- PARLIAMENT PROBE
Latvia’s Parliament voted Sept. 30 to form a special commission to investigate charges by the LNT television station that government officials are involved in a child pornography and prostitution ring.
- BUTINGE BLAMELESS
Experts have concluded that oil that recently washed onto Latvia’s west coast could not have come from Lithuania’s Butinge terminal.
- NO NEWS
The Russian television company NTV will shut down its Baltic bureau from Dec. 1 because information about the region has become less topical, NTV Director Vladislav Andreyev said.
- ROAD DEATHS
Three teenage hitchhikers were killed Oct. 1 in Latvia’s Valmiera district when the car they were traveling in collided with a bus.
- SUSPECT FATHER
The prosecutor’s office in Sakiai, southern Lithuania, has launched a criminal investigation into the murder of two infant girls.
- FASTER CROSSING
Latvian Interior Minister Mareks Seglins believes problems in crossing the Latvian-Lithuanian border should be removed by next summer.
- ROUGH SEAS
Estonian cargo ships have been on European blacklists for every year since 1992 except one because many of them fail to meet safety standards, the Eesti Ekspress weekly reported.
- NEW BOSS
The Riga City Council approved the city’s Zemgale District criminal police chief Maris Liepins as Riga’s new municipal police chief.
- DRUGS IN DENMARK
A Danish court sentenced seven sailors from a Lithuanian ship to jail terms of 18 to 21 months for smuggling narcotics into Denmark.
- Upcoming events on the financial market
August 15 Riga. Privatization Agency to start Riga railroad Carrier plant’s public (voucher) offering.
- Upcoming events on the financial markets
June 12 Tallinn. The prime ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia meet. Riga.
- Lithuanian statistics review
Age structure: In 1995 Lithuanian inhabitants’ age structure was the following: 56.8 percent of the population was of working age (16-59 for men and 16-54 for women), 20 percent were pensioners and 23.2 percent children and teenagers under 15.