These sentences are: 1. With this agreement only issues concerning the state border are regulated; and 2. Confirming reciprocally the lack of territorial claims.

Foreign minister Urmas Paet told Postimees that the suitability of adding these sentences was discussed with the Riigikogu foreign committee already in March and an approval was received. "After that we have communicated with the Russian side for a couple of months and now that solution suits both sides."

With these supplements, the consultations between the two states that lasted for seven months are over and the direct role of the foreign ministry ends.

Next, the Estonian government has to approve of the agreement text after which it could be signed. Then the ratification process in the parliament starts.

Paet did not wish to forecast whether the prediction of Russian State Duma foreign committee chairman Aleksei Pushkov that the agreement could be signed by summer, would come true or not. "It is complicated to estimate timewise all these domestic processes," said Paet.

During the seven months of consultations, no negotiations were conducted over where the state border would run and the location of the border will be where it was in the 2005 agreement.

With Lithuania's presidency of the Council of the European Union drawing closer, Estonian Air could play a role in providing Vilnius with more direct flights.

The Lithuanian government has expressed an interest in short or long-term cooperation with Estonia's national airline, but the Estonian minister of economy, Juhan Parts, said it is too early to predict if that interest will materialize.

Lithuania's own carrier, FlyLAL, grounded its fleet four years ago, and the nation's cabinet is looking for ways to increase the number of direct flights to and from Vilnius. Lithuania's presidency of the Council of the European Union begins in July of this year. The government says the current lack of flights is a problem.

Parts concurred that Estonian Air is flexible enough and has the resources to lend Lithuania a hand. A common Baltic airline is a long-standing idea, but has not been accomplished and is highly unlikely to manifest, said Toomas Peterson, an ex-CEO of Estonian Air.

“Estonian Air currently has big problems and Air Baltic is likewise fighting Brussels, and if we were to join these troubled companies into one, that synergy would not be an advantage,” said Peterson.

Turning 85 today, former president of Estonia, Arnold Rüütel said that present-day Estonia is not the land he had dreamed of, but acknowledged that much has been achieved.

“Current reality is in the shadow of dreams, and in that sense Estonia does not measure up to expectations. At the same time, the fact that we have regained our independence and accelerated development relatively successfully compared to other transitional societies and that we have kept going forward [...] we should be happy that we have achieved so much,” said Rüütel, speaking on ERR radio today.

Rüütel said that the country has failed to predict many risks and problems that have unavoidably accompanied reforms.

“Many working-age people are leaving the country and we have failed to create jobs for them. And we failed to address a number of other social problems, like support for the family, which society is based on. That has caused low birth rates,” said Rüütel, who was president between 2001 and 2006.

Rüütel concluded by saying that reforms have made the state sustainable, but looking farther ahead, it becomes clear that the problem of a declining population remains to be fixed.

Global denim brand seals new partnership with Poldma Trading to move into markets.Popular denim brand Lee Cooper has signed up Poldma Trading as its new Estonian licensee.

There are also four women who have had 16 children and four women who have 15 children.

An average of 2.2 children per woman are needed for reproduction of population. Thus it can be said that in this sense these women gave birth to children for 81 more women, Statistics Estonia statistical blog states.

The referendum showed also that 76% of Estonian women at least in the age of 15 are mothers, meaning 454,855 women are mothers.

Most have 1-2 children in the family, 14% have 3 children, 3.5% have 4 children and 2% have 5 children.

The Estonian delegation at the talks is headed by Ambassador Jüri Luik and foreign ministry deputy chancellor Lauri Bambus. Estonia and Russia re-launched border agreement consultations in October last year.

Estonian and Russian foreign ministers signed the border agreement between Estonia and Russia in May 2005. The Riigikogu ratified the agreement that summer but added a preamble that states that the new border agreement changes partly the state border line determined with the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 but won't affect the rest of the matters regulated by the treaty.

Less than a month later Russia announced that it will withdraw its signature from the border agreement claiming that the preamble that Estonia added enables to present territorial claims against Russia. Estonia has repeatedly said that it doesn't have any territorial claims against Russia.

The organizers of the European Rally Championship have expressed an interest in including Estonia as a stage in next year's season.

Francois Ribeiro, motorsport development director of Eurosports Event, the new organizer of the championship, was in Estonia last week. He met with representatives from the Autosport Association, Enterprise Estonia and the Ministry of Culture, according to rallyestonia.com.

Estonia's rally director, Urmo Aava, said the budget for rally racing in Estonia would need to be at least tripled in order to take part in the European championship. That would require government support, which will be decided in coming months.

It's not the first time the region's rally organizers have floated ambitious plans. In 2011, rally representatives from the Baltics and Poland met in Riga to discuss potential WRC stage in 2013 that would pass through all four of those countries. The plan did not materialize.

Rally racing has been a fairly popular sport in Estonia, especially since the emergence of Markko Märtin, who rose to become one of the world's top drivers before ending his career after a tragic accident that killed his codriver. Some of the greatest drivers and races are also held just next door, in Finland.

Rally Estonia, held in the surroundings of the hilly southern town of Otepää, takes place this year from July 19-20. The event is a stage in the Estonian, Latvian, Baltic and NEZ championships, as well as in the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship.

