Latvia

The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation which aims to promote co-operation between the parliaments of the Republics of Estonia, Latvia... and Lithuania. It attempts to find a common position in relation to many international issues, including economic, political and cultural issues. The Baltic Assembly’s decisions do not bind the member governments but are only advisory. The organisation was formed after a decision to establish it was made in Vilnius on 1 December 1990. It works under regulations approved on 8 November 1991 in Tallinn. On 13 June 1994 the three nations agreed to the structure and rules of the organisation. The budget of the BA is funded by the three member governments. The official languages of the Baltic Assembly are Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. The headquarters and secretariat of the organisation is in Riga, Latvia. The Baltic Assembly has its own flags and symbols. The BA meets in session twice yearly, once in the spring and once in autumn. The venue of these sessions rotates through the three Baltic member nations. The BA comprises sixty members.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
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The League of Nations , was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It... was the first permanent international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. However, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so.
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The Council of Europe is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human... rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union , which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which are both EU bodies. The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.
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Jānis Miņins is a Latvian bobsledder who has competed since 1999. He won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the FIBT World... Championships 2009 in Lake Placid, New York, earning the country its first championship medal ever. In the 2004–05 season his best placing was a sixth place in the 4-man bob in Cortina d'Ampezzo and Winterberg, both times with Juris Latiss, Ainars Podnieks and Jānis Ozols. For the 2005–06 season he changed his team mates, retaining Ozols but bringing in Mārcis Rullis and Intars Dīcmanis to the four-man bob. However, his team fell to a best place of 10th, and he has had his best placing in the World Cup this season at the World Cup in Igls, with a fourth place together with Daumants Dreiškens. He placed first at the Latvian selection event for the Olympic Games in Sigulda, and has been selected to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics where he finished sixth in the two-man event and tenth in the four-man event. Miņins missed the 2010 Winter Olympics, because of an appendix surgery he went through, when he had already arrived in Canada just days before the Olympic start.
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Andris Šics is a Latvian luger who has competed since 1998. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won a silver medal in the men's doubles event... at Vancouver in 2010 alongside his teammate, older brother Juris Šics. Šics won three bronze medals at the FIL World Luge Championships . He also won three medals in the mixed team event at the FIL European Luge Championships with golds in 2008 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. Šics' best individual European championship finish in the men's doubles event was fifth in 2006.
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Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the... southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, who was crowned as King of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first Lithuanian state, on 6 July 1253.
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Estonia /ɨsˈtoʊniə/ , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to... the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia covers 45,227 km , and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is closely related to Finnish. Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into 15 counties. The capital and largest city is Tallinn. With a population of 1.34 million, it is one of the least-populous members of the European Union, Eurozone and NATO. Estonia has the highest GDP per person among former Soviet republics. Estonia is listed as a "High-Income Economy" by the World Bank and as an "advanced economy" by the International Monetary Fund; the country is an OECD member. The United Nations lists Estonia as a developed country with a Human Development Index of "Very High".
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Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to... the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mogilev and Vitebsk . Over forty percent of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested, and its strongest economic sectors are agriculture and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Belarus became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic . The borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were incorporated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland.
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Russia /ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in... northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland , Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres , Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms.
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