Latvija in brief - 2004-04-08

  • 2004-04-08
A team of Latvian specialists will travel to Egypt to train local scientists and archeologists in the use of three dimensional scanners and assist in the creation of a scientific center that would use the hi tech equipment.

The group has previously worked in Egypt's Karnak Temple. Plans for an expedition to Iraq are also in the works, where the group's leader, the Frenchman Bruno Deslandes, wants to scan ziggurats in Ur.

Headquarters for the Defense of Russian Schools, or Shtab, an organization that opposes Latvia's coming education reform, has promised a protest of 50,000 schoolchildren in the near future. Shtab has been one of the fiercest opponents of the planned educational reform, which will begin this September, when 60 percent of classes must be conducted in Latvian starting in the 10th grade.

Prime Minister Indulis Emsis has asked Economy Minister Juris Lujans to examine the government's settlement with TeliaSonera on the state telephone company Lattelekom. The settlement was agreed upon shortly before Einars Repse, the previous prime minister, left office. Emsis has said he would like to make the agreement public despite warnings that such a move could lead to international litigation.

The Health Ministry has asked the Belarusian pharmaceutical company Belmedpreparati to cover expenses incurred in treating Latvians who became ill after taking Belarus-made Ascophen-P painkillers. Belmedpreparati painkillers allegedly led to the hospitalization of 24 people last month. The subsequent health care expenditures cost the Latvian state over 10,500 lats (16,000 euros). A study is being carried out to determine the exact composition of the pills.

Former Prime Minister Einars Repse put a series of his paintings on exhibit in the southwestern city of Liepaja under the title "Unfinished Studies" at the modern art gallery K Maksla. Repse will share the gallery with another artist, Aija Zarina.