The participants heard speeches from MEPs and a message of support from the Latvian President.

Karzai left the event and was taken back to his palace, where he was due to meet visiting Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.

Although not a candidate in the first ballot, she was drafted by the Saeima ( Latvian Parliament ) and was elected to the office of President of Latvia on 20 June.

Four biographies about President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga have been published ( in Latvian, English, French, Finnish, Italian, Russian and Spanish ), and a full length documentary film The Threefold Sun in 2008.

He was the President of the Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association ( LIKTA ) while his wife was President of Latvia.

" Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga said, " the world has lost a great Estonian, a great statesman and a true European.

The Council often hosts events with sitting heads of state and government, including Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, and Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.

Alberts Kviesis ( 22 December 1881, Tērvete parish – 9 August 1944, Riga ) was a Latvian politician and the third President of Latvia.

* Guntis Ulmanis, Latvian politician, former President of Latvia

The Livonian language and culture experienced a revival during the term of Latvian President Kārlis Ulmanis.

On August 23, 1987, the group organized a protest demonstration against the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which among numerous other historical events resulted in the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, during the administration of Latvian President and Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis.

The entry of additional candidates, including former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, into the race, combined with the military coup that took place only weeks before the poll, were likely causes of Surakiart's loss of support.

This constitutional power was used for the first time in the history of the Latvian state by the President, Valdis Zatlers, on May 28, 2011.

In 1941, the Communists killed the Latvian Scout founder and President, General Kārlis Goppers ( 1876 – 1941 ).

In the Latvian presidential election of 1999, Pauls was also one of the candidates for the President of Latvia, yet after remaining the last candidate in the election ( none of the candidates could get the required amount of votes, but Pauls got more votes than the others ), he chose to decline the post.

* The Large Coat of Arms is used by the President of Latvia, the Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers, government ministries, the Supreme Court and Prosecutor General, as well as Latvian diplomatic and consular missions.

80-year-old novuss from the Latvian Novuss Federation According to Jānis-Ēriks Piebalgs, President of Latvian Novuss Federation, the game was first played in Northern Europe, particularly Latvia and Estonia around 1925 – 1927.

* Valdis Zatlers ( born 1955 ), Latvian politician, former President of Latvia

In the 1990s, after Latvia regained independence, Polis became known as the Latvian " court painter ," receiving commissions to paint the portraits of the Latvian elite, including former presidents Guntis Ulmanis and Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.

The public were then asked to vote, with the winning submission " Fei mea " being provided by Latvian singer Fox Lima for the chorus.

Plaque marking what was once Berlin's childhood home in Riga, engraved in Latvian, English and Hebrew with the tribute " The British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin lived in this house 1909 – 1915 "

There are tens and hundreds of different beliefs and traditions allover Latvian on what should be done on that day for good harvest, for predicting the future, for attracting your future spouse etc.

Originally the territory of what is now Latgale was populated by Eastern Baltic tribes, whose language became the basis for both modern Latgalian and standard Latvian.

After the Bolsheviks were driven from what is now Latvia and Soviet Russia recognized Latvia's independence, in August 1920, it proved impossible to draw the border precisely along ethnographic lines because of the multicultural character of the borderlands ; once the frontier was negotiated ( the border was not finalized until April 7, 1923 ), large communities of Latvians were left on the Russian side and large Russian and Belarusian communities were left on the Latvian side.

Most historians point to what the painter Apsīšu Jēkabs called " the beginning of a cleft between the Latvian farmer and his farm hand " in the 1870s, and by 1897 there were 591 656 landless peasants in what is now Latvia ( compared to 418 028 smallholders and their dependents ).

Though born in Rīga in 1937, she settled in Canada during the years of the Soviet occupation, becoming a well-respected academic in the subject of Latvian culture.

At the age of three Marta was taken by an aunt and sent to Marienburg ( the present-day Alūksne in Latvia, near the border with Estonia and Russia ) where she was raised by Johann Ernst Glück, a Lutheran pastor and educator who was the first to translate the Bible into Latvian.

In the event, he also met the Latvian Bolshevik and actress Asja Lācis, then residing in Moscow ; she became his lover and was a lasting intellectual influence upon him.

There she received her first education in Latvian primary school at a refugee camp in Lübeck, Germany.

In 1958, being fluent in English, French, Latvian, Spanish and German, she worked as a translator and the next year went on to work as a Spanish teacher for grades 12 and 13 at Ontario Ladies ' College.

At the same time she did scholarly research on semiotics, poetics and the structural analysis of computer-accessible texts from an oral tradition — the Latvian folksongs.

During this period she authored ten books and about 160 articles, essays or book chapters and has given over 250 speeches, allocutions and scientific communications in English, French or Latvian, and gave numerous radio, TV and press interviews in various languages.

In June 1998 she was elected Professor emerita at the University of Montreal and returned to her native land, Latvia, where on 19 October the Prime Minister named her Director of the newly founded Latvian Institute.

While the race was stopped at the Latvian border she was wrestled by Jackass Personality Chris Pontius.

She became Foreign Minister of Latvia in November 2002 and served in this position until in 2004 when she was appointed the first Latvian Commissioner of the European Union in charge of Agriculture and Fisheries.

A big part of the Latvian society was shocked after she was not re-nominated as Latvia's EU Commissioner.

Javelin thrower Inese Jaunzeme became first Latvian who won Olympic Games she did it in 1956 Olympics.

Since she is prohibited from being nominated to Latvian Parliament or local councils under Latvian law due to her former allegiance with the Communist Party of Latvia after January 1991, she is ( similarly with Alfrēds Rubiks ) in the peculiar position of being restricted to Europarliament elections.

In 1989, she was elected to the Riga city Soviet, and in 1990, to Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR.

After Latvia regained independence, Zhdanok was banned from running for the Latvian parliament Saeima and deprived of her seat in Riga city council in 1999, because she had remained active in the Communist Party after the party leadership called for a coup against the elected government of the Latvian SSR in January 1991.

At a young age she moved to Riga from the Latvian countryside to study painting, first at the Jānis Rozentāls Art High School and then at the Latvian Academy of Art.

In the 1970s she and Miervaldis Polis, who was her husband at the time, started a new trend of photorealism in Latvian painting.