Off the wire

RUSSIA UNITED: Russia's lower house of parliament passed a resolution May 23 urging President Vladimir Putin to step up Moscow's opposition to NATO expansion. The State Duma passed the non-binding measure 230-2 with four abstentions. Its authors said they were responding to renewed contacts between Russia and the Alliance in recent months. Russia cut off relations with NATO in 1999 in response to NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia, a traditional ally. The resolution came as the Russian Navy announced it would participate in maneuvers under NATO's Partnership for Peace program. A Russian destroyer will participate in exercises in the Baltic Sea in early June along with more than 50 ships from the Baltic countries, the United States and Britain.

A SAFER COAST: Baltic states' environment ministers signed May 24 in the Lithuanian coastal resort of Juodkrante renewed bilateral and trilateral treaties on environment protection. Lithuanian and Latvian environment ministers Henrikas Zukauskas and Vladimirs Makarovs signed a renewed bilateral treaty on cooperation in the sphere of environment protection and exchange of information in emergency ecological situations. It was agreed to set up a Lithuanian-Latvian working group that would draft the general procedure of compensating for damage to the environment. Both countries are currently using different damage estimation systems, due to which Latvia asked for a larger sum in compensation for damage to the environment after the recent oil spillage in Butinge than that at which Lithuania estimated the damage.

HALF HUNGRY: For a week now 1,484 pre-sentence prisoners in Latvia have been refusing breakfast in protest at not being allowed to receive food parcels in prison. The symbolic hunger strike does not include any minors and is slightly smaller than a week earlier. A week ago 1,811 prisoners refused breakfast at the Riga central Brasa prison and instead ate food bought in the prison shop, so the prison administration does not really consider it to be a hunger strike. The prisoners claim that many of them are from the countryside and do not have enough money to buy food. Officials have reported that the ban on receiving parcels will not be lifted. They are hoping to fight drug trafficking in prisons. The ban has also been applied to those imprisoned prior to receiving their sentence.

NIDA CRASH: Circumstances surrounding the crash of a small private airplane May 27 in the Curonian Lagoon in Lithuania are still being investigated. Neither pilot nor passengers suffered major injuries from the accident. The small Sokota ST 10 plane fell from the sky early in the evening just after take-off from the airstrip in Nida on the Curonian Spit. All four members of the Kovalciuka family were on board. During the crash the pilot and passengers sustained no great injuries. They were taken to hospital suffering from shock. The plane crashed in a shallow area, about 1 meter deep. Pilot and passengers managed to free themselves before help arrived on the scene. A Lithuanian border patrol vessel tried to pull the plane wreckage from the sandbar where it was lodged, but failed to do so. The pilot reported a powerful gust blew the plane to the side as it flew above the runway and he lost control.

COACHES SACKED: The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation board on May 28 resolved to dismiss from office the Latvian national ice hockey team head coach Haralds Vasiljevs and his assistants Vjaceslavs Nazarovs and Aleksandrs Klinsovs. In the 2001 World Ice Hockey Championships in Germany the Latvian national team, although playing at nearly optimum composition, came only 13th among the 16 national teams. The Federation had aimed to get at least 10th place. The media has suggested that Vassily Tikhonov, a Russian ice hockey expert, could be one of the candidates to take over. In Soviet times Tikhonov was in charge of the Latvian team Riga Dinamo.

EASY RIDER: The Latvian police have filed a criminal case in response to a motorbike race accident in the district of Valmiera on May 26. The accident took place during the third race of the day involving 125 cc class bikes, when a 17-year-old rider span off the track injuring spectators. Some sustained minor injuries and four were hospitalized, one was put in intensive care after surgery. "After the race the rider put his bike back in his truck and drove off," reported the police. The owner of the Erini racetrack thought the accident an unfortunate coincidence. "Everything took place in a matter of seconds. The rider lost control after taking a ramp and fell into the safety zone where spectators were watching," he said. Spectators had gradually edged toward the track, breaking the safety line.

BARBER OF SIBERIA: The prosecutor in Utena, northeast Lithuania, has finished investigations and handed a criminal case to the court against former Soviet security agent Fyodor Syomin, who is charged with sending Lithuanian civilians to Siberia in the 1940s. The Utena regional prosecutor determined that the former Soviet official was responsible for deporting Lithuanian families to places where they often died of exposure and starvation or were summarily killed. Syomin was the director of a regional branch of the Interior Ministry of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. Syomin traveled to the houses of those about to be sent out of the country, told them to prepare themselves for exile, and escorted them under guard to the railway station, where he transferred custody to Soviet troops.

GENE AID: Estonia and Iceland are going to promote cooperation in the sphere of the study of human genes, it was agreed between Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar and Icelandic leaders in Iceland on May 25,. During Laar's meetings with the Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and Prime Minister David Oddson it was agreed that the two countries will begin joint gene project work with concrete programs of action. Laar said Estonia can take advantage of Iceland's experience in the study and mapping of human genes. Both Estonia and Iceland have launched gene pool projects, which are aimed at mapping the genes of their countries' residents, using them to develop science and to improve the people's health in the future.