Lat (Chat) Mailer for Sunday, April
9th File:
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It looked like spring was on the
way, but they're now expecting 4-5 inches of snow in Central Park in New York!
Peters' mother is heading for Latvia today, it's probably going to be a long
wait at the airport today. At least it will seem balmy in Riga by
comparison!
This week's link is to chatty Latvians
elsewhere (not on AOL(tm)).
IN ACCORDANCE WITH AOL'S MAIL POLICY and
good manners, please let Silvija (Silvija) know if you wish to be
deleted from our mailing list. Past mailers are archived at
latvians.com. Your comments and suggestions
are always welcome.
Latvian Link
We've asked a question or two here as well, including
tracking down childhood friends now in Riga. Most of you probably know of it
already, but just in case... it's the DEKSOFT "LatBits" discussion forum:
RIGA (Reuters) — Latvian
Prime Minister Andris Skele said Tuesday that an independent investigation has
cleared him and other high ranking officials of allegations of involvement in a
pedophile ring. Last October parliament set up a
commission to examine the details of a year-long probe conducted by the
prosecutor's office into the suspected ring that officials have said could
involve as many as 600 people. Opposition deputy
Janis Adamsons, who heads the commission, then stunned parliament in February
when he told the chamber that Skele, Justice Minister Valdis Birkavs and State
Revenue Service head Andrejs Sonciks could be implicated in the
scandal. All three denied any
involvement. "The Constitution Protection Bureau has
checked these allegations and found them groundless," Skele told journalists
before heading into a cabinet meeting. Constitution
Protection Bureau Deputy Chief Uldis Dzenitis told Reuters the bureau would not
provide any information on the findings, which it handed to Skele as a member
of the National Security Council. "The premier has
received a clear and strong conclusion from the Constitution Protection Bureau
that no publicly known state official has been implicated in the scandal," the
Prime Minister's spokesman Jurgis Liepnieks told
Reuters. "This conclusion refers to both those named
earlier, (including Skele) as implicated in a pedophile ring," Liepnieks
added. Adamsons dismissed the conclusion as hasty
and promised that an expected commission report will include both the named
officials and add new names. No date for the final report has been
set. Analysts have said the allegations appeared to
be a case of party politics taken to extremes by Adamson, a long-time political
enemy of Skele. Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters)
— By Emma Ducasse — British scientists said on Tuesday they
had identified a new species that fills a crucial gap in the evolutionary
transition from fish to land animals about 370 million years
ago. Fossils of the creature were found embedded in
rocks excavated from Latvia and Estonia in Eastern
Europe. They consist of two small pieces of lower
jaw, showing a bone arrangement half-way between those of fish and prehistoric
four-legged land animals known as tetrapods. The
arrangement of the jaw changes greatly at the fish-tetrapod
transition. "This fossil shows just about a perfect
intermediate condition between fish and amphibian," Dr Per Ahlberg, of London's
Natural History Museum, told a press
conference. "We've had fossils with very advanced
fishes. We've had fossils with very primitive land animals called tetrapods.
