilestream Oil's technology for the oil extraction operations in the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

After negotiations and a period of study, a corresponding license agreement with Qcell, if granted, will give exclusive rights to act, install, operate and benefit from Mobilestream Oil's technology for oil shale production.

According to an article published in the August 2005 edition of World Oil magazine, entitled "Hopes for Shale Oil are Revived," Suncor Energy built a .......

First place in Estonia for the "Reform party"

* The Estonian Reform Party (ER) has become the top political organization in the Baltic nation, according to a poll by TNS Emor. 20 per cent of respondents would vote for the ER in the next parliamentary election.

The Estonian Centre Party (KESK) is in second place with 19 per cent, followed by the coalition of the Fatherland Union (EI) and the Union for the Republic - Res Publica (RP) with 11 per cent, the Estonian People’s Union (ERL) with six per cent, and the Social Democratic Party (SDE) with five per cent. The next election is tentatively scheduled for March 2007.

In March 2005, prime minister Juhan Parts—a member of Res Publica—announced his resignation. In April, a new administration—headed by Reform leader Andrus Ansip—was sworn in. The governing coalition also includes the KESK and the ERL. Since 1991, only one of the Baltic nation’s administrations has lasted more than two years.

The Baltic is history

Margaret Thurton

* FOR the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, World War II didn't really end until the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

That's worth knowing if you want to comprehend the psyche of the Baltic States today.

We are in Tallinn, Estonia's capital, and the guide is recalling this city's complicated past.

Today, though, the Old Town looks picture-perfect with its towers and belfries and pastel-painted buildings, and I decide it's the loveliest medieval town I've seen.

I edge away to take the perfect picture of a girl in a medieval dress. The guide's lips draw tight with annoyance. She says the girl is not Estonian but Russian, and she pulls me back within her orbit where we return to Tallinn's complicated past, once again.

Conquerors are uppermost on this guide's mind – marauding Danes and German knights, Swedes and Tsarist Russians, Germans (briefly) after World War I, Soviet Reds, World War II Nazis and, from 1944, those Soviets . . . again.

The grim account seems at odds with the storybook images surrounding us today.

Released from a string of oppressors, Tallinn has not yet been overrun by tourists. Restored as a venue for the Moscow Olympics in 1980, the Old Town retains an authenticity undiminished by Russians in Estonian dress, but our guide is having none of this.

We're off to Toomkirik, Estonia's .......

Beijing 2006 : WJC Estonia finishes in 5th place with 4 golds

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	KENYA	6	6	3	15
2	PR OF CHINA	5	5	7	17
3	UNITED STATES	4	5	2	11
4	RUSSIA	4	3	3	10
5	ESTONIA	4	0	0	4
6	JAMAICA	2	1	5	8
7	ETHIOPIA	2	1	1	4
8	AUSTRALIA	2	0	1	3
9	BULGARIA	2	0	0	2
	TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO	2	0	0	2
11	GERMANY	1	2	2	5
12	FRANCE	1	2	0	3
13	ROMANIA	1	1	1	3
14	GREAT BRITAIN & N.I.	1	0	4	5
15	POLAND	1	0	1	2

* Young Estonian athletes have so far bagged four gold medals at the World Junior Athletics Championship, being held in Beijing.

Margus Hunt, who earlier won the discus event by a wide margin, achieved a similar feat in shot put on August 21.

Hunt's result in the fifth round of shot put was 20.53 meters, the world's best result during this season among juniors.

The silver medal went to Mostafa Abdul El-Moaty of Egypt (20.14) and the bronze medal to Guo Yanxiang of China (19.17).

Hunt's personal best before Saturday's competition was 19.56.

His first gold medal in discuss set a new world record with a result of 67.32 meters.

Earlier in the competition, Estonian Kaire Leibak won gold with a new Estonian record of 14.43 in women's triple jump. The silver medal went to Li Sha of China and bronze to Liliya Kulik of Ukraine.

Add Niit Marek on the 200 m men final with a time of 20.96 on August the 18th.

Estonians, don't do what the Poles did ... Stay home to look after your owns

By Kate Connolly in Berlin and Sally Pook

* So many Poles are living in squalor and poverty on the streets of Britain that a Polish charity is sending staff to London to persuade them to return home.

The Barka Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Poznan, western Poland, was alerted by British charities. They fear that many of the Poles are turning to drugs, prostitution and crime.

The charity for the homeless plans to visit Britain in the next two weeks. It has already approached the Polish government for funds to set up a London office.

