A man crawled up the cables supporting Riga's Vansu Bridge on April 15, stopping traffic on the bridge for a short while. The man had to be saved by rescue services using a hoisting crane (also known as a cherry picker). The man was taken to the precinct and charged with disorderly conduct. He was later taken to a clinic for a psychiatric examination. Police report that the man was intoxicated. Similar incidents of people climbing the bridge's cables occurred three times last year.
A Portuguese national was sentenced to six years in jail on April 14 for sexually abusing minors. The man was also ordered to pay a total of 19,000 lats to the families of the victims for moral damages and psychological rehabilitation costs. The man reportedly locked one of the children in a closet and tied another to a bed. One girl was forced to watch the man abuse her brother. The sex offender was wanted in Austria on theft and burglary charges, and had been repeatedly held in Portugal for drug-related offences.
In an April 16 telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks asked for the support of the United States in Latvia's candidacy to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Pabriks emphasized the country's ability to meet the criteria required to join the organization and assured Rice of Latvia's readiness to contribute to it. The ruling People's Party has made membership in OECD one of its foreign economic policy priorities. Joining the organization would facilitate putting Latvia's dialogue with more developed countries, including the US, Canada, and Japan, on more even ground.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga has recorded a song for a new folk music CD coming out in early June. The president will be featured singing the traditional folk song "Saulite mana krusta mate" ("The sun 's my godmother") with folk musicians Ruta and Valdis Muktupavels. This is the first CD that the president has recorded, but the record label thinks that she does "quite well." Before becoming president, Vike-Freiberga was a scholar of traditional Latvian folk songs and poetry, known as "dainas."
Mamerts Vaivads, council chairman of Ventspils Nafta and defendant in an ongoing corruption case, is undergoing medical treatment in Germany. Vaivads has been charged in connection with the same crimes as Ventspils mayor Arvids Lembergs, who was detained on March 14. Both men have been accused of bribery, money laundering and providing false information. Prosecutor Krisjanis Rudzitis voiced the opinion that Vaivads was deliberately avoiding the investigation and might not return to Latvia voluntarily, but the court disagreed and refused to order Vaivads' detention. The court's decision cannot be appealed.
