Madonna - 09 04-Aug Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn Song Festival Ground

This is a first for me. I ve never extended a tour before. I m excited to be going back on the road, visiting places I ve never been and returning to places I love commented Madonna about the new run of dates. Raves around the globe for the tour include the London Times which remarked, In the premiere league of song-and-dance spectaculars, the queen of pop remains unrivaled and undefeated. The choreography, visuals and live talent were world class and mind-blowingly well executed, intelligent and witty, glowed The Independent (UK). In 2008, the Sticky Sweet Tour was seen by 2,350,285 fans in 58 cities. With record breaking ticket sales everywhere, including 650,000 tickets sold in her series of South American dates, 72,000 tickets at Zurich s Dubendorf Airfield - the largest audience ever assembled for a show in Switzerland, 75,000 tickets in London and four sell outs in New York s Madison Square Garden (60,364 tickets).

Four deaths in Estonian road accident

Five were taken to the hospital with injuries. Police note that the drivers were not intoxicated. The accident occured shortly before 4 p.m. Jan. 25 on the 70th kilometer of the Tallinn-Tartu highway, a police spokeswoman said. A Renault Laguna and a Peugeot 206 collided at Ussisoo. Both drivers, the 43 year old Aare and the 19 year old Jurgen, had licenses, the spokeswoman said. A 15- and a 13-year-old girl were killed in the Renault, as were the driver of the Peugeot, Jurgen, and a 20 year old passenger. The Peugeot coming from Tartu veered into the opposite lane and crashed into the Renault coming from the direction of Tallinn, the news of the public broadcaster ETV quoted a police officer as saying. One of the cars involved in the accident went on fire, ETV said.

Estonia stays afloat-SAS saves the day

Estonian Air is still flying high among Baltic carriers thanks to loans from controlling share holder SAS airlines. The short-term loans will be sued to pay salaries, purchase fuel as well as purchase new aircraft. SAS has given the Estonian airline monthly short-term loans of around 2 million euro, reported Marika Priske, secretary general of the Economy and Communications Ministry. According to Aripaev daily s information, SAS most recently loaned Estonian Air 2 million euro. The Estonian carrier borrowed at least as much from the parent company last fall. I know that a new loan of roughly the same size is about to arrive soon, said Priske, who explained that the majority of Estonian Air s own working assets were used as the first installment on three brand-new Bombardier aircraft to be delivered in spring 2009. One new aircraft costs approximately 430 million kroons (27.5

Sweden may have suffered more in Baltic crisis

TALLINN- Market analysts report that Sweden may have suffered more from the Baltic Economic crisis than the Baltics. Swedish Banks, such as Swedbanka and others were more exposed to the Baltic real estate markets and perhaps may have led to the falling of the Swedish kroon in the summer of 2008, Estonian stock market analsyst Tonis Oja wrote in Estonian daily Aripaev. If we look back to when bubbles started to burst, then one sign was February 2007 when share prices started to fall in Tallinn. This was soon followed by a similar trend in other Central and East European bourses. Stocks in Tallinn had been posting some of the world s fastest gains for years and, as pioneers, it was our time to lead the downfall, saidOja. When the highly publicized real estate bubble started to burst, it triggered a multitude of reactions stemming from bankruptcy of Bearn Sterns investment bank to fall stocks values.

Port Strategy: Tallinn s multi-level investment strategy

These include the formation of a container hub with initial capacity of 1.2m teu, and with the potential for up to 3m teu, increasing new car handling capacity to 300,000 units a year, entering the LNG and or LPG logistics market by enabling the construction of gas terminals at the port, and increasing the competitiveness of storage services for oil and oil products. Within its real estate targets, the port is looking to develop industrial parks at Muuga and Paldiski South Harbour for value-added activities linked to the port and promoting and developing Muuga Harbour as a centre creating added value for business. There are also plans to buy additional land bordering the port. Reclamation at Muuga Harbour has been the major development in the second half of 2008, and this will continue into 2009. This 27 hectare expansion and the construction of two new berths with 14.5

Unemployed have to fight for the compensations in Estonia

Although the new employment act gives compensation for those who have left work for their own initiative, many unemployed currently can t get their benefits, Postimees writes. So the unemployed that were in the Labour Market Board were upset for they can t get compensations. «The company dismissed tens of people at the same time, but officially we were forced to sign demission,» a Russian woman told her story. «The employer said otherwise he ll find so many mistakes they ll fire me for doing my job badly,» the woman said. So the woman does not get any subsidies, although she could get 40 pct of her salary. Her husband was dismissed also in a way that doesn t give him any compensation. «The situation is bad, but luckily our son has a job and we don t have big loans,» the woman said.

Ansip suggests Maastricht revision

Maybe it is time to re-evaluate, change the interpretation of the Maastricht inflation criteria, Ansip told Reuters. As it currently stands, in order to ascend to the euro zone, the country may not have an inflation higher than the average of the top three nations in the group of 27. There is a 1.5 percent added leeway as well. While prices have gone down from 9.8 percent to 8 percent in the last year, inflation is still too high to imply long term price stability according to the European Central Bank. Ansip said that Estonia did not have full control over inflation as they cannot be responsible for oil and energy prices. He also added that a slowing of inflation in other EU member states would make it even harder for Estonia to decrease its consumer price growth and bring it down to the necessary level as outlined by the treaty.

The number of unemployed in Tallinn to grow fast

Siim Sarapuu, head of Tallinn and Harjumaa department in Estonian Labour Market Board told TV3 that the number of unemployed people in Tallinn will grow fast in the near time, Postimees.ee reports. «We get announcements of future layoffs and it shows that the end of this year and beginning of next year is certainly the time when the number of unemployed will grow fast,» Sarapuu said. He added that the number of unemployment will go back to 2004, when Tallinn had 12,000 registered unemployed. «Currently the number if near 9000 and we re prepared for serving up to 12,000 unemployed,» Sarapuu noted. In November 6084 people registered themselves as unemployed all over Estonia.

Estonian economy is as a pyramid scheme

Kattel writes in Eesti Paevaleht that it is now clear that the liberal economy and economic policy to attract foreign direct investments that has characterized the Estonian economy for the last 15 years was a short-term success. In the next five to ten years we will understand that this success has been a pyramid scheme, Kattel wrote adding that the worst today when the Estonian economy is shrinking, unemployment has doubled in a year, and public sector continues to spend, is that Estonia s leaders are incapable of analyzing the situation, learn from past mistakes and plan realistic changes. The main problem contemplated by Estonian ruling politicians is whether to accept the blame for the current crisis or keep blaming the worldwide financial crisis? Politically, the right answer, of course, is to blame the world crisis.

IMF says Estonia does not need loan

The most important aim at present is to achieve economies in budgetary expenditures, said Franciszek Rozwadowski, head of the IMF group which visited Estonia, at a press conference at the end of his trip. The most important aim at present is to achieve economies in budgetary expenditures, he said. There are no immediate liquidity threats, but the fiscal deficit is unsustainable over the longer term, he said. I expect them to go on for two to three years without the need to resort to external financing. The IMF forecasts the Estonian national budget deficit to surpass 3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2009. At the same time, the current recession should give way to a return to economic growth by 2010, the agency reported. At the same press conference, the Estonian central bank released its own assessment of the current state of the national economy, which tallied with the IMF view.