Eesti in brief - 2007-01-17

Jan 17, 2007

A mother and her two daughters were found murdered in Tallinn on Jan. 13. The bodies of a 29-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged seven years and seven months, were found by the children's grandparents. Police said it appeared they had been strangled to death. The father of the children, a former defense force officer, was found hanging in the woods near Paldiski. Police said it appeared he had taken his own life. The motive for the killings and the suicide remains unclear.

Caretakers of a medieval citadel in Rakvere, northeast Estonia, were left embarrassed after the Swedish flag was hoisted above the castle tower instead of Estonia's national flag on Jan. 12. The mistake was noticed by outside observers, who quickly called the operators of the Rakvere castle museum to alert them of the apparent invasion. The error came about due to an apparent similarity between the Swedish flag and the flag of Rakvere city, which has a similar design. To mark the anniversary of Rakvere's liberation in the 1918-1920 War of Independence, the city's flag was to be hoisted above the castle. The mix-up was corrected in a matter of hours.

A total of 203 people were killed in road accidents last year, 34 more than the year before, figures by the National Road Administration show. The figures show the highest road toll since 2002, when 200 people died on Estonian roads.

The three British ambassadors to the Baltic states have been snubbed by Buckingham Palace, which has decided to scrap a centuries-old tradition by which ambassadors are automatically awarded a knighthood for helping arrange the Queen's state visits. The Times reported that the Queen had decided to stop giving ambassadors immediate knighthoods in an effort to stem the number of such honors. The three Baltic ambassadors, who helped arrange the Queen's well-received historic tour in October, are the first to be affected by the decision, The Times reported.

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