Eesti in brief - 2004-03-11

  • 2004-03-11
The Tallinn city government plans to erect a memorial sign at one of the city cemeteries for the victims of the Soviet bombing raid that took place on March 9, 1944.

About 460 people were killed as a result of the bombing, carried out by 240 Russian planes, and some 20,000 lost their homes. The memorial should be open by next March.

Tallinn city authorities agreed to amend the two-tier transportation ticket price system following pressure from legal chancellor Allar Joks. The City Council and the legal chancellor's office will work on the amendments to the price system, which went into force on March 1 and established lower prices for registered residents of Tallinn and Harju County.

Five schools will be closed from the next school year, and five more will be reorganized in connection with the declining number of students in Estonia, according to the Ministry of Education and Science. In Tallinn alone the number of students has been falling by approximately 2,000 a year.

A hibernating bear interfered with the training of Estonian defense forces. The Estonian Environment Ministry asked the defense forces' Tapa training center to cease the shelling of the central training ground target area until the bear hibernating there wakes up. Col. Urmas Roosimagi, chief of the Tapa Training Center, voiced frustration over the request but admitted that there was not yet a government order to permit shelling and shooting practice in the territory this year.

What's in a (new) name? More popular support if you are the Estonian Social Democratic Party. The political party, formerly known as the Moderates, was the only one to boost its rating in February, according to a recent survey by the TNS Emor pollster. The Social Democrats gained 2 percentage points to reach the support of 8 percent of Estonian voters.