BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Baltimore-Washingtoni Eesti Segakoor kutsub teid laulma meie kooriga

This event has become a five year tradition. All Choirs who can sing in Estonian and all dancers of Estonian Folk Dances are invited,

Harjutused toimuvad esmaspäeva õhtutel kell 7:30 Calvary luteri kirikus Silver Spring, Marylandis (9545 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910).  Järgmine harjutus on esmaspäeval, 1. oktoobril!!!

Peale kohaliku esinemisi, on tulemas veel Torontos kooride Jõulukontsert laupäeval, 1. detsembril, 2012. a., nendele kes saaks sellest osa võtta.  Kanadas on ka Seedrioru Laulupäev VII laupäeval, 22. juunil, 2012. a. (kellel on FB saavad informationsiooni selle kohta näha:  www.facebook.com/events/395930023791125/  ), LEP 2013 (Lääneranniku Eesti Päevad) (www.facebook.com/pages/LEP-ESTO2013/205026716221664) ja siis Eestis Laulupidu on ainult kahe aasta pärast!!!

Loodame, et tulete meiega laulma!  Endised koorilauljad ja uued koorilauljad!!!

Tervitades,
Anne Sarapik, koori vanem

P.S.  Palun parkida kiriku taha ja sealt uksest sisse minna.

Wozniacki wins KDB Korea Open

SEOUL — Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki beat injury-plagued Kaia Kanepi 6-1, 6-0 Sunday to win the KDB Korea Open.

Wozniacki from Denmark needed only about one hour to defeat the third-seeded Kanepi of Estonia to win the tournament on Seoul's Olympic Park hard courts. It was Wozniacki's 19th career WTA victory.

She defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in the semifinals while Kanepi advanced the finals after beating Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

 © 2012, The Associated Press

A study in Estonia shows that Finnish men are the largest single group of clients of prostitutes in the capital Tallinn

Of the 210 women interviewed, 172 had sold sexual services to Finnish men.

For the study, Estonia's National Institute for Health Development interviewed 210 prostitutes in Tallinn, most of whom reported that they have had Finnish clients. The next largest groups using their services are men from Estonia itself and from Sweden.

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the health of prostitutes in the city. Half of the women interviewed in 2011 reported that they had contracted a sexually transmitted disease during the previous 12 months. The most common was chlamydia, which was diagnosed in around one-quarter.

Those taking part in the study were tested for HIV. Six percent were found to be carriers. Almost all said that they used condoms when with clients.

The study was reported in the Estonian daily Postimees.

Where are you on the global pay scale ?

The average wage, calculated by the International Labour Organization, is published here for the first time. It's a rough figure based on data from 72 countries, omitting some of the world's poorest nations. All figures are adjusted to reflect variations in the cost of living from one country to another, and as Ruth Alexander of BBC radio's More or Less programme underlines, it's all about wage earners, not the self-employed or people on benefits.

PKC Estonia won top honors at the Entrepreneurship Awards 2012

Estonian electronic wiring manufacturer PKC Estonia won top honors at the Entrepreneurship Awards 2012, billed as the country's most prestigious annual business award.

Wireless operator EMT took the title of most competitive company for the second year running. The competition is funded by the European Social Fund and the winners are picked by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Employers' Confederation, informs news.err.ee.

Entrepreneurship award winners in four sub-categories and the most competitive firms in 13 sub-categories were also announced at the gala on Thursday night.

Estonian and Finnish electricity exchange prices mostly equal in August

For 70% of all hours in August, the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool Spot (NPS) recorded the same exchange price for electricity in NPS Estonia and NPS Finland price areas. Over the month as a whole, the price in the Estonian area was still higher than in Finland. NPS Estonia price area recorded an average price of 40.32 euros, while NPS Finland price area was at 38.18 euros.

In the Estonian price area, the price grew by 12 percent compared to July, while in Finland the increase was by a factor of 2.8. The main reason for the sudden spike in the price of electricity in Finland was the deficit in transmission capacity between Finland and Sweden starting from August 20th, due to maintenance work on the direct current connections. Finland’s nuclear and coal-powered generation capacity also decreased due to maintenance.

