Laima Sweets Company has suspended the production of chocolates. According to the official explanation, production has been stopped due to technical reasons 's but unofficial sources claim the company's storage facilities are filled with costly products that are no longer in such high demand. The company is still working and only the production of chocolates has been temporarily stopped, Laima Public Relations Consultant Ingars Rudzitis said. "Production is being organized depending on demand. That the storage facilities are full is nothing unique. This is how it should be to make sure that stores do not run out of our products," he said. Laima belongs to NP Confectionary AB group and is 97 percent owned by the Icelandic controled Nordic Partners, while Juris Jonaitis holds the remaining 3 percent.
A draft of the Latvia 's U.S. agreement on lifting the visa requirement for travelers from Latvia might be ready by the end of May, a representative of the Latvian Foreign Ministry said. "I assume that the content of the agreement might be known by the end of May, including its strong and the weak aspects, whether there are any unsolved complicated issues or technical corrections," said Foreign Ministry State Secretary Normunds Penke. Negotiations with American officials are due to be held in late April and early May, the state secretary added. On March 12, Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff signed a memorandum of understanding to ease the closure of the agreement on visa freedom.
The anti corruption bureau announced that it will be expanding staff due to the organizations heavy workload. Bureau head Aleksejs Loskutovs told the Baltic News Service that investigators and other employees are struggling to cope with their numerous duties, most of which involve investigating possible conflicts of interests. "It will take several years of work to ensure that as soon as people become officials they realize that they are subjected to special rules and special restrictions," he said. There are already 10 vacancies at the organization, and Loskutovs said it is becoming increasingly difficult to find people qualified enough to receive access to classified information. A total of about 150 employees currently work at the anti-corruption bureau.
Parliament's national security committee has endorsed the reappointment of Janis Kazocins as the head of Latvia's chief intelligence gathering unit, the Constitution Protection Bureau. The committee also issued recommendations on what the country's top spy had done well and what areas needed improvement. Parliament has yet to vote on Kazocins' re-appointment to the position. Kazocins, 57, was born in the U.K. and attended the Sandhurst Military Academy officer's training school. He later earned a degree in philosophy from the University of Nottingham. He retired from the British military in 2002 and returned to Latvia and one year later was appointed as the head of the Constitution Protection Bureau. His appointment to the position expires in May.