Stenbock House

Estonia and Schleswig-Holstein have longstanding and close partnership relations in the areas of the environment, economy and agriculture. In order to fight against organised and drug-related crime, the police organisations cooperate very closely and share their experience. Cultural contacts are actively being promoted too and good twinning relations have been built between twenty or so cities in Estonia and Schleswig-Holstein. Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein Torsten Albig expressed his interest in Estonia’s e‑services and in cooperation for the development of digital solutions.

Prime Minister Ansip confirmed that Estonia would be very willing to share its knowledge and emphasized at the same time that cross-border digital solutions would make administration notably more efficient in the region. “Estonia as an e-state flagship is interested in the simplified management of public affairs everywhere in Europe and we whole-heartedly support the creation of a common digital market in the European Union,” said Ansip at the meeting.

The issues of the European Union economy and the Union itself were also discussed at the meeting. The prime ministers acknowledged that Estonia and Germany share similar values and positions in several economic issues. Ansip said that the foundations of actual economic growth are structural reforms, prudent economic policy and a moderate sovereign debt.

Photos of the meeting can be viewed here

The Tallinn City Government has presented a supplementary budget of 9.2 million euros to the city’s council for approval.

Teachers will be one of the big winners, with 2.4 million euros going to boost their wages, on average by around 10 percent, said Raepress, the city’s press service on Wednesday.

Four million euros will be diverted to roadwork and 1.5 million will go to public transport.

According to Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas, the budget extension is based on a more optimistic outlook regarding this year's revenue, with an additional 1.3 million euros from income tax, 2.6 million from land tax and 1.6 million from operating profits predicted.

If approved, as expected, Tallinn’s total budget for 2013 will come to 498 million euros. 

Free transport the key

In the last six months, Tallinn’s registered population has swelled by around ten thousand, as only official Tallinn residents are eligible for the city’s free public transport service.

Tallinn has a clear incentive in enticing people to register themselves as residents. Cities and municipalities receive a substantial cut of the income tax in Estonia based on population.

Taiwanese citizen Alex Tsai, 67, suspected by the US government of supplying weapons machinery to North Korea, has been arrested in Tallinn at the request of US officials.

Tsai was detained on May 1 and placed under a 30-day arrest the following day. Prosecutors are currently awaiting extradition documents from the US.

According to a May 6 release from the US Department of Justice, Alex Tsai, whose full name is Hsien Tai Tsai, and his son Gary Tsai, 36, a Chicago resident, were picked up by Estonian and US authorities on the same day.

Both are facing charges of "conspiring to violate US laws designed to thwart the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction" and money laundering, according to US federal law enforcement officials.

Prosecutors have alleged that the two were associated with companies in Taiwan that had purchased and exported machinery from the US that is used to fabricate metals and other materials with a high degree of precision.

The US Treasury Department has said that Alex Tsai has been supplying goods with weapons production capabilities to a North Korean company since the late 1990s.

SEB Tartu running marathon offers 10 and 23 km distances, one can also choose between running and Nordic walking.

2278 people are registered to the 23 km distance running, 23 km Nordic walking has 243 enrolled persons. 10 km running distance has 1319 participants, Nordic walking 512. There are altogether 2560 men and 1792 women from 13 different countries registered to the event. Registration is open until 11^th of May 5 pm.

Race director Kunnar Karu: “The big number of enrolled people shows that Tartu running marathon has proved itself as the biggest cross country running event in the Baltic States. We are happy that our event is popular among Estonians and foreign participants as well and I hope that this year we will see altogether 4000 finishers for the first time in the history of the event marathon.”

Karu also adds that the course is in a good condition, but as the event takes place on landscape, not asphalt it is important to do the appropriate preparations. Course master of Club Tartu Maraton has his hands full of work this week – the race course has to be marked, muddy places have to be filled with chopped wood etc in order to prepare the best emotions for the participants.

“The reason is that the internal and justice ministries, who’s jurisdiction the case falls under, both concluded after analysis that an appeal would have no prospects, as the human rights court has considered virtually all aspects,” said Urmas Paet, Estonia’s foreign minister, on ETV on Friday.

“The court rejected most complaints, but in four cases it satisfied the claims,” said Paet.

The plaintiffs were Andrei Korobov, a member of the pro-Kremlin organization Night Watch, and six people connected to him, according to the judgement.

The court awarded 11,000 euros in damages to Aleksandr Korobov, Gennadi Mihhaidarov, Valeri Zatvornitski; 14,000 euros to Sergei Petrov; and a joint 3,000 euros to cover legal costs for the four. The Court declared inadmissible the complaints of the other three plaintiffs.

In April 2007, several days of rioting broke out in Tallinn in response to the government's decision to relocate a monument downtown commemorating the entry of the Soviet Red Army into Tallinn during the Second World War.

Ninety-one people were convicted of committing crimes in Tallinn connected to the riots. Six people were handed real jail time.

The justice chancellor received 54 complaints on police activity during the riots. The Prosecutor's Office received around 50 complaints regarding the alleged violence of police, leading to eight investigations but no charges.