RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvian lawmakers said Tuesday they want to change the name of a street honoring a former Chechen leader after the deadly hostage crisis in Moscow that was led by separatists from the breakaway Russian republic.
      Dudayev Street, in a Riga suburb, was named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former Chechen president who initiated the Caucasian region's drive for independence from Moscow in 1991. He was killed by Russian troops in 1997.
      Dudayev was celebrated in the three former Soviet Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, for refusing Kremlin orders to crack down on Baltic independence activists when he served here as a Red Army general in 1991.
      The three countries won their freedom during the Soviet collapse.
      But Riga Councilman Alexander Gilman said the tribute was offensive after Chechen separatists stormed a theater in Moscow, holding some 800 people hostage for 58 hours before Russian special forces pumped in gas and reclaimed the building. More than 100 people died.
      Gilman said he will introduce a bill on Nov. 5 to change the street name, although he hadn't yet come up with a replacement.
      "The people who took that theater in Moscow are pupils of Dudayev. Why should we honor this man?" Gilman said, adding that he believed there was sufficient support on the City Council to adopt his proposal.
      Riga Mayor Gundars Bojars offered his support, saying the 1996 decision by a different city government to honor Dudayev was "incoherent."
      Three Latvians were among the hostages held in Moscow but were unhurt.
      One of the surviving Latvian hostages, 28-year-old Aleksandrs Zalcermanis, said he backed the steps to strike Dudayev from the registry of Riga streets.
      "Dudayev did nothing for Latvia," he told reporters as he arrived by plane from Moscow Tuesday.
      Local Russian-language newspapers — read by the 35 percent Russian-speaking population in this nation of 2.5 million people -- also have come out strongly in favor of the name change.
      But some politicians opposed the initiative.
      "Dudayev is a hero, not a terrorist," said parliamentarian Juris Dobelis, a member of the Chechen Parliamentary Support Committee. "He's a symbol of the Chechen fight for independence and was a supporter of Baltic independence."
      Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, also named a city square after Dudayev. But there didn't appear to be any moves for it to be renamed.
      Dudayev declared the Caucasus Mountain republic's independence in 1991 and proclaimed one-man rule in 1993. Russian troops invaded to oust Dudayev in December 1994, setting off 13-month war that killed up to 30,000.
      Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 but fighting resumed in 1999, following rebel attacks in neighboring Dagestan and after some 300 people died in apartment-building bombings blamed on the rebels.

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Judges on Thursday convicted an 81-year-old former Soviet secret police agent of crimes against humanity for helping to deport 41 people, including children, to Siberia in the 1940s after Estonia was occupied by Stalin's forces.
      Juri Karpov faced a maximum penalty of life in prison for his crime, but the City Court in Tallinn, the capital, opted for an eight-year suspended sentence and a fine of 3,700 kroons (dlrs 230) because of his advanced age.
      Prosecutors said the ex-Stalinist agent delivered whole families deemed enemies of the communist regime to cattle trains fitted with iron bars. After a 2000-kilometer (1200-mile) journey, three died in the harsh conditions of exile.
      The deportations took place in March 1949, when Soviet forces shipped over 20,000 people from this nation of 1.4 million to desolate corners of Russia.
      "We believe justice was done," lead prosecutor Enla Ulviste said. "He was at least forced to face his accusers."
      Evidence included deportation orders with Karpov's signature — culled from a cellar KGB archive that was opened to the public when Estonia regained independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
      While admitting he worked for the NKVD police — the precursor of the notorious KGB -- Karpov maintained his innocence, saying the archive documents placed him at locations he'd never been. He said Thursday he would appeal.
      "I did not belong to the circle of people informed about or preparing for the (deportation) operation," Karpov, wearing a blue double-breasted suit and sporting thick bifocals, told the court earlier this week.
      Karpov holds a Russian passport — as do thousands of Russians who settled here during Soviet rule. He's one of some 20 ex-agents, mostly Estonian citizens, charged over the past decade.
      The neighboring Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania also have prosecuted several men who took part in Soviet atrocities after they regained independence. No other ex-Soviet republics have held similar proceedings.
      Russia has repeatedly denounced the trials as revenge against ailing old men It's sent diplomats to observe trials of those carrying Russian passports and helped cover defense costs of the accused, including in Karpov's case.
      Russia's Embassy officials declined to comment on Thursday's verdict.
      Karpov's conviction comes several months after 77-year-old former Soviet agent Karl-Leonhard Paulov died while serving an eight-year prison term for crimes against humanity. Most other convicted agents received suspended sentences.
      At least 15 million people were killed and some 40 million deported -- including more than 200,000 people from the Baltics -- by the vast communist secret police apparatus during Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's iron-fisted rule.

      MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov criticized NATO's eastward expansion Monday, saying it makes little sense and will do nothing to help contain terrorist threats.
      "I cannot imagine how the planned enlargement of NATO will alter the counteraction of the real threats and challenges, first and foremost international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, that we are witnessing today," the Interfax news agency quoted Ivanov as saying in Khabarovsk, a city in far eastern Russia.
      He emphasized that Moscow's negative attitude to NATO's eastward expansion has not changed, saying that expansion "makes little sense to us," Interfax reported. However, he added that "it is the right of every country to choose a bloc for itself."
      At a Nov. 21-22 summit, NATO leaders are expected to invite Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria -- all former Soviet republics or satellites -- to join the alliance. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which is hosting the summit, have already joined.
      Russia has repeatedly criticized the eastward expansion of NATO -- whose original purpose was to confront the Soviet Union -- but has itself forged closer ties with the alliance under President Vladimir Putin, particularly since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. NATO says its enlargement poses no threat to Russia.

      LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) — Here are some key facts about the European Union which is expected to expand in 2004 with the addition of up to 10 countries.
      They are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
      CURRENT MEMBERS: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
      SIZE, POPULATION: After a previous expansion in 1995, the EU had a population of over 370 million and an area of 3.23 million square kilometres (1.247 million square miles).
      The addition of 10 countries will add some 710,600 square kilometres (274,400 square miles) of land and some 75 million people to the grouping.
      LANGUAGES — The number of official EU languages will grow to 20 with the addition of Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak and Slovene, joining Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
      GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT — The figures given below for GDP per capita are based on PPS, or purchasing power standards, an artificial currency that allows for variations between the national price levels not taken in to account by exchange rates. This unit improves data comparability.
      Following are some key facts on each leading candidate:
      CYPRUS:
      POPULATION: 759,000 (including 87,000 in Turkish-occupied region) of whom 85.1 percent are Greek Cypriot and 11.7 percent Turkish Cypriot. Others include Armenians, Maronites and British forces personnel.
      AREA: 9,251 square km (3,572 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Nicosia, population 195,300 (excluding Turkish part).
      LANGUAGES: Greek and Turkish.
      GDP per capita: 18,500 euros (2000).
      CZECH REPUBLIC:
      POPULATION: 10.3 million (March 2001 census) of whom 90 percent are Czech, 3.6 percent Moravian and 1.8 percent Slovak.
      AREA: 78,866 square km (30,450 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Prague, population 1.2 million.
      LANGUAGE: Czech.
      GDP per capita: 13,500 euros (2000).
      ESTONIA:
      POPULATION: 1.565 million of whom 65 percent are Estonian, 28 percent Russian, 2.5 percent Ukrainian, 1.5 percent Belarussian and 1.0 percent Finnish.
      AREA: 45,227 square km (17,462 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Tallinn, estimated population 400,000.
      LANGUAGE: Estonian is the official language, although Russian is widely spoken, especially in the northeast.
      GDP per capita: 8,500 euros (2000).
      HUNGARY:
      POPULATION: 10.19 million. There are small Roma, Serb, German, Slovak and Romanian minorities.
      AREA: 93,000 square km (36,000 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Budapest, population 1.8 million.
      LANGUAGE: Hungarian.
      GDP per capita: 11,700 euros (2000).
      LATVIA:
      POPULATION: 2.37 million, 57 percent of whom are ethnic Latvians while 29.6 percent are Russian, 4.1 percent Belarussian, 2.7 percent Ukrainian and 2.5 percent Polish.
      AREA: 64,589 square km (24,940 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Riga, population 764,000
      LANGUAGE: Latvian.
      GDP per capita: 6,600 euros (2000).
      LITHUANIA:
      POPULATION: 3.5 million, of whom around 81 percent are Lithuanian, 8.5 percent Russian and seven percent Polish with small numbers of ethnic Belarussians, Ukrainians and Jews.
      AREA: 65,300 square km (25,210 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Vilnius, population 543,400.
      LANGUAGE: Lithuanian.
      GDP per capita: 6,600 euros (2000).
      MALTA:
      POPULATION: 383,000.
      AREA: 316 square km (122 square miles) (comprising Malta, Gozo and Comino islands).
      CAPITAL: Valletta, population 7,048 (2000)
      LANGUAGE: Maltese and English are the official languages.
      GDP per capita: 11,900 euros (2000).
      POLAND:
      POPULATION: 38.64 million. There are small German, Lithuanian, Belarussian and Ukrainian minorities.
      AREA: 312,700 square km (120,700 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Warsaw, population 1.8 million.
      LANGUAGE: Polish.
      GDP per capita: 8,700 euros (2000)
      SLOVAKIA:
      POPULATION: 5.4 million. The population is 85 percent Slovak, 10 percent Hungarian, nearly two percent Roma and one percent Czech.
      AREA: 49,039 square km (18,932 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Bratislava, population 460,000.
      LANGUAGE: Slovak.
      GDP per capita: 10,800 euros (2000)
      SLOVENIA:
      POPULATION: 1.99 million, 90 percent of whom are Slovenes. The remainder is split between Serb, Croat, Hungarian, Italian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Albanian minorities.
      AREA: 20,273 square km (7,827 square miles).
      CAPITAL: Ljubljana, population 260,000.
      LANGUAGE: Slovene, but in mixed areas Hungarian and Italian.
      GDP per capita: 16,100 euros (2000)

