Week in pictures: June 8-14
What went down in Estonia last week?
On Tuesday, a fire at Molycorp Silmet's rare metals production facility in Sillamäe filled the town with toxic smoke. In addition to six rescue workers being injured during the rescue operation, 60 people complained of minor respiratory problems.
The Government was given green light to negotiate migration quota with the European Commission. The government decided against the 1,064 quota last week but needed approval from the Parliament's European Union Affairs Committee.
On Friday and Saturday, US presidential hopeful Jeb Bush visited Estonia. "America has Estonia's back," Bush said, although he refused to say whether he would send troops to the Baltic states if elected. Estonia was the last leg of Bush's European tour, after which he is expected to announce his candidacy.
Bush also met with Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, who is facing two non-confidence votes on June 15. Rõivas and the Reform Party also suffer from a significant drop in popularity polls, the Reform Party now being only the third popular party in Estonia (16 percent). The Center Party has taken firm lead with 28 percent and the Social Democrats seen a surge in support, overtaking the Reformers with 2 percentage points.
It was a good week for Estonian football and fencing teams. Women and men's epee fencing teams both took silvers in the European Fencing Championships in Switzerland.
The Estonian football team, which unwillingly became part of Sammarinese football history when drawing with the microstate in November, thus allowing them their first Euro qualifiers point after a 59-game wait, managed to redeem itself on Sunday evening when taking a 2-0 victory at home. It had previously beaten Finland in a friendly on Tuesday with a same score.
A very different kind of "sporting" event took place on Saturday in Kadrioru Park. Thousands of rubber ducks raced in the canal to raise money for young cancer patients and their parents.
Floating not longer are the three medieval ships found in a constructions site in Tallinn. The remains of the ships, believed to be of 14-17th century date, were buried 4 meters deep in a filled-in old harbor, soon to be a new upmarket residential area. The find is first of its kind in Estonia.