BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Scotland to take on Estonia in Aberdeen : 6 February 2013

Vauxhall International Challenge Match
Scotland v Estonia
Wednesday 6 February 2013, kick-off 7.45 pm
Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen

Scotland will take on Estonia in Aberdeen next February in preparation for the second half of the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign.

It will be the national team’s first trip to Pittodrie since a 3-0 win over Faroe Islands in November 2010. Estonia return to the stadium for the first time since June 1993, when Pat Nevin (2) and Brian McClair gave Scotland a 3-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying win.

The last time the two sides met, James McFadden struck in a 1-0 friendly win in Tallinn in May 2004.

The fixture forms part of an exciting 2013 schedule. Following the match against Estonia, Craig Levein’s side resume the World Cup qualifying campaign in March against Wales (H) and Serbia (A), with Croatia (A) in June. Next up is a mouth-watering clash against England at Wembley in August, before the final qualifiers against Macedonia (A) and Croatia (H) in September and October.

Estonians sentenced for supplying guns to Lithuanian criminals

In the years between 2009 and 2011, a group of Estonians based in Tartu sent at least eight machine guns, pistols, silencers, laseroptical sights and ammunition to a Lithuanian criminal gang in Marijampole, writes Postimees daily.

The weapons included a Kalashnikov AK-47, an UZI submachine gun, an automatic rifle, IngramMac 10 submachine gun, and others including Makarov and TT pistols.

The weapons were delivered to the buyers from Tartu across the Valga border checkpoint to Marijampole either in cars or were delivered to Lithuanian criminals at the parking lot of Kantri hotel at Tartu-Valga road.

Lithuanian paid Estonians about 11,000 euros for the weapons.
Estonian police started to investigate the case after stopping a car in August 2010 which contained in its trunk an AK-47 and several thousand bullets.

European mink planned to be re-introduced to Saaremaa

An experiment will be carried out on the Island of Saaremaa for reintroducing critically endangered species European mink to the natural environment, writes LETA/National Broadcasting, citing regional newspaper Saarte Hääl.

There were plans made in 2002 already to introduce these small predators on two of the largest islands of Estonia, but there appeared to be too many risks and hence Saaremaa was left out of the project and only Hiiumaa was involved in it.

Now it has been determined that the experiment on Hiiumaa has largely been a success and hence the first attempts of repopulating the island with European mink could be made. “There are many risks, including the high population of foxes, and hence we will begin small,” said biologist of the University of Tartu Tiit Maran. He added that mink pups might not survive on a larger island.

Preparatory works will start on August 22 and soon 10 rare European minks will be transported to the island.

Juhan Tere

Ryanair to cut flights to Finland, fate of Tallinn routes unknown

The Irish budget airline Ryanair will cut half of its flights to Finland in the next winter season, reported Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).

Lauri Linnamäe, representative of Tallinn Airport, said in comment that the airport had not yet received any information about the winter timetable of Ryanair because the airline has not yet submitted it. However, he said that some customers have said that Ryanair's booking system does not allow them to book for the winter for certain flights that exist today.

As for Finland, the airline has decided to give up the route to Turku completely this winter, while also reducing the number of flights to and from Tampere and Lappeenranta. The carrier has explained that Turku will be abandoned for the winter as it is a new destination, reports Anne-Marget Niemi, Managing Director of Turku Touring, in an interview with Turun Sanomat. Ryanair started its flights between Turku and four European destinations, including London Stansted, at the end of March this year. YLE reports further that the

Tallink jumps most in 12 months as 2nd quarter profit rises

AS Tallink Grupp (TAL1T) rose by the most in 12 months after cost cuts helped the largest Baltic ferry company report higher second-quarter profit.

The stock gained as much as 6 percent to 70.3 euro cents in Tallinn trade, the biggest rise since last August. Tallink has added 21 percent in the last 12 months, compared with a 1- percent gain for its eastern European transportation peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Tallink, which mainly ships passengers and goods between Estonia, Finland and Sweden, said yesterday that second-quarter net income rose to 20 million euros ($24.6 million) from 13.6 million euros a year earlier, citing higher revenue and the closure of its unprofitable Finland-Germany route.

Ott Ummelas

Elektrilevi selects Ericsson for smart metering in Estonia

• Ericsson as prime integrator will supply, deploy, systems integrate and run a smart-metering network
• Includes deployment of 630,000 smart meters and the Operation Support Systems (OSS) to manage meters and data collected
• Smart meters offer cost reductions and improved efficiency, as well as enhanced customer satisfaction

Elektrilevi, the major Estonian electricity distribution network operator, has signed an eight-year contract with Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to supply, deploy, systems integrate and run a smart-metering network.

