Estonians consider poverty, hunger and HIV issues to be the most important problems in the world, according to the Voice of People survey carried out in 60 countries this summer and published last week. Russia has opened the border control point in the Pskov region, which is to speed up the launch of the Tartu-Pskov ferry connection that the two countries have been developing since 2002. Russia's Minister of Transportation Igor Levitin last week signed an order to open the border control point in the port of Storozhinets in the Pskov region. The port will be open during the navigation season and will serve both tourists and cargo flows between Estonia and Russia.
About 32,500 people, or 4 percent of the population aged 16 to 63 were officially registered as unemployed in Estonia as of October 2004, the Labor Market Board has announced. Compared with last October, the number of officially unemployed people has decreased by 20 percent. The highest unemployment rate, about 9 percent, was registered in Ida-Viru county; Tartu county still boasts the lowest unemployment level, at about 2 percent.
About 25,000 residents of Estonia are gambling addicts, according to a survey ordered by the Social Affairs Ministry and conducted by Faktum pollster. Almost 80 percent of these are men aged 21 to 44. A further 27,000 people are thought to be predisposed to becoming gambling addicts. The experts noticed that a typical Estonian gambling addict is very different from the usual Western European and American pattern where female pensioners predominantly suffer from casino addiction. The average daily sum spent by Estonian gambling addicts on their habit is roughly 65 euros. The Social Affairs Ministry plans to offer counseling services and to carry out other preventive measures aimed at the gambling addicts.
The well-known Italian real estate developer and banker Ernesto Preatoni, accused of a 3.2 million euro tax fraud by the Estonian authorities, did not plead guilty at the first court session of his case in Tallinn last week. Preatoni's lawyers requested an additional two months to get further acquainted with the vast materials of the case. Preatoni has reportedly expressed his readiness to partly accept the charges and pay the sum sought by the Estonian tax authorities in the event that the trial didn't go ahead. But the prosecution rejected the offer, referring to the high public interest in the case.
