Sveiki, all!

Seemingly as always, we're a bit late again (one of us had a bad cold, the other was out of town...). We may miss next week's mailer because we're in the middle of a major home reorganization, so bear with us. In the meantime, Silvija's Email will still be working... Silvija

In the news wire headlines, since last time:

• Latvia Looks for Off-Shore Exploration Interest
• Ringleader of "Perkonkrusts" organization put on trial
• TABLE-Third International Mathematics and Science Study
• European Union Chronology (we all head about it, but when did it start?)
• Baltic Assembly session discuss NATO integration
• WTO approves accession of Lithuania (joining Latvia and Estonia)

No links this week, but we do have a picture! Folks move quickly in the cold winter evening!

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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.

Latvia Looks for Off-Shore Exploration Interest

COMTEX Newswire Monday, December 04, 2000 6:00:00 PM
Copyright 2000 Phillips Publishing, Inc.

    December 4 (HART'S EUROPEAN OFFSHORE PETROLEUM NEWSLETTER, Vol. 25, No. via Comtex) — Latvia's government has announced plans for its first offshore licensing round which is to be held next year.
    At the Petex conference and exhibition in London this week the government indicated that the round will open in April next year, and will be managed by the Minister of the Economy, following a decision by the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers on 7 June this year.
    Baltic Sea territory in an L-shaped block about 10km off the coastal town of Liepaja is to be offered for exploration and production. Water depths here are fairly shallow — around 200m — and an indicative map suggests at least six identifiable structures.
    Latvia has been preparing for the licensing round since it won independence from Russia in 1991 and "...Legislation concerning offshore exploration and production of hydrocarbons is in place, and the terms made favourable for investors," the government says in an official announcement of the round.
    Latvia's Geological Survey has data from one exploration well drilled in 1983 plus 4,000sq km of 2D data shot during the Soviet era to offer to companies interested in taking part in its first offshore round.
    Information from that single well, which was drilled on the largest prospect, E6, produced minor oil flows, of the order of "several cubic metres per day," after penetrating a fairly shallow reservoir.
    A total of seven blocks are to be offered in the new round, comprising a total of 2,800sq km, and each block will be of equal size, of around 380sq km. This will include the E6 structure and another designated E5, which are deemed to be the most significant in the region.
    The water depth in the acreage on offer is about 30m to 100m. From the geological information available, the Latvian authority says the main reservoirs are of Cambrian sandstone, at a subsurface depth of between 1,500 and 2,000m.
    The Latvian government, which is working with PGS, is keen to see international oil company expertise brought to bear on its resources. There are no plans for the acquisition of further data at this stage, although consideration is being given to re-processing the existing data, it is understood.
    Applications for acreage in the round will close next September — six months from the data of the announcement, a source at the Latvian Geological Survey said.

Ringleader of Latvian pro-fascist organization put on trial

COMTEX Newswire Tuesday, December 05, 2000 7:13:00 AM
(c)2000 ITAR-TASS

    RIGA, December 5 (Itar-Tass) — The Riga city court has begun hearings on Tuesday into crimes committed by leader of the pro-fascist organization "Perconcrusts" (thunder cross) Yuris Reches.
    "Perconcrusts" has been accused of vandalising a war monument built to commemorate Latvia's liberation from Nazi occupants, assaults on people, attempts to flare up ethic strife and illicit explosives production.
    Reches had been in hiding in the woods for two years until he was finally found and detained earlier in May.
    Some of his followers had been already under arrest when Reches was put in custody, and they have blamed their "boss" for all the crimes Perconcrusts was responsible for. Perkoncrusts faces a damages suit worth 21,000 in the national currency (around 34,000 dollars) for vandalizing the war memorial.
    Although the court has ruled that all the indictment charges against the gang have been proved, three out of nine defendants put on trial for vandalism and other crimes have been freed in a courtroom because they have already served a prison term while being kept at a pre-trial detention center. Four of the gang have been given suspended prison sentences and two have been sentenced to short terms in prison.
    However, Riga Prosecutor Georg Skudra said that Reches would be given a tougher punishment than the rest of his fellow "Perkonscrusts" members.

TABLE-Third International Mathematics and Science Study

Reuters Financial Report Tuesday, December 05, 2000 6:22:00 PM
Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.

    WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) — U.S. eighth graders scored right in the middle of 38 nations that took part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R), released on Tuesday.
    The math and science study scored students aged 12 to 14 on their abilities in mathematics, algebra, geometry, biology, physics and other subjects.
    Here are the rankings by nation, although experts who wrote the TIMSS-R study warn that for any such absolute ranking to be accurate, every single student in each country would have to have been tested.