      ATLANTA, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire — FirstCall/ — Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today said it has expanded its codeshare relationship with SkyTeam partner CSA Czech Airlines flights via Prague, Czech Republic, to Riga, Latvia Nov. 15, 2002.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Einars Repse, a former head of the Central Bank who campaigned against corruption, was nominated Tuesday to be the next prime minister of this former Soviet republic.
      The nomination by President Vaira Vike-Freiberga was expected after Repse's center-right New Era party won the most legislative seats in last month's elections in Latvia.
      New Era, which has 26 seats, plans to form a government with the center-right First Party, the centrist Green and Farmer's Union and right-wing Fatherland and Freedom -- giving the coalition a 55-seat majority in the 100-seat Saiema legislature.
      The parliament was expected to confirm Repse as prime minister within a week, but a date for the vote has not been set.
      "We have a hard job to do but not an impossible one," Repse told reporters earlier Tuesday when it became clear the president was about to nominate him.
      Repse, 41, is a fiscal conservative who pledged during his campaign to end corruption in the pro-Western nation of 2.4 million people and to push for membership in NATO and the European Nation within the next few years.
      He chose Latvia's ambassador to France, Sandra Kalniete, as his foreign minister.
      His first choice, Jewish community leader Grigorijs Krupnikovs, withdrew his name after he was accused of once cooperating with the KGB, the former Soviet secret police agency.
      Latvia and the other two Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania, regained independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

      RIGA, Nov 7 (Reuters) — Latvia's parliament approved on Thursday a new pro-business centre-right government headed by Prime Minister Einars Repse to lead the ex-Communist state into NATO and the European Union.
      The new four-party cabinet will be dominated by young men with little previous experience in politics after Latvia voted for change in elections last month in which many veterans, including former premier Andris Berzins, were swept out.
      The staunchly pro-business Repse, a former central banker, aims to crack down on corruption and keep Western reforms on track as Latvia prepares for an invitation to join NATO later this month and to finish EU talks in December for entry in 2004.
      "We will create an honest and professional government which will secure the interests of the people of Latvia and which will be in office at least until the next election," he said, referring to the many mid-term government changes of the past.
      Election winner New Era is heading a coalition of the Christian democrat First Party, the centrist Greens and Farmers and the right-wing For Fatherland and Freedom with 55 seats in the 100-member parliament.
      Parliament approved the new cabinet by 55 votes to 43 with one abstention, ending a month of bargaining between the four parties over positions in the new government.
      A disgruntled opposition denounced the new government's political platform as empty and vague, predicting Repse's coalition would be short-lived.
      TACKLING CORRUPTION
      Sandra Kalniete, one of the few political heavyweights of the new government, will take the post of foreign minister.
      An outsider brought in to tackle the tough last leg of accession talks with the EU, Kalniete is famous from the independence struggle which freed Latvia from Moscow's rule in 1991 and likened to Britain's former premier Margaret Thatcher.
      Repse, who lashed out during a heated election campaign about what he saw as an inefficient and corrupt state system drowning in red tape, told parliament the government's main aim was a clampdown on corruption.
      "Only a corruption-free government will be able to root out smuggling, tax evasion and stealing of the state," he said.
      Repse appointed his former understudy in the central bank, Valdis Dombrovskis, a macro-analyst in his 30s, to head the Finance Ministry and oversee the budget and tax policies.
      Repse said he would take personal responsibility for privatisation of state assets, which has previously drawn most accusations of graft. He named Juris Lujans as economy minister.
      The former central banker also promised Latvians a new era of economic stability and growth.
      "The fiscal deficit should not exceed 3.0 percent, thus fulfilling Maastricht criteria, and we should gradually reduce fiscal deficit with the aim of a balanced budget in the medium term," he said.
      Repse also promised to cut taxes, including the tax on production, which he said would be a spur to economic growth.

      BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Corruption in some countries hoping to join the European Union has flourished since the fall of communism but the EU's own anti-corruption policies are ill-suited to tackle such problems, a watchdog agency says.
      In a report, the Open Society Institute's EU Accession Monitoring Program said it was increasingly likely that countries with persistent and serious corruption would be admitted to a European Union unable to combat such problems even among its current members.
      The study, presented in Brussels on Wednesday and made available here Thursday, described uncontrolled lobbying in the legislative process, as well as questionable funding of political parties and problems in public procurement and public administration as the main areas of concern.
      "The EU itself lacks consistent or comprehensive anti-corruption policies," said Prof. Andras Sajo of Budapest's Central European University in the 622-page report. "This, in turn, has made it more difficult for individual states, whether candidates or current members, to craft solutions that meet their own needs and those that reflect the shared values of the Union."
      The report covered 10 former communist countries or ex-Soviet republics: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
      Except for Bulgaria and Romania, the countries are expected to join the European Union in 2004, along with Cyprus and Malta.
      While the report itself did not include a "corruption ranking" of the countries studied, it said that the lack of political will to tackle corruption at all levels was evident in practically every case.
      As an exception, Lithuania was mentioned as having one of the "most comprehensive and sophisticated" anti-corruption policies and the only truly independent anti-corruption agency among all candidate countries.
      The report said that while media in the candidate countries had played a key role in raising awareness of corruption, "draconian legislation" in some countries was hindering their independence and effectiveness.
      State-owned media, especially television, were subject to political control or influence in almost all EU candidate countries surveyed, the report said.
      The report urged countries surveyed to strive for wide political consensus on anti-corruption policies; public awareness of anti-corruption initiatives and the creation of a "culture of disclosure" to avoid conflicts of interest; codes of ethics for bureaucrats; and higher state funding of political parties to avoid heavy reliance on sponsors.
      The European Union, the report said, should invest in comparative research on corruption in candidate and member countries and increase pressure on its members to ratify the Council of Europe's anti-corruption conventions.
      The Open Society Institute was founded in New York in 1993 by Hungarian-born billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros. It aims to promote open democratic societies by providing grants and technical assistance to civic projects. The institute has over 50 branches throughout the world, with Eastern European operations based in Budapest.
      — — —
      On the Net:
      http://www.eumap.org/

      London — A world famous shopping street in the capital is rated among the globe's most expensive places for retailers to rent in, a survey found today.
      Retailers in London's Oxford Street pay the fourth highest rents in the world, shelling out an annual average 2,967 per square metre, according to research carried out for real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, Healey & Baker.
      Fifth Avenue and East 57th Street, in New York, America, came joint top as the most expensive retail location with their rent averages reaching a sky-high
      4,781 per square metre, per year.
      Among the exclusive names to operate in that area will soon include Louis Vuitton's flagship store, due to open 2003, as well as the already open and world-renowned Tiffany's.
      The Avenue des Champs Elysees, in Paris, France, finished runner-up, while the cheapest of the 44 main streets analysed could be found in the Latvian capital of Riga.
      Main Streets Across the World, 2002, shows the results of monitoring rental levels in 221 key shopping destinations in 44 countries around the world for a year from June, 2001.
      Elsewhere in the top five, Hong Kong's Causeway Bay finished third while Sydney's soaring reputation is exemplified with its Pitt Street Mall finishing fifth.
      Other cities in the top 10 include Moscow in Russia, Munich in Germany, Seoul in South Korea, Athens in Greece and Tokyo in Japan.

