15 July (BNS) - The number of ethnic Estonians living in the world now is 1 060 000, of whom 930 000 live in Estonia and about 130 000, or 12%, in other countries, it appears from a human resource report presented by the Estonian Co-operation Assembly on July 15.

The eastern diaspora of Estonians is constantly declining. In Russia, where the number of ethnic Estonians is the largest, the decline is happening as a result of a big share of elderly people in the ethnic Estonian population and assimilation of the younger generation.

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Published: August 09 2010

Olive Films is proud to present the US Theatrical Release of THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY (Püha Tõnu kiusamine), a film by Velko Õunpuu. This film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY will open in New York at Cinema Village on September 17, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle Sunset 5 on October 1.  Other cities will follow.

To appreciate Veiko Õunpuu’s artful tale of moral confusion, let’s begin where he does—with Dante’s Inferno: "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark."

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Published: August 09 2010

12 July (BNS) - According to July 12 issue of the Times, Sofi Oksanen, a Finnish writer of Estonian roots, is becoming as popular a writer as the Swede Stig Larsson.

The Times wrote that although Oksanen has sold only a few hundred thousand copies of her books compared with Larsson's millions, her popularity is increasing. The paper mentioned her last book, “Purge”, which has been published in 29 countries, adding that in Finland the writer's status was similar to that of a rock star.

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Published: August 09 2010

European Commission, July 13, 2010 - The ECOFIN Council took the final decisions on the euro adoption in Estonia and confirmed that Estonia is ready and will adopt the euro on  January 1, 2011.

This decision culminates an approval process that began on May 12, with the adoption of the 2010 Convergence Report, in which the Commission concluded that Estonia fulfils all the necessary conditions to join the euro.

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Published: August 09 2010

The Institute for European Studies at the Department of International Relations of Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration (Tallinn University of Technology), Estonia has published a peer-reviewed serial edition called Proceedings of the Institute for European Studies (abbreviation IES Proceedings) for some years.

Since 2009 it is a peer-reviewed international research journal with an international editorial and extensive international editorial board, available in EBSCO databases. The scope of the journal comprises a large spectrum of social, political, legal and cultural issues related to the recent development in the European Union and its member states such as:

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Published: August 09 2010

The maximum air temperature record for this year was surpassed in the South Estonian towns of Elva and Valga Monday evening as the temperature hit 30.8 degrees Celsius in Elva and 30.5 degrees in Valga between 6 and 7 p.m.
As the rising trend in air temperatures continues, several more records are expected to be set in southeastern and central Estonia during Tuesday, Merike Merilain, head of the weather forecasts department of the Estonian Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, told BNS.

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Published: July 19 2010

*Two months into this year’s Expo, in Shanghai, Estonia has recorded the millionth visitor to its  pavilion, reports EPL Online. This visitor was a 17-year-old Chinese schoolboy named Wang Qi. The number of visitors at the pavilion will probably exceed the total number of residents in Estonia before the end of July. The main attraction in the pavilion is the installation of 33 giant piggy-banks, each of which represents a different idea on how to improve cities’ social, economic and living environments.

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Published: July 19 2010

Dr. Henn H. Soonpää, 80, of Grand Forks, died unexpectedly on Thursday, July 1, 2010, in St. Mary's Hos-pital, Rochester, Minnesota.
Henn Soonpää was born to Karl Johannes and Antonie (Adamson) Soonpää on March 18, 1930, in Tallinn-Nõmme, Estonia. He was raised and educated there until the family left Estonia to escape Communist occupation. They lived as displaced persons in Geislingen, Germany, for four years until moving to the United States in 1949.

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Published: July 19 2010