In NPS ELE price area that spans the Estonian-Latvian border, the price of electricity increased by 20% compared to July, to 51.19 euros, while NPS Lithuania saw a jump of 18% to 54.10 euros per megawatt-hour. The electricity prices for the three Baltic price areas remained the highest among all NPS areas. The overall NPS system price grew from July’s record low of 13.70 euros to 23.57 euros per megawatt-hour in August, which is still below the regulated market price in Estonia.

Estonia to raise child benefits to boost births after austerity

Estonia’s ruling coalition agreed to raise child benefits to boost births after austerity in the wake of the European Union’s second-worst recession stoked poverty.

Starting next July, benefits for the first and second children in families deemed to be poor will double, the Reform and Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit parties said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. They’ll rise by two thirds for every additional child, regardless of household income, the parties said.

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip’s government, the only one in the euro area to post budget surpluses for the last two years, has been criticized by the opposition Social Democrats for freezing spending while joining bailouts for richer European nations. The plan will add EUR 5.2 million (USD 6.7 million) to the 2013 budget, Isamaa lawmaker Margus Tsahkna said yesterday by phone.

Estonian MP wishes his opposition colleague "a bullet in the forehead"

An Estonian ruling party MP has wished his female opposition colleague, who defended the rights of ethic Russians, "a bullet in the forehead".

The polemic took place at a parliamentary café, the Postimees newspaper reports.

“The Estonian democracy will be OK when you finally get a bullet in the forehead,” Juku-Kalle Raid of the ruling Fatherland Union told Jaan Toome (to be checked) of the Centre opposition party.

She wrote on Facebook later that she would bring no legal claims against her offender.

The Centre party backed by the majority of Estonia’s Russian-speakers has been actively defending the right of ethnic minorities to receive education in their native language.

Interfax

Estonia pays EUR 20 770 000,00/year for membership in international organisations !

Estonian foreign minister urmas Paet said that Estonia pays 20.77 million euros a year for membership in international organisations, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

Paet said in the Riigikogu on Wednesday that Estonia participates via different state institutions in the work of 400 international organisations. 301 of these ask a membership fee for which 20.77 million euros is needed this year. "The sum is in the same range next year," he said.

Paet said that the foreign ministry and other ministries are compiling a report on Estonia's membership in international organisations so that Estonia would belong only to the organisations and would pay membership fees to only those in which there is a point for the state. That may mean leaving some organisations, he said.

Juhan Tere

EU Gazprom probe a threat to Putin's power : Kasparov

TALLINN - A European Union probe of alleged market manipulation by energy giant Gazprom is a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's powerbase, world chess champion turned Kremlin foe Garry Kasparov said Tuesday.

"The EU's investigation of Gazprom, which has the potential to weaken Gazprom, has the potential to weaken Putin's regime," Kasparov told a democracy conference in Estonia.

"Both Russia's gas giant Gazprom and petroleum giant Rosneft are like a council in the Russian state, led by Putin oligarchs. Any weakening of Gazprom or Rosneft is a serious threat for Putin as it weakens his political and economical interests and that is why he takes it so seriously," Kasparov said.

"Putin recognises he has to been seen by people around him as someone who protects interests of all his gang," he added.

Putin has blasted Brussels for its challenge to Gazprom, a key supplier of gas to EU members, notably those that were under Soviet control until 1991.

Proposed new sites for Art Academy focus on North side of Tallinn

Deterred so far in its bid for a city center high-rise location, the Academy of Arts has announced eight alternative sites for its new building.

The board approved the locations at its meeting yesterday and summoned backers of each to make their respective cases on September 25.

The locations are heavy on reclaimed former industrial areas that have seen an active artist community, such as near Telliskivi creative campus in north Tallinn, and the similar Culture Hub. Other sites include the Noblessner quarter and the former Balti Manufaktuur plant in Kopli district.

The construction of the Academy's new building on Tartu road bogged down due to a dispute with a residential neighbor. The Education Ministry subsequently implicated the academy in poor financial management and irregularities.

Estonia’s national minorities may get instruction in native language elsewhere : Irene Käosaar

In Estonia, a high-ranking Education Ministry official, Irene Käosaar, has said that national minorities seeking instruction in their native language may leave for other countries.

Estonian MPs seek to change the law on private schools where Russian-speaking children have been allowed to get educated in Russian until recently.

According to the official, all graduates in Estonia should enjoy equal competitive rights on the labour market.