But there had been a gap in the middle until now. This is where the new fossil
fits in." Ahlberg said this evolutionary route gives
us a better understanding of where we have come from and also who we
are. The unnamed creatures had a crocodile-like
body, long head, eyes close together on top of its head and a tail fin at the
rear. Most of the advanced fishes and the most primitive amphibians have those
characteristics, Ahlberg said. All amphibians,
reptiles, birds, mammals and humans are ultimately descended from one small
group of fishes that left the water about 365 million years ago, according to
Ahlberg. But until recently, the evolutionary
transition from fish to tetrapod was poorly understood by
scientists. Ahlberg also believes it may be possible
to find complete skeletons, which could show how tetrapod features like limbs
originated. "It's going to be extremely important in
terms of explaining the most dramatic step in the actual physical
transformation, the emblem that goes from fish to land animal, turning your
fins into limbs," he added. The announcement was
made on the first day of Nature's Treasurehouses? a wide ranging four day
conference on the future role of natural history museums at the Natural History
Museum. Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
MOSCOW (Reuters) —
Russia's lower house of parliament rejected a bill to slap economic sanctions
on Latvia Wednesday, but issued a statement criticizing the Baltic state for
discriminating against its Russian-speaking
minority. Latvia welcomed the rejection of the
sanctions bill by the State Duma, which would have frozen trade ties between
the two ex-Soviet states, but foresaw more trouble ahead in
relations. The sanctions bill was sent back to
committees to be reworked, but Russian parliamentarians said any new law was
likely to be a far softer document than the one
rejected. Just over a third of Latvia's 2.5
million-strong population is Russian-speaking, though not necessarily
ethnically Russian. In the statement adopted later
by the Duma, members harshly criticized Latvia's "Russophobia" and
"apartheid." "The Duma confirms its position that
the future of Latvian-Russian relations, including economic ties, will depend
to a great degree on guarantees for the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens
and fellow countrymen," said the statement. The
document urged President-elect Vladimir Putin to order the Foreign Ministry to
appeal to international bodies such as the United Nations over the alleged
rights violations. Russia and Latvia have engaged in
fierce rhetorical battles over the Baltic state's treatment of its Russian
speakers since the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991. Moscow has complained about citizenship and
language laws which it says are discriminatory. Latvia says its laws are fair
and necessary to restore Latvian culture after 50 years of forced membership of
the Soviet Union. If passed, the sanctions bill
would have banned companies working with each other, stopped the export of oil
through Latvian ports, one of the Baltic state's main foreign currency earners,
and prevented Latvian firms setting up in Russia.
In the Latvian capital Riga, Prime Minister Andris Skele cautiously welcomed
the rejection of the sanctions bill. "We welcome the
fact that this question was not rushed to be approved," Skele told
journalists. "Since the question is still on the
agenda and has not been completely discarded, we have a reason to think that
for some time this question will be kept
simmering." From being Latvia's largest trade
partner after the collapse of communism, links with Russia have fallen off.
Russian imports and exports in 1999 still accounted for around $415 million out
of Latvia's total trade turnover of approximately $4.5
billion. Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
RIGA, April 6 (Reuters)
— Firing pushes Latvian govt to brink of collapse — By
Anastasia Styopina — Latvia's coalition government teetered on the
brink of collapse on Thursday after a dispute over the head of the
privatisation agency erupted into the firing of a key
minister. Prime Minister Andris Skele fired
Economics Minister Vladimirs Makarovs after the minister voided the signing
rights of privatisation agency chief Janis Naglis on Wednesday, effectively
stripping him of the power to run the
agency. Makarovs' dismissal broke open a
long-brewing rift in the coalition government, which would be reduced to
minority status with only 45 seats in the 100-seat parliament without his For
Fatherland and Freedom party's 16 seats. The
opposition Social Democrats deepened the crisis by calling an April 13 vote of
no confidence in Skele, Finance Minister Edmunds Krastins and Education
Minister Maris Vitols, accusing the trio of a "weak
performance." Analysts said Makarovs' removal could
bring about the formation of a new cabinet without Skele, but they did not
expect early elections. "This is definitely an
internal crisis of the government. We will see within a couple of weeks whether
this government will stand or fall," Andrejs Pantelejevs, chairman of Latvia's
Way, a member of the three-party ruling coalition, told
journalists. Skele said in an interview on Latvian
radio that it was too early to speculate on whether he would be forced from
office. Latvia's Way has 21 seats in parliament.
