Latvija in brief - 2010-04-07

  • 2010-04-07

During the afternoon of March 31, a 15 year old adolescent broke through the ice and drowned in the Riga City canal. The fatal accident happened in the heart of the city center. The State Fire and Rescue Service’s press representative Inga Vetere reported that three youngsters were playing ball near the canal when the ball rolled on the still ice-covered canal. One of the boys decided to go after the ball but broke through the ice. His friends tried to rescue him. Although the Rescue team was called immediately, when they arrived at the scene, the youngster was under the surface and was not visible. Late in the evening, around 10 o’clock, divers found the body of the boy in the canal opposite Kronvalda boulevard.

The Finance Ministry’s talks with the former Parex bank owners regarding the possible declassification of the bank takeover agreement still continue, reports LETA. The Finance Ministry’s State Secretary Martins Bicevskis sent a letter to the former Parex shareholders Valerijs Kargins and Viktors Krasovickis on July 23 last year, suggesting that the Parex bank takeover agreement - still being kept hidden from the public - be made public. The Finance Ministry indicated that, therefore, objective information on the takeover of Parex bank would be made available to the public. The Parex takeover agreement stipulates that its contents are strictly confidential. The government took over the failing bank on Nov. 8, 2008.

On April 2 in the village of Kadaga (Riga District), two men attempted to dissemble a WWII military shell they had found in a forest. The shell exploded and killed one of the men; the other man was taken to hospital with serious injuries, reports LETA. State Police spokesman Aigars Berzins said that the incident happened when two men born 1957 and 1963, took the shell to a garage to dismantle it. On March 31, in the Kengarags neighborhood of Riga, an explosion took place at a scrap-metal collection point in which two people were injured. A company had brought scrap metal to the collection point, and while sorting through it, an object resembling an artillery shell was discovered. The scrap-metal collector refused to accept the object and tossed it to one side, resulting in an explosion. The shell only had a detonator, which exploded and produced shrapnel which injured the two.