Estonia is one of many countries that are installing smart meters to contribute to the EU target of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020. Elektrilevi has nearly a half-million subscribers on its network.

Smart meters make it possible for consumers to control their energy consumption and reduce costs by supporting new tariff models from utility companies, and supporting more accurate and timely billing. Utilities benefit from increased operational knowledge, the elimination of manual meter reading and savings  through fraud detection. .

Ericsson will supply and deploy services on the 2G/3G mobile internet and power-line communication technologies for management and data information, including deployment of 630,000 smart meters. Ericsson will also perform systems integration of the meter and data management operation support systems (OSS). Ericsson will operate the smart metering network during the deployment period.

Basketball : Israel has to get back lost shooting touch for Estonia

With shooting guard Yotam Halperin struggling, Israel's national basketball team is looking for a way to recover from its loss in its EuroBasket opener.

With shooting guard Yotam Halperin struggling, Israel's national basketball team is looking for a way to recover from its loss in its EuroBasket opener earlier this week when it faces Estonia at home tomorrow.

After Halperin played 13 mediocre first-half minutes in Israel's 75-69 loss to Montenegro in Budocnost, head coach Arik Shivek inserted Raviv Limonad to start the third quarter. Limonad pressed well on defense and helped the team on fast breaks, scoring easy baskets in transition as the team turned a small deficit to a 17-point lead. But Shivek went with a taller lineup in the final quarter, playing Guy Pnini in the shooting guard position, and the team fell apart.

"Everyone knows how much I love Yotam, but he just wasn't producing," Shivek said on Wednesday.

Oded Katash, the assistant coach, said that Halperin in the number-two position has been one of the squad's strong points, but that Halperin - who was sidelined by injury - was not able to prepare properly for the qualifying tournament. "I believe we'll see the real Yotam yet in this tournament," he added.

Arie Livnat - More

Karmen Pedaru

Karmen Pedaru

Estonia spends too little on health care

Health care spending in Estonia is significantly lower than the average in the OECD countries, writes LETA/Postimees Online.

Estonia only spends 6.3% of its GDP on health care costs while the average among OECD member states is 9.5%, is revealed by the organisation’s 2012 health care sector overview. Only Mexico and Turkey spent proportionately less than Estonia on the health care system.

According to the organisation, spending on health care increases together with the increase in wealth and the countries with higher GDP also have greater health care spending. In the United States, 17.6% of GDP was spent on health care, in the Netherlands it was 12% and in France 11.6%. Estonia’s health care spending is nearly half that. Estonia’s GDP is also that much smaller from the point of view of purchasing power parity. In Estonia the indicator was 1,294 dollars per year per person while the OECD average in 2012 was 3,268 dollars.

In the year-on-year comparison, Estonia’s health care spending grew by an average of 6.9% between 2000 and 2009. In 2010, on the other hand, the decline was 7.3%. Health care spending also fell in several other OECD member states in 2010.

Juhan Tere

Estonia is the 57th healthiest country in the world

Bloomberg compiled a list of the healthiest countries and determined that Estonia ranked 57th in the list, writes LETA/Äripäev.ee. Latvia is ranked 79th and Lithuania 81st.

Estonia remained behind countries such as Syria, Macedonia, Oman and Libya, for example. The healthiest country in the world is Singapore, which is followed by Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Israel etc. Finland ranked 22nd, Latvia 79th and Lithuania 81st.

The list was compiled on the basis of the life expectancy at moment of birth, child mortality rate, causes of death, the proportion of smokers to the entire population, obesity rate, sedentary lifestyle, excessive cholesterol, high blood pressure, AIDS as well as on the basis of housing and external environment pollution.

Juhan Tere

Tallinn City Treasury collected 276.3 mln euros in January-July

During the first seven months of the year 2012, the Tallinn City Treasury collected a total of 276.3 million euros in revenue, writes LETA/National Broadcasting.

Without taking into account the financing operations, the collected revenue accounts for 59.6% of all revenue planned for the entire year.

The city collected 166.5 million euros in tax revenue; 61.2% of the planned revenue for the entire year. Tallinn’s investment operations have provided 11.1 million euros in revenue from January to July – i.e. 80.5% of the amount planned for the entire year.

Tallinn’s payments made from the budget in the first seven months of 2012 amounted to 261.5 million euros – 53.6% of the total spending planned for the entire year.