"We are talking about young and old, men and women, most of whom have poor qualifications and speak little English," said Tomasz Sadowska, the foundation president. "Ever since Poland joined the European Union, people have left for better lives. They go without any money or contacts, they don't speak the language, yet they think Britain is going to be paradise."

An estimated 400,000 Poles ........

Estonia’s population still dropping

TALLINN - Estonia recorded a higher number of births than deaths in July, however statisticians said the increase was an anomaly and did not point to population growth.
According to figures from the Interior Ministry a total of 1,341 births and 1,314 deaths were registered during July.

The last time the number of live births exceeded deaths was in July 1992, and the last time Estonia experienced annual population growth was in 1990.

"It is in every way positive that after a long time a bigger number of live births than deaths was registered in Estonia in the course of a month," leading statistician Ulle Valgma said.

She added however that the figures were tentative and subject to change. Some of the births and deaths registered in July actually occurred in June, and that the births figure by the Interior Ministry included stillborn children, Valgma said.

The final figures will be also changed by population events registered by Estonia's diplomatic representations abroad, and the fact that the yearly figures will be broken down by place of residence, which means that births and deaths of people not living in Estonia will be eliminated, she said.

Valgma cautioned against viewing the July figures an indication of a trend.

"Rather it was a coincidence -- the number of births registered in June was big while the number of deaths was smaller as is common during the summer," she explained.

From January through July, 8,732 live births and 10,564 deaths were registered in Estonia, marking a gap of 1,832.

Ansip defends Estonia liberal market

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has used his Independence Day message to defend the nation’s open liberal market economy.

"We've done a lot of work together, and nothing will undermine the wish of the Estonian people to continue on the chosen path of democratic liberal market economy",Ansip said in a message issued under the name of his political party, the Reform Party.

The prime minister thanked everyone who had made a contribution to Estonia's breaking free from half a century of occupation in 1991.

Ansip invited Estonians to remember also those who didn't live long enough to see the collapse of alien rule over Estonia and for who freedom remained a dream.

He thanked the partner countries that quickly restored diplomatic relations with Estonia and sent their first post-war ambassadors to Tallinn.

Ansip said Estonia had managed to accomplish more in the course of the 15 years than many had dared to even dream of.

"Today we're better off than we were 15 years ago, but that is no enough",Ansip said. "It's not the Estonian way to be satisfied with mediocrity",he said.

He said he hoped Estonia would rank among the richest nations in the EU in a further 15 years.
"That won't be easy, but we will not be satisfied with less," he said.

Estonian trader settles E-Theft charges

* WASHINGTON — An Estonian man will return more than $550,000 of trading profits and pay a $15,000 penalty to settle electronic theft charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday.

Kristjan Lepik, of Tallinn, settled without admitting or denying allegations that he traded on corporate information obtained through sneak peeks at information distributed by Business Wire, a leading commercial distributor of business news.

Lepik's employer, an Estonian investment bank, had a Business Wire account, and the SEC said Lepik and co-worker Oliver Peek secretly used a "spider" software program that gave them an advance look at when press releases issued by Business Wire customers. The SEC claims the pair used similar tactics with other news distributors, which it did not name.

In all, the SEC said Lepik and Peek made at least $7.8 million of profits trading on .......

Police seize record amphetamine stash in Estonia

* Police have arrested five people and seized a record one kilogram of amphetamine, the largest amount of the drug ever seized in southern Estonia.

Police had discovered 80 grams of amphetamine and 99 tablets of ecstasy in a car near Tartu in early August. Two young men, identified as Viktor and Yevgeni, were discovered in the car and were placed under arrest. Both were under the influence of narcotics.

The police then intercepted another car involved in trafficking in Tartu on Aug. 17.
The driver of that car initially attempted to flee from police, and the driver threw a cardboard box containing a plastic bag filled with one kilogram of amphetamine out of the car’s window before he was stopped.

The men inside the car, identified as Henrik and Anatoli, both in their 20s, were detained. A day later, narcotics police together with officers from the Tax and Customs Board and the police K commandos unit detained a middle-aged man, Vladislav, in Tallinn. He is believed to have supplied the amphetamine to the younger men.

Heiki Rood, chief superintendent of the narcotics police of the South prefecture, said the haul was the largest amount of amphetamine seized by police in southern Estonia so far. The one kilogram of amphetamine corresponds to at least 6,000 doses.

#Police succeeded in uncovering a narcotics dealing chain. The scope of activity of the five men is being investigated,# chief of the southern prefecture Aivar Otsalt said. Police seized 177 grams of amphetamine in the southern prefecture i 2005, and 343 grams during the first half of 2006.