If a person is unwilling to use that right, they are free to choose another country to make their home in, Irene Käosaar said.

Vesti.ru

Estonian Development Fund to provide business training for 100,000 people

The Estonian state-owned Estonian Development Fund wants to provide a programme for increasing entrepreneurship for 100,000 people in the next seven years, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The aim is for at least 5,000 of the people who participate in the programme to create new companies and addition of at least a thousand new companies that would emerge as the result of the programme, which should generate 100 million euros of extra added value a year.

"Although we like to believe that Estonians are already very enterprising, studies show that the majority of university graduates see their future as salaried employees," said Development Fund board chairman Tõnis Arro when speaking in the parliament on Tuesday. Estonia is considerably behind the EU average in enterprisingness, not to mention the USA.

The fund thus intend to launch next year the pilot project Enterprising Estonia and include at least 100,000 people in the so-called tiger leap programme of entrepreneurship in 2014-2020. "Young people are more enterprising by nature and thus our attention will be focused on high school seniors, students and students of vocational schools, at the same time we hope to infect more experienced active Estonians with the entrepreneurship germ too," said Arro.

Juhan Tere

Estonian Air to switch from Gatwick to London City

National air carrier Estonian Air says it will replace its Tallinn-Gatwick route with flights to the single-runway London City airport next March.

Currently, the airline offers flights to Gatwick Airport, the UK's second biggest, for its twice-weekly London flights. However, the company announced in July that it would discontinue those flights in October due to changes in its fleet.

Speaking to ETV, Estonian Air CEO Tero Taskila said that flights to London City are shorter than those to Gatwick and the airport is not so prone to pre-landing delays. He also said that flights on the new route will be increased to three per week in the spring and to six during the summer.

Taskila said the British Embassy in Estonia helped the company secure favorable conditions for arrivals and departures at the airport.

Robin Ilves

Parts wants to triple the number of Asian tourists in Estonia

Estonian economy minister Juhan Parts held negotiations last week in China on tourism, passenger and cargo flights as well as with a large shipping group; the aim is to triple the number of Asian tourists by the year 2020, LETA/Eesti Päevaleht writes.

However, instead of focussing on Estonian national carrier Estonian Air as the company to make this possible, the focus is on China's largest private capital-owned aviation company Hainan Airlines.

"Hainan Group can be an important partner for us,” said Parts. "The heads of Chinese companies are bothered currently mainly by mistrust towards the prospects the European economy."

Estonian ministries are coordinating the programme of attracting Asian capital and tourists to Estonia that Parts initiated. The number of tourists from Asia to Estonia has to increase to 60,000 people by 2020, as Estonia aims to be the Nordic tourism hub for the people of that region, the programme stipulates.

Tallinn ranked 47th most expensive city in the world; higher than Riga and Vilnius

Riga is the world's 52nd most expensive city, according to a study done by the Swiss bank UBS. Tallinn is ranked 47th and Vilnius 64th.

Tallinn is placed between Beijing and Budapest, Helsinki is on the 11^th.

A shopping basket of 122 goods and services was compared, that includes among other things apartment rent, electricity and heating bills, food products, clothes and public transport. The life is the most expensive in Oslo, Zürich, Tokyo, Geneva and Copenhagen.

The 10 most expensive cities according to Mercer, UBS, ECA and EIU :

Rank- -Mercer (2012)- -UBS (2012)- -ECA (2011)- -EIU (2012)- 1 Tokyo Oslo Tokyo Zurich 2 Luanda Zurich Oslo Tokyo 3 Osaka Tokyo Geneva Geneva 4 Moscow Geneva Nagoya Osaka / Kobe 5 Geneva Copenhagen Zurich Oslo 6 Zurich New York City Yokohama Paris 7 Singapore Luxembourg Bern Sydney 8 N’Djamena Stockholm Stavanger Melbourne 9 Hong Kong Caracas Basel Singapore 10 Nagoya London Kobe Frankfurt

Source: citymayors.com

In wages level, Tallinn is on the 44th place. The average net wages of a resident of Tallinn form 28.3% of the average of New York that is the basis of comparison. The top positions in this list go to Zürich, Geneva, Copenhagen, Oslo, Luxembourg and New York.

Nina Kolyako

Leaked EU paper maps energy infrastructure black spots

EU countries are urged to speed up the connections of their gas and electricity grids, according to a draft European Commission report on investment in energy infrastructure, seen by EurActiv.

