James M. Gomez and Andrea Dudikova | Prague | December 18

Bloomberg - Along a tree-lined road in eastern Lithuania, once part of the Soviet Union, Giedrius Matkevicius was on the prowl for invaders from neighboring Belarus, another ex-Soviet state.

``Our job has become more important, more significant, now that we have to guard the external border of the EU,'' the 36- year-old customs officer said as he monitored a bank of computers in a cement and sheet-metal complex at the frontier. Nearby, a female colleague in an olive-green uniform scanned live images of snowy fields, truck inspections and passing cars.

Where only tall pines once separated the countries, a 679- kilometer (422-mile) fence now reminds 9.7 million Belarusians that they are outsiders in a European Union that includes western neighbors Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. The line becomes even more pronounced on Dec. 21, when those three and five other ex-communist nations join a club within the EU club: the so- called Schengen Zone, where citizens and tourists travel without passports.

Chris Schüler | Liepaja, Latvia | Dec 14

The Independent - From the coast road that leads into the Latvian port of Liepaja from the north, it is an astonishing sight – a vast Russian Orthodox cathedral, its gilded onion domes lit up by floodlights, surrounded by a suburb of crumbling Soviet apartment blocks.

This is Karosta, founded by the tsarist regime as a naval base in the 1890s and used by the Soviet military as recently as 20 years ago. A ship canal separates Karosta from central Liepaja, and the swing bridge across it has been padlocked for more than a year since a Georgian tanker ran into it during a storm, obliging residents to make a detour of several kilometres and reinforcing Karosta's isolation from the rest of the city.

Liepaja's official tourist brochure tries to make a virtue of Karosta's "enchanting brutality", waxing lyrical about "the sweet smell of wild roses among the hard, cold steel of twisted barbed wire". In reality, it is a dismal, desperate place, riven by unemployment and drug addiction, its streets dark and deserted on a Saturday night. Karosta is where most of the city's Russian-speaking population live – the ancillary workers brought here to service the naval base, now left high and dry by the receding tide of Soviet power.

Adam B. Ellick | Vilnius, Lithuania | November 11

IHT - EVEN as Jonas Kronkaitis, now retired as Lithuania's top general, admires the transformation of this once drab Soviet city into a proud member of the New Europe, a worry eats at him: Russian power is rapidly returning to the Baltics, only this time the weapons are oil and money, not tanks.

Kronkaitis has a unique perspective. He fled Lithuania to America as a boy in 1944, and served nearly 30 years in the United States Army before returning to command his newly independent country's military in the 1990's. He engineered its entry into NATO in 2004, thinking this would help cement security for the tiny Baltic nation. Now he says his hopeful view was wrong.

Addis Ababa | August 31

AP - Ethiopia's decision to expel six Norwegian diplomats will cost the country US$5 million (€3.75 million) in development aid, an official said Friday.

Hilde Klementsdal, a spokeswoman for Norway's aid ministry, said the decision was practical, not political.

"It would not be responsible to give that much money without anyone to check it," she said.

Norway had been planning to give Ethiopia — one of the poorest countries in the world — about US$17 million (€3.75 million) this year. She said the ministry planned to look into other ways to help projects in Ethiopia.

The six Norwegian diplomats were asked to leave the country by Sept. 15, leaving three staffers in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia did not give a specific reason for the ouster, but said Norway's government has been "pampering" anti-Ethiopia groups in the Horn of Africa.

May 2

BBC - Estonia has closed its consulate in Moscow after pro-Kremlin youth groups attacked diplomats in protest at the relocation of a Soviet war memorial.

Estonia's foreign ministry said there was an attempt to physically assault their ambassador at a news conference.

It said the incident amounted to a violation of diplomatic conventions.

Estonians of Russian origin rioted last week after the controversial statue of a Soviet soldier was moved away from the centre of the capital, Tallinn.

One person died and 153 were injured in the unrest.

Estonians say the soldier symbolised Soviet occupation. Russians describe it as a tribute to those who fought the Nazis.

Karl Ritter | Helsinki | March 18

AP - Finland's ruling centrist party barely won parliamentary elections Sunday, with the main opposition Conservatives making strong gains to possibly claim a spot in the next government.

The outcome could lead to the formation of a new center-right government, and leave out the left-leaning Social Democrats, the Center Party's main coalition partner. However, a possible shift in government was not expected to yield major changes in the country of 5.3 million, one of Europe's most homogenous societies.

``In an election it's always easy to win from the opposition, but the most difficult thing is to renew one's victory,'' Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told supporters after a 99-percent vote count showed his Center Party won 51 seats in the 200-member Parliament, one more than the Conservatives.

Alex Duval Smith | Haparanda-Tornio, northern Sweden | Jan 6

The Observer - Misha Maksimovic drove more than 500 miles from Russia to northern Sweden just to be like the rest of us. Yesterday in a blizzard he drove back again with his Ikea flatpacks, full of excitement that soon a Billy bookcase would be in his hall, a Sultan mattress would grace his bed and his kitchen would carry the Rationell name.

'Ikea's arrival in Haparanda is bigger news than the Russian revolution,' said Maksimovic, a 45-year-old teacher, as he loaded £540 worth of shopping into a trailer hitched to his Lada. 'The journey is nothing to us northerners.'

To anyone who thinks the hubs of Europe are London, Paris or Brussels, coming to Haparanda-Tornio, population 33,000, is a wake-up call. Here in the winter darkness, in a town straddling the border between Sweden and Finland, 100km (62 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, global warming is one factor that has ignited a Klondike economy.

