Latvija in brief - 2011-02-17

Latvia’s oldest resident, Ksenija Mitusova of Daugavpils region’s Naujene County (southeastern Latvia), celebrated her 112th birthday on Feb. 11, reports LETA. Mitusova was born during the reign of Nicholas II, into a family of 11 children. The woman has made it through several revolutions and wars, has three sons, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Her husband died 32 years ago. She is still very active for her age. When speaking about the recipe for a long life, Mitusova says it is heredity, as her father and grandfather lived to be over 100. She also has never used medicine, maybe only sugar when her head hurts, as well as has worked hard in her life and does not use alcohol.

The current government plans to continue work up until the next Saeima elections, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said at a press conference marking his government’s first 100 days in office, reports LETA. Dombrovskis said that the government’s further tasks include battling the shadow economy and pursuing a hard-line fiscal policy, as well as reducing unemployment, ensuring a sustainable social budget, good management of state companies and improving the government’s overall performance. The government also plans active functional audits in order to reduce the administrative tax burden on businesses and residents, and accelerate public administration reforms. Dombrovskis stressed that 2010 had been a year of economic stabilization and exit from the crisis.

The criminal case against Ilmars Poikans, dubbed cyber vigilante ‘Neo,’ could be handed over to the prosecutor’s office in two months, reported Latvian State Television broadcast ‘de facto’ on Feb. 13. The criminal case against Neo deals with the data leak from the State Revenue Service’s EDS database. No taxpayers have claimed compensation for the data leak. Poikans, who was detained in May and had his apartment searched by the police, was later released. The fact that the investigation is taking so long proves that the police cannot find what they are looking for, believes Poikans, noting that he had not hacked anything in obtaining the disputed data - all the data was actually available to the public. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to ten years in prison.