Skele's Peoples's Party has 25 seats. The Social Democrats, who have 14, said
they hoped some coalition MPs would vote with the opposition to provide the
simple majority that would topple the government. SPEED OVER PRICE OF SELLOFFS DEEPENS
RIFT Skele, who has twice lost his position over
complaints about his abrasive style, said he fired Makarovs because stripping
Naglis of his powers had undermined earlier cabinet
decisions. Naglis favoured the speedy privatisation
of firms still in state hands and Makarovs has complained that the agency has
needlessly sacrificed price for speed. Makarovs and
Naglis, a member of Latvia's Way, have sparred for months over the pace and
method of privatising several major firms, including electrical utility
Latvenergo and Latvian Shipping, an ocean cargo
firm. Makarovs tried to replace Naglis in March but
was rebuffed by the cabinet. Fatherland and Freedom
said it did not want to quit the government, but a showdown appeared inevitable
after the party's chairman, Maris Grindblats, told journalists that it
supported Makarovs and would re-nominate him if given the
chance. "If we were to nominate another minister
(for the post), it would be Makarovs again. We support him and see no reason
for him to step down," Grindblats said after a party
meeting. Skele's coalition government took power
last July after the government of Vilis Krishtopans was brought down in a
dispute over fiscal policy. General elections are not scheduled until the end
of 2002. Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
RIGA, April 6 (Itar-Tass)
— The Latvian parliament refused on Thursday to grant the country's
non-citizens the right to elect local
authorities. Parliament blocked an amendment to the
electoral law proposed by the leftist opposition, turning a deaf ear to the
opposition's assumption that all taxpayers should have their say in the
election of community officials in charge of funds
distribution. As few as 19 MPs voted in favour of
the amendment. So it dismissed by 63 votes against, with 6
abstentions. The decision maintained the status quo,
as some 600,000 Russian speaking people out of the whole 2.5-million Latvian
population will be denied, as ever, the right to
vote. The situation provoked criticism from the High
Commissioner of the Council of the Baltic States Ole Yespersen who recommended
Latvia change the position. However, most MPs
believe non-citizens should "first integrate into Latvia's culture and society,
learn the official language and prove their loyalty to the country," an
unidentified deputy said. Leftists argued the
citizenship has nothing to do with the right to elect and be elected. They
invoked examples of some Western countries and neighboring Estonia. However,
their reasons seemed to have been lost on the majority in
parliament. kam/ser (c) 1996-2000
ITAR-TASS.
RIGA, April 7 (Reuters)
— Latvia's Way, a leading member of Prime Minister Andris Skele's
government, said on Friday the current three-party centrist coalition ruling
Latvia should stay together but raised doubt over the premier's
future. Skele's cabinet came close to collapse on
Thursday after a dispute over the head of the privatisation agency erupted into
the firing of the economics minister, a member of junior coalition party For
Fatherland and Freedom. The dismissal of minister
Vladimir Makarovs opened a long-brewing rift in the coalition government, which
would be reduced to minority status with only 46 seats in the 100-seat
parliament without the 16 of Makarovs' For Fatherland and Freedom
party. "It would be probably the best in terms of
logic to keep this (majority) coalition of the three parties — People's
Party, Latvia's Way and Fatherland — and consider also taking the
(centrist) New Party on board," Andrejs Pantelejevs, head of Latvia's Way, said
in a live radio interview. Latvia's Way has 21 seats
in parliament. Skele's People's Party has 25 seats. The New Party, not
currently in the government, has eight seats. All
three coalition parties have said they will hold consultations over the
weekend, with Latvia's Way holding a party conference to discuss the situation
on Saturday. Pantelejevs added that the rejuvenated
coalition should cobble together a fundamental outline for privatisation and
other economic issues. "We also have to discuss a
personality reshuffle," he said, adding that Latvia's Way was ready to propose
a candidate for the premier's post, provided all three parties agreed a new
leader was needed. Fatherland has strongly hinted
it would prefer to remain in the coalition without the controversial Skele at
the helm, but it is unclear whether this would be acceptable to the People's
Party, which has appeared strongly behind the
PM. Skele left Latvia early on Friday for a
three-day private holiday. Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
Picture Album
Despite the weather today, our thoughts still turn to
spring and that most popular of Latvian past-times, that is, fishing! Of
course, every fisherman knows "all the best spots." I've been told that fishing
by bridges seems to work pretty well, which is what these folks are doing on
the Lielupe flowing through Jelgava.
Gallery
