Nursing workers protest unfair contracts ...
TALLINN - Rows over pay  for public servants spread to the health care system as  workers at three different Estonian nursing homes  refuses to sign contracts saying that their pay rises are too small and unfair. The protester say the new contracts that they have been asked to sign do not take account of length of service and difficult of job. The protests are taking place at Somera Hooldekodu, Valkla and Ravila nursing homes, where workers believe that parent company AS Hoolekandeteenused (Welfare Service) has been unfair to them. “It’s strange that a person who has done his or her job well for 15 years can’t get a decent  salary because the 8,000-kroon (511-euro) s...

  Red Cross impostors may be investigated...
TALLINN -  The Ministry of Defense may investigate an incident in which volunteers pretended to be part of a Red Cross convoy in order to gain entrance to the Georgian city of Gori, writes Eesti Paevaleht. “When we went to Gori, we noticed a Red Cross column going, and it was that last-minute decision to go and follow them. The last bus in the column was yellow with Red Cross logos,” said Heiki Valner, an advisor to the Estonian Green party and a volunteer in Georgia, who started his way home on Aug. 24. The volunteers were not sent by any organization but answered an e-mail sent by a private Estonian individual looking for people to help out in Georgia’s time of trouble. Despite ...

  Green Party sued by PR firm...
TALLINN - Public relations firm R & R Suhtekorraldus has sued the Estonian Green Party over the party’s alleged failure to live up to a contractual agreement. The company is demanding 225,157 kroons (14,390 euros) for unpaid services, overdue charges and fines after the party’s unilateral withdrawal from the contract. “I think in economic relationships it’s ordinary that [when there are disagreements], one must go to court,” said Marek Strandberg, founder of the Estonian Green Party. Ivo Rull, manager of R & R Suhtekorraldus, explained that there were two phases in the relationship between the PR firm and the party. The first stretched from the creation of the party to the last ...

  British ‘conman’ runs off, owing millions...
TALLINN - A British real estate developer has disappeared, leaving behind millions of kroons in debt and a trail of angry creditors. Sources told The Baltic Times that Lee Williams was in the U.K., but were unable to confirm his whereabouts by press time. Williams started a company called Churchills three years ago at the height of the property boom. He was hailed as a financial wizard and even quoted as an expert on the Estonian property market by respected British newspapers like the Guardian and the Telegraph. Now people want their money back. On the real estate forum Eye on Worldwide, furious posts are asserting that Williams was not merely an inept businessman but a con artist. ...

  Illegal prescription drug smuggling on the rise ...
TALLINN - The Estonian Tax and Customs Board recently seized 12,000 false Viagra pills in one of 66 cases of fake or illegal prescription drugs this year. Most of the illegal medicines were psychotropic medicines that lacked a proper delivery license from the State Agency of Medicine. “The number of discovered medicines has grown in 2008. It’s connected mainly to new regulations on shipping medicine after joining the Schengen zone,” said Urmas Jarg, a customs control manager for the customs board. Most of the cases concern drugs being taken out of Estonia, usually after a person attains large amounts through fraud. Finland is a common destination for medicines being smuggled out of Est...

  By Marge Tubalkain-Trell...
TALLINN - Former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar called for increased digital security amid fears that Estonia could become an object of Russian aggression. Citing the cyber-attacks that rendered Georgian Web sites and other information channels useless at the onset of the Russian invasion,  Laar  said Estonia must learn from the Georgian experience to immediately create national structures for digital defense. “Access to Georgian information channels was cut. In the first days of the war Russian information was exceptionally dominating, describing Georgia as an aggressor and Russia as a victim,” Laar said. After the initial attack, Georgian Web sites were moved to other ser...

  Kanter takes gold in Olympic discus throw ...
TALLINN - Estonia went wild when Gerd Kanter claimed the country’s first gold medal of the summer Olympic Games in the men’s discus throw. Kanter won in style, with a throw of 68.82, a full meter farther than his nearest rival, Piotr Malachowski of Poland. In a double whammy for the Baltics, Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania won the bronze medal. This was a slight disappointment, however, as Alekna was considered Kanter’s nearest rival. Toomas Tonise, head of the Estonian Olympic Committee, told The Baltic Times that Kanter had been supremely confident of victory. “He was absolutely sure about winning,” Tonise told The Baltic Times from Beijing. The win was particularly poignant because i...