Word: latvians
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...court, but the U.K. and the Netherlands refused." The country of Latvia, which suffered its own monumental economic collapse last year, says that Iceland is being ganged up on because of its size and relative unimportance. "Is this reaction due to the fact that Iceland is a small country?" Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins asked on Jan. 7. "It is difficult to imagine that similar comments would be heard if, for example, such a step had been taken by the French President." Iceland has also garnered the support of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a British antipoverty organization. "Iceland's President...
...many, the behind-the-scenes negotiations run counter to the Lisbon Treaty, which is meant to make the E.U. a more efficient, transparent and democratic system. Former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, one of the few declared candidates for the presidency, said last week that the machinations over the top jobs could ultimately damage the new leaders' authority. "The E.U. should stop working like the former Soviet Union ... in darkness and behind closed doors," she said...
What's attractive to well-heeled fans and Latvian weight lifters, however, doesn't always help a host city or its residents. Critics of the bid say that while the Olympics might provide construction jobs and an influx of revenue, any boost would be short-lived. "To make a city prosperous, it's about brainpower, not block parties," says Tom Tresser, an organizer for the opposition group No Games Chicago. Though Mayor Richard Daley has promised that local taxpayers wouldn't pay a dime of the Games' estimated $4.8 billion cost, he's also signed an agreement with...
...Accounts differ on what really happened to “The Arctic Sea,” a ship with an Estonian, Latvian, and Russian crew that was nominally bound from Finland to Algeria with a cargo of harmless timber. Initial reports claimed masked men speaking accented English subdued, but did not harm, the crew; then the ship simply vanished. Russia has claimed, once the ship was found off West Africa, that there was no suspicious cargo on board besides the intended logs. Yet experts believe there was more to the ship’s hijacking than pirates seeking ransom...
...already issued emergency loans for Hungary and Ukraine. Last week the Latvian government was forced to resign after massive street protests triggered by government austerity measures. Latvia's GDP dropped 10.5% in January alone. There is talk of countries such as Germany having to bail out their smaller eastern neighbors. But rescue prospects are complicated. Western European governments are battling recession themselves and the debt they have taken on to finance domestic recovery packages may make them unable, or unwilling, to aid their Eastern European counterparts. (See pictures of printing money in Germany...