      BRUSSELS, Nov 11 (Reuters) — Nine central and eastern European countries are hoping for an invitation to join NATO at a summit of the 19-nation defence alliance in Prague on November 21-22.
      Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have all been participating in the Membership Action Plan which was created in 1999.
      Croatia became the 10th candidate on the membership waiting list earlier this year, but was too late to be considered at Prague.
      Aspirant countries are expected to meet specific political and economic goals, though their progress is kept confidential.
      These goals include settling any international, ethnic or external territorial disputes by peaceful means, a commitment to the rule of law and human rights, democratic control of armed forces and promoting stability and well-being through economic liberty, social justice and environmental responsibility.
      Candidate countries are also expected to spend sufficient resources to contribute to NATO collective defence and missions.
      However, joining NATO is not simply a question of fulfilling a checklist: political and geostrategic considerations, as well as Washington's inclination, weigh heavily in the process.
      Political momentum for a "robust enlargement" has grown, and it now looks likely that seven candidates -- all bar Albania and Macedonia -- will be invited at Prague to join the alliance.
      The seven would be expected to join in the first half of 2004 at the earliest after accession talks and the ratification of "Protocols of Accession" by individual NATO nations.
      ALBANIA has a population of 3.5 million, an active armed force of 27,000 and spent 2.6 percent of GDP on defence in 2001. It has won praise for efforts to reform its military, which almost disintegrated when the collapse of fraudulent pyramid schemes plunged the country into anarchy in 1997. But it has work to do reforming its judicial system and economy, stamping out corruption and tightening border security.
      BULGARIA has 7.9 million people, an active armed force of 68,450 and spent 2.8 percent of GDP on defence in 2001. Its chances for NATO accession have risen from slim to virtually certain because it is viewed as geostrategically important as a bulwark against threats highlighted by the September 11 attacks. This is likely to outweigh concerns about economic reform and corruption.
      ESTONIA, a country of 1.4 million people, has an active armed force of 5,510 and defence spending equivalent to 1.7 percent of GDP. It is seen as a near certainty to join NATO along with its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Lithuania because Russia has softened its opposition to NATO expanding onto former Soviet soil. The European Commission said in a recent report that Estonia, a candidate for European Union membership, must improve transparency in appointments to public posts and increase naturalisation of its Russian minority.
      LATVIA, with 2.4 million people, an active armed force of 5,500 and defence spending equivalent to 1.2 percent of GDP, has progress to make tackling corruption and bolstering its administration, but its entry into NATO now seems assured.
      LITHUANIA, which has a population of 3.75 million, an active armed force of 13,510 and spent 1.8 percent of its GDP on defence in 2001, has been pressed to make further defence reforms, but it too can expect an invitation at Prague.
      MACEDONIA, a country of two million which nearly collapsed last year amid ethnic conflict, is not seen as democratically stable enough to join NATO yet. It has an active armed force of 12,300 and spent 2.2 percent of GDP on defence in 2001.
      ROMANIA has a population of some 22.5 million, an active armed force of 99,200 and defence spending equivalent to 2.5 percent of GDP. Its geostrategic position and contributions to the U.S. "war on terrorism" have brightened its NATO chances despite corruption and sluggish economic and defence reforms.
      SLOVAKIA, with a population of about 5.4 million, has an active armed force of 26,200 and spent two percent of its GDP on defence in 2001. Its entry to NATO is now virtually certain following the election victory in September by rightist pro-European parties, which sidelined autocratic ex-Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar. The European Commission has urged Slovakia to pursue its anti-fraud drive, fight money laundering and continue to fight discrimination against its Roma minority.
      SLOVENIA, with a population of two million, has an active armed force of 9,000 and defence spending of 1.5 percent of GDP. Its accession to NATO has never been in doubt despite concerns about the pace of economic and judicial reforms.
      DEFENCE DATA SOURCE: The International Institute for Strategic Studies' "The Military Balance 2002-2003."

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) — The European Union announced Monday it had reached agreement with Russia on the sensitive issue of access to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad once it becomes locked inside the EU after enlargement in 2004.
      "I am happy to announce that we have reached an agreement on the question of transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
      He said the EU would issue special documents from next July to enable easy transit through Lithuania to and from Kaliningrad and promised flexibility during an interim period.
      Putin told reporters the agreement removed some of Russia's key worries about the EU's eastward enlargement, which will encompass the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
      Rasmussen said he believed the deal was a fair balance of both sides' interests. Moscow had been determined to avoid its citizens being forced to apply for visas to travel from one part of Russian territory to another.

      Monday, Nov. 18th — the 322nd day of 2002. There are 43 days left in the year.
      Highlights in history on this date: [excerpted]
      1830 — National Congress in Belgium decrees independence.
      1903 — United States and Panama sign treaty granting United States rights to build the Panama Canal.
      1928 — Mickey Mouse makes his debut in the United States, in the first successful sound-synchronized cartoon, Steamboat Willie.
      1976 — Spain's parliament approves a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
      1997 — A 75-year old woman in Riga, Latvia, becomes the first to receive compensation from Switzerland for her suffering during World War II. She received $400.
      ...
      Latvia still has a long way to go, at least in the American press. Nowhere is it mentioned that November 18th, 1918 was/is Latvia's first and legitimate independence day. (Reuter's calendar usually gets it right.)