The volume of revenue exceeded payments by 2.2 million euros in July; as a result, the balance of available funds in the City Treasury amounted to 48.1 million euros.

Juhan Tere

Estonian State foundations earned nearly 9 mln euros in loss in 2011

In 2011 the foundations of the Estonian State earned a total loss of nearly 9 million euros, the greatest loss-earners were Kredex, the Northern Estonian Regional Hospitals and the foundation Enterprise Estonia, writes LETA/Postimees. All three earned nearly a million euros in loss each in 2011.

The State has a total of 67 foundations, 38 of which managed to make ends meet or even earned a profit last year.

Andrus Treier, the CEO of Kredex that earned the biggest loss – 3.2 million euros – stated that the 2011 financial results were caused by risks taken during the recent economic crisis. “The volumes of Kredex’ guarantees and loans grew significantly during the crisis years; we assumed remarkable risks in financing enterprises in order to help them survive the difficult times,” he said.

Treier estimated that Kredex’ results could not be compared to other foundations where the State was among stakeholders, as the role of this foundation is to provide guarantees on loans. If the economic situation deteriorates, the share of problematic loans increases as well, he explained.

CEO of the Northern Estonian Regional Hospital Tõnis Allik stated that their foundation’s last year’s financial results were mostly affected by two factors: the Health Insurance Fund paying for medical services with the coefficient of 0.95 in 2011 and exceeding the volumes in the medical services contract concluded with the fund.

“The Health Insurance Fund left 2.7 million euros worth of medical bills unpaid,” said Allik. He added that the value added tax contributed to the loss as well: in 2011, the foundation had to pay 2.3 million euros in VAT on investments into construction works and equipment.

While foundations are not established with the objective of earning profits, the best financial results were demonstrated by the science centre Ahhaa, which earned a profit of 2.56 million euros in 2011. The Tartu University Hospital also stood out with its profit of 1.25 million euros, as did the Environmental Investments Centre and the Estonian Internet Foundation.

Juhan Tere

Finnish company worried about crime in central Tallinn

Lawyer of Technoreactor OÜ has written Mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar a letter in which he threatens action over the situation in parking lots in central Tallinn.

The letter was triggered by the break-in to the camping vehicle parked in an Europark parking lot in Tallinn on June 18 while two Finnish citizens were sleeping in it.

In the letter to Savisaar, Dmitri Shcherbakov, lawyer for Finnish-based company, writes that the company planned to publish an article on the dangers lurking in Tallinn parking lots.

"Your answers will be sent to the Finnish media. We are preparing materials about the condition of parking lots of Europark Estonia and their crime threat," said the letter.

Among others, the lawyer requested information why there are no surveillance cameras in Europark parking lots, whether the city of Tallinn has recommended installing such cameras in these parking lots, what is the mayor’s attitude towards the fact that there are no such surveillance cameras and what the City of Tallinn planned to do to make Tallinn safer in the future.

According to the police, a break-in was reported on June 18 at the parking lot in central Tallinn at Maakri 23. The police have opened an investigation into the incident.

The list of stolen items included a computer bag, a passport of a Russian citizen, a driver’s license of a Russian citizen, 2,000 euros in cash, 5,000 Russian rubles, a key, Nokia headphones, a company laptop computer, wires, memory cards.

Juhan Ojasoo from the central unit of criminal offence against the property of North Prefecture said in comment that the number of breaking and entering in cars in central Tallinn, including cars owned by foreigners that have been parked in paid parking lots that have no surveillance.

Toomas Höbemägi

Estonian Air terminates collective agreement

Estonian Air has terminated a collective agreement with its employees, which CEO Tero Taskila said was dated and did not take the current market situation into account, reported Postimees.

The Airline Pilots Association has been negotiating the terms of a collective agreement with Estonian Air for a year without result. “We have fundamental differences [...] We have not made any steps forward in a year's time,” said association chairman Rauno Menning.

“We want to make a compromise where both sides make concessions. They have presented us with an ultimatum: take it or leave it, this is the market situation. And we won't accept that,” Menning said.

The financially struggling national carrier aims to boost worker efficiency by 15 percent. In other words, pilots need to work more for the same salaries, according to Postimees. The disagreements include but are not limited to salaries and vacation time, the last having been cut significantly by Estonian Air.

Marijuana field discovered near Tallinn

Pursuing a tip last week, the North Prefecture's drugs task force found a marijuana field with 300 plants just outside Tallinn. A 31-year-old man was arrested.

