The Estonia Portal

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti or Eesti Vabariik; Germanic languages: Estland; Finnish: Viro), is a country in Northern Europe. Estonia has land borders to the south with Latvia and to the east with Russia. It is separated from Finland in the north by the Gulf of Finland and from Sweden in the west by the Baltic Sea.

Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and of NATO since 29 March 2004. The Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns, with the Estonian language sharing many similarities to Finnish. The modern name of Estonia is thought to originate from the Roman historian Tacitus, who in his book Germania (ca. AD 98) described a people called the Aestii. Similarly, ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the country's name are Estia and Hestia.

Selected article

Oil shale is a general term applied to a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing significant traces of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) that have not been buried for sufficient time to produce conventional fossil fuels. When heated to a sufficiently high temperature a vapor is driven off which can be distilled (retorted) to yield a petroleum-like 'shale oil' - a form of unconventional oil - and combustible 'shale gas'.

The kerogen in oil shale can be converted to oil through the chemical process of pyrolysis. Oil shale can also be burnt directly as a low-grade fuel for power generation and heating, and be used as a raw material in the chemical and construction materials industries. Currently oil shales are used commercially for oil production in Estonia, Brazil and China, for power generation in Estonia, China, Israel and Germany, for cement production in Estonia, Germany and China, and for chemical industry in Estonia and Russia.

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Credit: Siim Ainsaar

The largest of nine craters at Kaali, found on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia.

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Selected biography

Toomas Hendrik Ilves (born December 26, 1953) is the current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament. He was elected to the post by an electoral college on September 23, 2006 and his term as President began on October 9, 2006.

Ilves was born in Stockholm, Sweden; his parents were Estonian refugees. He grew up in the United States and graduated from Leonia High School in Leonia, New Jersey in 1972 as valedictorian. He attended a bachelors degree in psychology from Columbia University and a masters degree in the same subject from the University of Pennsylvania.

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News

• Wikinews Estonia portal
• October 9: 18 hospitalized after gas attack in school in Valga, Estonia
• June 8: Europeans go to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament
• December 13: Wikinews Shorts: December 13, 2008
• June 12: Finland, Estonia and Greece ratify the EU's Treaty of Lisbon
• May 29: Sarkozy ends French job ban for Eastern Europeans
• May 25: Dima Bilan wins the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest for Russia
• May 21: Eurovision 2008: First semi-final held in Belgrade
• September 23: Russia apologises for violating Finnish airspace
• May 17: Cyber attacks in Estonia threaten national security
• May 2: Wikinews Shorts: May 2, 2007

Did you know...

• ...that Saaremaa was once the wealthiest county of ancient Estonia and the home of notorious Estonian pirates, sometimes called the Eastern Vikings?
• ...that the Academia Gustaviana (now University of Tartu) in the then Swedish province of Livonia was the second university founded in the Swedish Empire, following Uppsala University (in Uppsala, Sweden proper) and preceding the Academy of Åbo (in Turku, Finland)?
• ...that the Estonian river which flows from Lake Võrtsjärv through Tartu County into Lake Peipus, is called Emajõgi, meaning "Mother River" in Estonian?

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