    MATHEMATICS NATION AVERAGE SCORE
    (These nations scored significantly higher than the U.S. average)
    Singapore 604
    Korea (South) 587
    Taiwan 585
    Hong Kong 582
    Japan 579
    Belgium-Flemish 558
    Netherlands 540
    Slovak Republic 534
    Hungary 532
    Canada 531
    Slovenia 530
    Russian Federation 526
    Australia 525
    Finland 520
    — — — — — — — — — —
    (These nations scored close to the U.S. average)
    Czech Republic 520
    Malaysia 519
    Bulgaria 511
    Latvia 505
    United States 502
    England 496
    New Zealand 491
    — — — — — — — — — —
    (These nations scored significantly lower than the U.S. average)
    Lithuania 482
    Italy 479
    Cyprus 476
    Romania 472
    Moldova 469
    Thailand 467
    Israel 466
    Tunisia 448
    Macedonia 447
    Turkey 429
    Jordan 428
    Iran 422
    Indonesia 403
    Chile 392
    Philippines 345
    Morocco 337
    South Africa 275
    International average 487

    SCIENCE NATION AVERAGE SCORE
    (These nations scored significantly higher than the U.S. average)
    Taiwan 569
    Singapore 568
    Hungary 552
    Japan 550
    South Korea 549
    Netherlands 545
    Australia 540
    Czech Republic 539
    England 538
    Finland 535
    Slovak Republic 535
    Belgium-Flemish 535
    Slovenia 533
    Canada 533
    — — — — — — —
    (These nations scored close to the U.S. average)
    Hong Kong 530
    Russian Federation 529
    Bulgaria 518
    United States 515
    New Zealand 510
    Latvia 503
    — — — — — — — —
    (These nations scored significantly lower than the U.S. average)
    Italy 493
    Malaysia 492
    Lithuania 488
    Thailand 482
    Romania 472
    Israel 468
    Cyprus 460
    Moldova 459
    Macedonia 458
    Jordan 450
    Iran 448
    Indonesia 435
    Turkey 433
    Tunisia 430
    Chile 420
    Philippines 345
    Morocco 323
    South Africa 243
    International average 488

EU — Chronology

AP US & World Thursday, December 07, 2000 12:39:00 AM
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
By The Associated Press

    Key dates in the history of the European Union:
    1951 — Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg form the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
    1957 — ECSC becomes the European Economic Community.
    1962 — EEC unveils its Common Agricultural Policy guaranteeing farmers a minimum income.
    1968 — EEC becomes a customs union.
    1973 — Denmark, Britain, Ireland join, expanding EEC to nine members.
    1979 — EEC launches European Monetary System to stabilize exchange rate fluctuations among national currencies.
    1981 — Greece becomes the 10th EEC member.
    1986 — Spain and Portugal make it 12.
    1992 — EEC becomes European Union, adding a common foreign and security policy to its activities and taking a first step to a single currency.
    1993 — EU becomes a single market for goods and services.
    1995 — Austria, Sweden, Finland raise EU membership to 15.
    1998 — EU opens membership talks with Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.
    1999 — Talks with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania open. Turkey is also named a candidate, but membership talks with Ankara do not immediately begin.
    1999 — EU launches the euro. National currencies remain in circulation until 2002 but are given a fixed exchange rate with the euro.

Baltic Assembly session discuss NATO integration

COMTEX Newswire Friday, December 08, 2000 8:29:00 AM
(c)2000 ITAR-TASS

    VILNIUS, December 8 (Itar-Tass) — Prospects of further cooperation of the three Baltic republics and ways of their integration in the European Union (EU) and NATO are being discussed at the 17th session of the Baltic Assembly which opened here on Friday. This consultative interparliamentary organisation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is marking its 10th jubilee since foundation.
    Speaker of Lithuania's Sejm Arturas Paulauskas in his welcoming address to the participants urged the Baltic countries not to compete in a NATO or EU member-championship, but embark upon cooperation. "What is good for one of them is good for them all," he stressed. According to him, if one of the countries is named a real candidate to NATO membership, this "will bring obvious benefit to the two remaining Baltic states."
    Parliamentary delegations of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the Northern Council, and Poland are attending the session. Friday is devoted to the Assembly's jubilee, and on Saturday, the participants will discuss cooperation prospects and pass resolutions of recommendatory nature.

WTO approves accession of Lithuania

COMTEX Newswire Friday, December 08, 2000 4:57:00 PM
(c)2000 ITAR-TASS

    GENEVA, December 9 (Itar-Tass) — The General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the accession of Lithuania to the organization on Thursday and the Baltic state will become its 141st member.
    Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis signed the original copy of the terms of accession subject to ratification. The decision will automatically come into force 30 days after Lithuania informs the WTO about the ratification. Lithuania has been negotiating the accession since 1994.
    WTO Director General Mike Moore said "Lithuania now has a stable and predictable framework for economic engagement with other nations which will boost trade, growth and prosperity. For the WTO it means another big step in our goal of becoming a truly world organization".
    Lithuania completes the list of three Baltic States to become members of the WTO. Latvia and Estonia joined it in 1999. Another two former Soviet republics, Georgia and Kirghizia, have also joined the WTO. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakstan, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation are negotiating the accession.
    Overall, 28 governments are currently negotiating to join the WTO. nec/

A shadowy figure scurries across the square in front of St. Peter's on a cold Riga evening.