Plants varied in size, giving reason to believe that the field, in Rae municipality, had been yielding the crop for “some time,” a police press release said.

The man who was arrested, who has had run-ins with the police before, was served with a formal suspicion for illegally growing marijuana. Harju County Court placed the man under detention upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office.

"If and how much of the drug has already reached the market will be clarified by the investigation. It's quite clear that such a large quantity of marijuana plants are not grown for personal consumption,” said North Prefecture anti-narcotics chief, Kaido Kõplas, adding that removing the plants  “may spare many a young person's health.”

"Unfortunately, consumption of marijuana continues to be a problem among the youth, and it is the most-consumed narcotic drug in Estonia. Thanks to a watchful person who gave our unit a tip, we have made a small but important step in the direction of decreasing marijuana distribution and consumption,” Kõplas said.

The North Prefecture's anti-narcotics unit has arrested 151 suspects for illicit drug activities this year.

Ott Tammik

Tallinn bans City Tour buses from Viru Square

Red double-deckers used by Hansabuss as hop-on-hop-off coaches can no longer stand at Viru square because the City has overnight installed traffic signs at the square banning tourism buses from stopping at Viru square.

According to Neeme Tammis, CEO of Hansabuss, Tammis the town’s transport department did not notify the coach company about the change of traffic regulations although the route operating permit issued to Hansabuss by the City specifically permits the buses to stay there.

“We are very surprised at such an unjustified decision made against our backs. On July 10 we received a letter from the Tallinn transport department in which they informed us that our red City Tour buses standing at Viru square are endangering traffic. This claim is entirely false,” said Tammis.

He added that the company has requested from the City expert analysis on the traffic situation in Viru square.

Toomas Hõbemägi

** Vacation **

Number of Russian tourists visiting Estonia grew more than 30% in 2011

Director of the Tourism Development Centre of the foundation Enterprise Estonia Tarmo Mutso stated that the number of foreign tourists who visited Estonia and stayed the night grew by 7% in comparison to the year 2011, writes LETA/Delfi.ee.

The number of foreign tourists from Russia has grown the most: 33%. In 2011, Estonia was visited by a total of 203,204 tourists from Russia. In the first five months of this year, Estonian accommodation establishments provided services to 107,984 Russian tourists – 26,663 more than last year.

“As we all know, in 2011 the number of foreign tourists who visited Estonia was the highest ever and hence expectations for yet another growth spurt were rather modest,” he noted, adding that the growth trend in the tourism sector appears to continue.

Enterprise Estonia has not yet compiled statistics on the first half of 2012, but the foundation can compile an overview of the first five months of the year.

“During the first five months of 2012, Estonia was visited by 941,160 tourists who stayed here overnight and that is 7% more than last year,” said Mutso.

“It has also been estimated that we receive approximately 60% of tourists from Russia who do not stay in accommodation establishments and hence they are not reflected in tourism statistics,” noted Mutso.

Russian blogger applies for political asylum in Estonia

Russian blogger Maksim Jefimov who is facing a two-year sentence for his blog posts in which he criticized the Russian Orthodox Church has applied for a political asylum I Estonia, writes Delfi with reference to Russian news agency Interfax.

According to human rights organization Agora, Russian prosecutors are preparing charges for Jefimov’s writings targeted against the Russian Church and he has contact the Estonian police and border guard service for temporary political asylum.

Agora reported that Estonian authorities have already registered Jefimov as an asylum seeker. This spring Russian prosecutors initiated a criminal investigation about blogs posted by Jefimov. If found guilty for disseminating hatred and disparaging religious minorities, he could be sentenced to prison for up to two years.

Estonian authorities have so far refused to comment the news about Jefimov’s asylum request. The Estonian police and border guard authority said that international treaties prohibit  it to disclose sensitive information about individual asylum applicants in public.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Õnnitleme medali puhul!

Hurraa! Esimene medal!

Estonian Air on uhke meie maadleja Heiki Nabi saavutuse üle ja jagab oma rõõmu klientidega. Ainult täna südaööni on kõik kodulehelt ostetud Estonian Airi piletid ilma teenustasuta.
Soodustuse saamiseks sisesta pileti tellimisel allahindluskood: london2012

Võidurõõmu jagamine kestab täna (07.08.2012) südaööni ja ainult Estonian Airi kodulehel. Soodustus kehtib vaid Estonian Airiga lendamiseks vahemikus 01.10-30.11.2012.

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