Hammerfest, Norway | Dec 19

AP - The sprawling fish processing plant that once dominated the downtown waterfront of this Arctic town is gone, with workers racing in the Polar darkness to build its replacement, a sparkling new cultural center.

It's a sign of new prosperity since the arrival of ''The Oil'' -- as Norwegians call the petroleum industry -- to the northern fringe of Europe.

Hammerfest, a town of about 9,400 people roughly 1,100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is enjoying an energy boom, as the base for oil-rich Norway's latest petroleum drive: the first offshore field being developed in the Barents Sea.

* Norwegian $30bn deal creates oil and gas super-player
* Statoil to acquire oil, gas divisions of Norsk Hydro

Tbilisi | November 27

UPI - The U.S. Secret Service and police in Georgia are investigating an international counterfeit currency operation.

The ring, which has produced millions in fake bills, stretches from a separatist enclave in the former Soviet Union to Maryland, where fake $100 bills have been seized in the Baltimore area, the Washington Post reported.

The bills come from a printing press in South Ossetia in the country of Georgia. The bills are then transported to Israel and the United States.

The allegations are supported by U.S. diplomats, court documents and a recent report to Congress, the newspaper said.

November 14

Iltalehti - Bush will visit Tallinn after a couple of weeks.

Scandinavia or Baltics

HS - Swedish trade union to file criminal complaint, Estonian union not surprised.

Sweden’s Union for Service and Communication Employees (SEKO) says that it will submit a complaint to police over the drunken behaviour of top managers of the Estonian shipping line Tallink during a cruise between Finland and Sweden.
According to SEKO chairman Janne Rudén, members of the board of Tallink scuffled with crew on the Silja Symphony about two weeks ago, and threatened some of the crew with losing their jobs. Tallink recently bought Silja Line.
According to reports, the CEO of Tallink called the waitresses "servants who must obey", after they refused to serve more alcohol after the bar had closed.

Nov 1

BBC - Alcohol has become the leading cause of death in Finland for men, and is a close second for women, a study says.

Figures for 2005 released by the state statistics agency showed alcohol killed more people aged 15 to 64 than cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Almost as many women died of alcohol-related causes as breast cancer last year.

David Mardiste | September 23

Reuters, WaPo etc. - Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a social democrat member of the European parliament and former foreign minister, was elected Estonian president on Saturday at the end of a month-long wrangle.

The appointment of the U.S.-educated Ilves is likely to reinforce the small Baltic EU member's pro-Western policies and its drive to adopt the EU single currency, the euro.

Three previous rounds of voting in parliament on August 29 failed when populist left parliamentarians staged a boycott, forcing the vote to be moved to the electoral college.

Comment:
In the series of unstable East Europe, Estonian presidential election became a political scandal when no candidate was able to win. The election law is flawed.

David Ibison in Stockholm | September 19

FT - Sweden’s new government plans to reduce the state’s role in the economy substantially, and will sell off government stakes in some of the country’s best known companies, including SAS, the airline, and Nordea, the Nordic region’s largest bank.

In a shift in economic direction, it has pledged to spin off holdings in unlisted state-controlled firms and to open up large parts of the economy to private sector competition.

David Ibison in Stockholm | September 18

FT - Swedish voters ousted the ruling Social Democrats from power after 12 years on Sunday and elected the centre right Alliance for Sweden, almost complete official results indicated.

As he declared victory on Sunday night, Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the four-party Alliance, told jubilant supporters: “It was teamwork that helped us win.”

Vladimir Socor | August 18

Jamestown - Ignored by Western believers in Russia’s reliability as an energy supplier, the Russian government is attempting to either bankrupt or capture the oil concern Mazeikiai in Lithuania. The holding’s centerpiece, the Mazeikiai refinery, is the only refinery in the three Baltic states and largest economic entity there. It is also Lithuania’s top taxpayer.

Steve Gutterman | Minsk | March 25

AP - Thousands of Belarusians defied a massive show of force by the hard-line government Saturday, protesting in streets swarming with riot police and gathering peacefully in a park to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko after a disputed election returned him to power.

Rows of black-clad police blocked a central square where opposition leaders had called for a rally at noon, pushing crowds back in a bid to end a week of unprecedented protests in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic. Demonstrators shouted "Shame!" and "Long live Belarus!"

Minsk | March 24

BBC - Riot police in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, have broken up a five-day demonstration against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

More than 100 troops poured into the central square and loaded protesters onto waiting trucks.

C. J. Chivers | Minsk, Belarus | March 23

New York Times -

By midnight, as the temperature dropped ever lower and morning twilight was still five hours off, the core of Belarus's public opposition assumed its shape in the darkness.

It was about 300 people, arms interlocked and forming a small, dense square, stomping on the frozen ground under a police cadre's contemptuous gaze. Behind them, inside their human box, another group of demonstrators held their banned flags overhead, a thicket of banners over 20 small tents. At any moment, the demonstrators said, they expected the police to rush forward, beat them with clubs and drag them off to the detention cells. And then their protest would end in blood.

All of them said they were ready. "They may attack and beat us and inflict great trauma," said Stepan Svidersky, 18, a student. "But we have already achieved a result: We have shown our country that we are not afraid to stand against arbitrary rule."

Tallinn | Mars 5

BNS - Teenagers who had a party in the Presidential Palace in Estonia have been fined.

14 teenagers were fined by 120 Estonian crowns (7.7€) when they took part to a party in the castle of Kadriorg last year organized by the grandchildren of the presidential couple. The teenagers were fined because they broke tobacco and alcohol laws.

There were 42 people in the party, 24 of them were underage.

The chief of security police told in January that he resigns because of the scandal.