NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 04, 2011

Q: A 5-year-old German boy dropped a message in a bottle from a ship into the Baltic Sea 24 years ago, and he finally got a reply. Where is the Baltic Sea?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Frank Uesbeck, now 29, wrote in his note that he and his father were traveling on a ship to the country at the western end of the Baltic Sea. Which nation would that be?

A. Finland

B. Russia

C. Poland

D. Denmark

D. The sea is bounded on the west by Danish islands which lie between the Denmark's Jutland Peninsula and the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Q: The bottle was found by Daniil Korotkikh, 13, on a beach in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic. Before it became part of Russia it was called Konigsberg and part of . . .

A. Poland

B. Lithuania

C. Germany

D. Sweden

C. Konigsberg was founded in 1255 and was part of Prussia and then of Germany until 1945, when the Soviet Union occupied the territory, expelled the Germans and replaced them with Russians. Kaliningrad is the only Russian port on the Baltic that is ice-free all year round, and it is vital to maintaining the country's Baltic Fleet.

Q: What other Russian city is on the Baltic Sea?

A. Moscow

B. St. Petersburg

C. Vladivostok

D. Murmansk

B. St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great after he reconquered the area from Sweden. It served as Russia's capital for more than 200 years until 1918 when the capital was moved back to Moscow.

Q: Which of these Baltic nations does NOT have a capital on the sea?

A. Lithuania

B. Latvia

C. Estonia

D. Finland

A. Lithuania's capital of Vilnius is located on the Vilnia River in the southeastern section of the country. The capital cities of Helsinki, Finland, Tallinn, Estonia, and Riga, Latvia, are all on the Baltic Sea.