RIGA — Shareholders of the joint-stock company Ventspils Nafta decided to pay more than 50 million lats (71 million euros) in dividends Thursday.
This would be the first dividend payment since 2003. The decision was taken at least partly because next year income from dividends would be taxed by 10 percent, or even with 15 percent.
The [...]

RIGA — The newly-established Tourist Police began patrolling streets of Riga this week.
At the moment only a handful are out on limited patrols, but soon there will be a ten-man strong force out there. Working together with ordinary municipal police, the Tourist Police will avert illegal actions against tourists and give out information from on [...]

RIGA — Latvian President Valdis Zatlers got a peculiar present for the Nov. 18 independence day when hackers attacked his office’s official website www.president.lv Wednesday morning.
Visitors of the site could read a note left by intruders saying “Greetings on the 91st anniversary, Mr. President, save the country! We might not last until the 92nd anniversary.” [...]

RIGA — Latvia may be considering the sale of state-owned energy company Latvenergo, although Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis denies this.
Latvenergo board chairman Kārlis Miķelsons and board member Aigars Meļko told the Diena newspaper Tuesday that 20 percent of the company’s shares could be put up for sale at the stock exchange to raise money for [...]

RIGA — Massive losses in Latvia’s banking sector are continuing to pile up despite a slackening gross domestic product decline.
Latvian bank operating losses in 2009 reached 637.5 million lats (€899 million) in October, according to data from the Latvian Central Bank.
During the same period in 2008 the banking sector earned a 220.5 million lats (€310 [...]

RIGA — Several Latvian political parties will be revamped and rebooted before the next parliamentary elections as the current ruling coalition partners diverge.
Three right-wing parties in Latvia’s parliament — Civic Union, New Era and the newly-formed Society for Different Politics — have agreed to come together under the name Unity for next year’s election. Prime [...]

RIGA — Transport ministry State Secretary Nils Freivalds left his post Tuesday, officially by his own free will but there’s allegations it’s connected with the recent reshuffle of Latvijas Pasts’ board of directors.
Freivalds returned to the ministry Monday after a vacation and handed in resignation the same day. It was accepted by the government Tuesday.
Freivalds [...]

RIGA — Latvia’s ruling coalition parties reached a preliminary agreement to introduce a progressive property tax and raise the flat personal income tax Monday.
Implementing a progressive income tax is still off the table, though, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said after Monday’s coalition party cooperation council meeting despite the International Monetary Fund’s criticism that the residential [...]

RIGA — Salons, where people would meet to read and discuss poetry and philosophy, were hip in Enlightenment-era France. They’re coming back in style in crisis-era Latvia.
Latvia needs some bright ideas to pull it out of the crisis, or at least to keep people’s minds off the glum weather. A bright idea most haven’t thought [...]

RIGA — The highly-anticipated “Live Riga” ad campaign will start this month, the Riga Tourism Development Bureau and its sponsors announced at a contentious press conference Monday.
While the bureau and organizers airBaltic CEO Bertolt Flick and Riga Vice Mayor Ainārs Šlesers were eager to tell journalists about the campaign’s goals, Flick castigated journalists that asked [...]