Le "Showdown Poker Tour" à Tallinn

Présenté en avril dernier, le nouveau tournoi européen "The Showdown Poker Tour" devait se tenir dans sept villes européennes entre mai et novembre 2006. La série de tournoi peine à rencontrer son public avec une vigntaine de participants lors des deux premières éditions à Londres et à Dublin en mai 2006.

Le Showdown Poker Tour devrait du reste se déplacer en Estonie à Tallinn du 31 août au 3 septembre 2006 pour la 3ème étape de cette saison inaugurale. En réalité, Tallinn devait être la 4éme ou 5éme étape programmée à l'origine. Le Tour devait s'arrêter pour cinq jours au Casino Barrière de Trouville du 6 au 10 août.

Prévue du 6 au 10 août, l'étape française a récemment été repoussée par les organisateurs du Tour. Dans un précendent article, nous nous demandions si beaucoup de participants allaient se présenter à Trouville. Le tournoi coincidait avec le déroulement de l'événement le plus important de l'année pour les joueurs de poker, c'est à dire le tournoi principal des World Series of Poker à Las Vegas. La plupart des bons joueurs capables de payer les 5.300$ de "buy-in" devaient logiquement se rendre à Las Vegas plutôt qu'en Normandie.

Cependant, il cette incertitude n'est pas à l'origine du changement de programme du Tour. Voici la raison donnée par le ........

Tourists being attacked more and more often in Tallinn

Although the number of street crimes has fallen in Tallinn, attacks on foreign tourists have again become more frequent of late. Drunken tourists are the main targets at night and during the daytime criminals tend to prey on older people.

In July, 162 robbed or attacked foreign citizens turned to the Estonian Police (+ 10 times as many who didn't !!!) . Eerik Heldna from the North Police Prefecture says that tourists are attractive targets because they usually carry more cash with them than locals – and they are also often inebriated. Most robberies are not dangerous (so we are happy to learn that it is all taken as if it was a very good joke) ; sometimes a robber threatens his victim with a knife or some other object . ....... but nothing more ... !!!!!

Taagepera proposes mandatory presidential check-up

* Rein Taagepera, professor emeritus of Tartu University and University of California, said that all serious presidential candidates should have a medical check-up by an independent council.

Writing in the daily Eesti Päevaleht, Taagepera said that the medical council would publicize any medical disorders that could impede the president in his duties. By doing this, it would help avoid the election of a president who is seriously ill and clear up rumors on certain candidates’ health. “This is becoming a tradition in democratic countries, even if the law does not require it,” he said. “Neither should any member of parliament, or of the electoral college, who votes without asking the necessary information evade this responsibility.”

Taagepera said the medical issue directly pertained to Arnold Rüütel, referring to a recent opinion article by mnemonic disorders diagnostician Helle Nurm, which suggested that Rüütel was “too old” for the presidency. “It is time for an expert opinion which confirms that the candidate has not passed the limits of normal aging and does away with suspicions,” Taagepera said.

Rumors were fed by the fact that .......

Vaivara govt seeks information on vandals

TALLINN - The Vaivara local government has promised to award of 5,000 kroons (320 euros) for information leading to vandals who damaged signposts along hiking trails and monuments at Sinimaed, the site of historic World War II battles.

Vaivara communal governor Veikko Luhalaid said wooden signposts and information tablets were destroyed days after being posted by members of the Estonian Reserve Officers’ Body at Grenadier Hill.
In the last days of July, a 4,000-kroon monolithic wooden table and two waste bins were stolen from the foot of Grenadier Hill.

In 1944, some of the worst battles of WWII occurred at Sinimaed between advancing Soviet forces and German troops.

Estonian Hunt takes men's shot put gold at junior worlds

* Estonia's Margus Hunt was again in the spotlight by winning the men's shot put at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing yesterday.

Fresh from his feat in the men's discus throw on Tuesday, Hunt took his second title in 20.53 meters which is a world junior leading result.

Mostafa Abdul El-Moaty of Egypt finished second in 20.14 with Guo Yanxiang of China third in 19.97.

"It was not a surprise for me," said Hunt, a 2.03m-tall teenager. "Beijing is my lucky city."

The 19-year-old Tuesday renewed the discus throw world junior record for three times and won the title in 67.32 in the sixth and last attempt.

Hunt had beat a former world junior mark in 66.35 meters in Tuesday's discus throw qualification, beating the previous best of 65.88m set by Egypt's Omar El-Ghazaly in 2003.