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Malta, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal, are on a "gas island" because of insufficient infrastructure connections with the rest of the EU, the draft report says.

But perhaps more seriously, dependency on a single gas provider also prevails in countries with a better geographical position, such as Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, the paper says.

Following the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis in the winter of 2008-2009, the EU took a number of measures to make sure that individual countries are better connected and less vulnerable in the case of a supply disruption from Russia (see background). A few years later, it appears that little has been done, despite available funding. The Baltic countries need to connect their energy markets to other EU gas networks in order to increase security of supply. A risk assessment is under way on gas interconnections with Estonia and Lithuania, as well as an assessment of the Poland-Lithuania 'Baltic Connector' gas pipeline, the draft Commission paper says.

Bulgaria needs to complete the ongoing investment projects on gas interconnectors with Romania, Serbia and Greece, and make reverse flows possible on its interconnector with Turkey, the EU executive says.

Estonia uses EU funds more actively than its neighbours

An analysis by KPMG confirms that Estonia is utilising the European Union structural funds for maximum and is the best user of funds in Central and Eastern Europe, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

By the end of last year, 94% of the funds earmarked for EU support and co-financing of the state were covered with contracts and 44% of the sums were paid out.

In Estonia, 1,347 euros has been paid per capita from the European Cohesion Fund and European Social Fund while the average indicator for Central and Eastern Europe is 598 euros.

For the 2007-2013 budgetary period, Estonia has been allocated 3.4 billion euros of development support from EU funds; together with Estonia's own means that amount is 4.1 billion euros.

The largest amount, 880 million euros has been paid to develop the economic environment, 694 million euros has been contributed to developing living environment and 231 million euros in development of human resources.

Estonia and France to support intensified economic and financial cooperation within the European Union

Tartu – Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and French Minister of European Affairs Bernard Cazeneuve, discussed the situation in the euro area at today’s meeting in Tartu Town Hall. According to the Prime Minister Ansip, the stability of the euro area is clearly in the interests of Estonia and in order to achieve this, the economic and financial cooperation within the European Union needs to be tightened.

“The European Stability Mechanism is necessary for protecting the euro area. This means that with its help we will also protect the stability of our own economy,” said Ansip stressing that it is in Estonia’s interests to hold the euro area together.

The French Minister of European Affairs Bernard Cazeneuve noted that the budgetary discipline of the Member States has to go hand in hand with economic growth through strategic investments. While speaking about the new budget of the European Union, the Prime Minister said that the support for creating physical infrastructure with the European Union is essential for Estonia. “A better infrastructure with the European Union would significantly expand the markets for our entrepreneurs and this would activate the economy,” Ansip said. According to Cazeneuve, Rail Baltica is obviously strategically important both for the Baltic states, but also to Europe as a whole, as it would substantially improve the connection between the countries.

2242 children took part in the world´s biggest mountain bike marathon for children in Estonia

The weekend of SEB 15th Tartu Rattamaraton (MTB marathon) started with the children´s races, which is the world´s biggest mountain bike marathon event for children. 2242 children aged from under 3-year-olds to 11-year-olds and older came together in Tartu and enjoyed sports.

„Sport is good for us to warm our body up,“ said a 4-year-old girl Betti, who had come to the children´s events despite the rainy weather, reports BC Club Tartu Maraton.

Aigar Leok, who has stood on the podium in both the Enduro World Championship and the Motocross World Championship, said: „You can see that children enjoy it. Families come here and I also took my family with me. It is the first time for me and my 11-months-old son to participate in Club Tartu Marathon´s children´s events – and definitely not the last time.“ Aigar Leok also gave autographs and represented his new bike.

Every child who participated got a golden medal and a diploma, because Club Tartu Marathon believes that every child is a winner. In addition there was a raffle for prizes from the partners of Club Tartu Marathon.

Tartu MTB Marathon´s children´s races was the last stage of the Tartu Mini Complex Event, which consists of 4 different sports events for children: skiing, cycling, running and mountain bike marathon. Before today´s race 642 children had participated in the previous three stages of the Tartu Mini Complex Event 2012. Children, who have completed the whole Tartu MINI Complex Event 2012 are congratulated on October 7th when a party is organized for them in Tartu.