Riga - Latvian police officers demonstrated against low pay and poor working conditions in the capital Riga on Saturday, staging a picket in front of government offices.

The demonstration occurred one day after Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis announced a year-long pay freeze for public sector employees as part of an austerity package designed to cut government spending.

A week ago, health workers staged a similar protest amid rising dissatisfaction with wages that are failing to keep pace with inflation, against the background of a general economic downturn in Latvia.

Riga- The long-term prospects for the economies of the three Baltic states were called into question Friday when London-based ratings agency Fitch downgraded its opinions on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Fitch revised downward its foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) and its Country Ceilings for all three countries by one notch, while its overall Outlooks remain "Negative" for each country.

Riga  - Latvia's central bank sought Thursday to pump liquidity into the nation's banking system and urged the government to balance its budget in 2009.

The announcement by the bank's governor, Ilmars Rimsevics, came as the once-booming Baltic economies slump and credit remains tight worldwide in the fallout from the mortgage crisis in the United States.

The central bank left key interest rates unchanged, but cut the mandatory reserve requirement to 5 per cent of liabilities for maturities of over two years, which is expected to add 190 million lats (376 million dollars) to Latvia's banking system.

Slowing growth pushed the government's budget for 2008 to a deficit of 2 per cent of the gross domestic product.

Riga  - The murder of a young girl has sparked a debate over the re-introduction of the death penalty in Latvia.

Eleven-year old Daina was found with her throat cut in bed in the town of Bauska.

Her father, Ivars Grantins, confessed to the killing after emerging from hiding three days after the August 27 attack.

"I think people like that have no place in society," Justice Minister Gaidis Berzins told Latvian national radio this week.

"This view might be unpopular, but situations like this require renewed debate on the suitability of not having capital punishment," he said.

Riga  - Latvia's former president Vaira Vike-Freiberga on Monday
expressed frustration over the perceived delay in the European Union's
response to the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

"I'm
surprised and frustrated that the European Union will gather on
Wednesday for an extraordinary summit of foreign ministers, and that
the European Union was unable to come up with a united, coordinated,
and condemning reaction as we have heard from the presidents of the
three Baltic States and Poland," Vike-Freiberga told diena. lv news
portal.

Riga - It was through songs that Latvia won its