Here are some of the more puzzling rules as Europeans settle for another winter holiday season overshadowed by the pandemic threat
Flanked by divided NATO allies, the US walks a tightrope over a potential third world war
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/ 20 February 2009
As Latvia’s economy shrinks, making fun of the state’s embattled leaders — with mocking T-shirts and penguin posters — has become quite popular.
Latvia lets loose every five years with a huge songfest that long powered its drive for freedom under decades of Moscow-led rule.
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/ 21 February 2008
The pet rabbit of Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, Leonardo da Vinci, has died, the Telegraf newspaper reported on Thursday. Nicknamed Lisis, the five-year-old bunny possibly died of stress caused by a recent relocation to the presidential residence, Zatlers told the TV 5 channel.
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/ 16 December 2007
Latvian authorities have given residents something to cheer about when they invited them to cut their own Christmas trees for free — only to be chased away by forest rangers. A Riga forestry agency said a state body had invited residents to cut their trees from forests located 50km or more outside the capital, but people had instead descended on protected areas.
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/ 12 December 2007
Optimists call it the end of the Iron Curtain. Pessimists fear a ”Fortress Europe” or a wave of illegal immigration from December 21, when passports will be checked at fewer European borders. From next March, the extended zone will also include airports in a total of 24 European countries, where more than 400-million people live.
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/ 29 November 2006
Nato pledged on Wednesday to stay the course to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan at a summit where nations offered guarded concessions to improve the mobility of allied forces battling Taliban insurgents. Alliance leaders also reversed policy on Serbia and Bosnia by offering them a first step towards Nato membership.
Visitors to the so-called Baltic Riviera will be impressed by the region’s long, white, sandy beaches and pine forest where hundreds of elaborately decorated old wooden houses nestle between the trees. In the past, this peninsula, located between the Baltic Sea and the River Lielupe, was called Riga Beach. Today, Jurmala is one of the most exclusive resorts anywhere on the Baltic coast.
A man who cut off his own penis in a drunken bet had his organ stitched back on Thursday by Latvian doctors, the first such operation in the country’s history, Latvian public television reported. The 30-year-old man made a bet with his friend for 1 000 lats ($1 800) that he would cut off his penis.
Latvian police have detained a thief on a lonely beach who walked up to young women stark naked, scared them and then stole their personal belongings, police said on Tuesday. ”Two girls complained that they had been robbed on a beach by a naked man,” said Guntis Skride, spokesperson of Riga municipal police.