The State Committee of the Republic of Karelia on Youth and Regional Center of Economic Development, Transport and Environment of North Savo have signed the agreement on cooperation.

The plan of joint actions on implementation of the Agreement specifies the following priority directions of cooperation: researches in the field of youth policy and methods of work with youth, activity of youth workshops, preparation and training of youth councils. Among priority actions special attention was focused on the second innovative international youth forum of designing of the future Hyperborea 2010 to be held in Karelia in the end of July.

The critical nature of the shortage of teachers came to light in a study carried out for the Giellagas Institute at the University of Oulu which surveyed the educational needs in Finland related to Sami language and culture.

The Sami are an indigenous people that live traditionally in Finnish Lapland, the Kola peninsula and central and northern parts of Sweden and Norway. About 6,400 Sami live in Finland.

On February 19, at 4:30 p.m. the Center of National Cultures and Crafts will welcome the inter-regional exhibition of Finno-Ugric newspaper and amateur photographers We Are and Will Be.

The exhibition includes 30 works of newspaper photographers and amateur photographers from Karelia, Komi, Komi-Permyak district of the Perm Region, Mari-El, Mordovia, Udmurtiya, Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Districts, Murmansk area and St.-Petersburg.

The photographs mostly represent portraits of ethnoses - their singularity, difference and originality of the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia. Portraits of representatives of smaller Finno-Ugric peoples such as the Votes, Izhors, Ingermalandian Finns and Setos are also presented here.

Barents Euro-Arctic Region as the international regional organization uniting administrative regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia located around the polar circle was founded in January, 1993. Now at the regional level it includes 13 subjects. Russia is presented there by republics of Karelia and Komi, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk areas and Nenets district.

Within the agreement on cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, known as Kirkenes Declaration, issues on its coordination are annually discussed by Ministers for Foreign Affairs of its constitutor countries at the created with this purpose Council of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region (Barents Council). Special paragraph of the Declaration devoted to indigenous people confirms adherence of the countries to support the rights of indigenous people, supports offers of representatives of indigenous people participating in discussion of the program of Barents cooperation, preparation of the program on restoration and protection of cultural heritage of indigenous people, creation of ethnocultural centers, special medical fund.

With only 3.000 speakers in Northwest Siberia the Ob-Ugrian language Mansi is on the verge of extinction. Predictions say it will be extinct in ten to twenty years at the latest. The same holds true for Khanti, a member of the same language family. It is for this reason that extensive documentation is so important. Johanna Laakso, professor for Finno-Ugrian Studies at the University of Vienna concerns herself with the documentation of this and other minority languages in the framework of an FWF project and the EU project ELDIA.

Siberian Minority Languages: Mansi and Khanti

Enn Soosaar, was born Feb. 13, 1937 in Tallinn, the son of the curate in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Tragedy struck when a motorcycle accident in the 1950s left him in a wheelchair the rest of his life. Undeterred by this setback, he studied to be an English philologist at the University of Tartu and graduated in 1964. At home he was surrounded by many books, which played huge role in turning him into one of the most important intellectuals in the smallest Baltic state.

The European Commission will carry out a detailed analysis of the Slovak Language Law to assess its application, Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban told the European Parliament during a debate on the usage of the languages of ethnic minorities across the European Union. Initiated by Slovak MEP Edit Bauer and her Hungarian counterpart Kinga Gal, the debate commenced shortly before Tuesday midnight and turned into a verbal shootout between Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian members of the European Parliament with the Hungarian MEPs uniformly criticising the status of minorities.

“I am speaking on behalf of 500,000 people of minority and about the language law violating their rights. How can one be punished for using their mother tongue? Such a law cannot be applied,” said Bauer, pointing to the large fines of up to €5,000 euro laid down by the law. Furthermore, she said Slovakia is failing to fulfil all its duties stemming from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Hungarian MEP Zoltan Balczo said that Slovakia preaches specific values but does not observe them. Slovak MEP Jaroslav Paska countered by saying that “our Hungarian friends have been teaching us of late about the use of minority languages, but somehow they forgot to look at themselves and how minorities in Hungary are being restricted in the use of their native tongue,” he said. “In Hungary, Slovak children can only dream about Slovak schools, as the Hungarian Government is not making it possible for them unlike other governments in the European Union,” said Paska.

 Four regional leaders were replaced by President Medvedev on Monday.

President Dmitry Medvedevt nominated new governors to Krasnoyarsk region, Khanty-Mansiisk, Dagestan and the Jewish Autonomous Region as part of his course of refreshing the governors' corps.

State Duma member Natalia Komarova, 55, will head Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous Region in Siberia to become the second female governor in Russia after the head of St Petersburg Valentina Matvienko. Kommersant daily said Komarova's gender was an argument for Medvedev in making his choice. Medvedev has said on several occasions that there should be more women at high official and corporate posts.

Reindeers belonging to Saami reindeer herders in Norway crossed the border to Russia in January and inflicted damage on the national park by eating and trampling down the unique vegetation in the park, Murmansk based TV channel TV21 reports.

Three-fourths of Estonians say they are generally satisfied with their life, according to a Eurobarometer poll made public by the European commission on Tuesday.

To the question "On the whole, are you satisfied with the life you lead?", 74% of Estonians said yes. The same was said by 63% of Lithuanians and 59% of Latvians. Average score for EU27 was 80% and while 98% of Danes were satisfied with their life, only 38% of Bulgarians agreed.

Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands make up the top three of the general life situation ranking, with Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece languishing at the bottom of the table.

 On Saturday, Sámi people in the Nordic countries and Russia observe Sámi People's Day. Celebrations on this day commemorate the first joint Sámi congress held on February 6, 1917 in Trondheim, Norway. The conference launched cross-border Sámi cooperation that still continues today.

Sámi people have observed their national day since the 1990s, although it wasn’t written into Finnish calendars until 2004.

The Sámi are the only indigenous people of the European Union.

Many of Finland’s 9,000 Sámi have left their traditional homeland in the far north, which spans the municipalities of Enontekiö, Inari, Utsjoki and Sodankylä. Today, some 1,000 Sámi live in the Helsinki region.

Tundra areas of the north may seem like endless wilderness with a huge potential for industrial activity. However, the activities of the industrial companies pose a challenge to the indigenous peoples' traditional use of the pasture lands and the reindeers migrating routes.