Riga - It was through songs that Latvia won its

Riga - Latvia's ex-president Vaira Vike-Freiberga, nicknamed the "Baltic Iron Lady" during her eight-year term, has released a music album, local media reported on Wednesday.

Vike-Freiberga, the country's first woman president, served from 1999 to 2007.

The CD entitled Vaira's Songs features songs by folk duo Ruta and Valdis Muktupavelis, Vike-Freiberga's husband, Imants, and son, Karlis, as well as her former presidential press secretary Aiva Rozenberga.

Riga  - Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians around the world are set to celebrate midsummer festivals Monday night with rites drawing deeply on pagan traditions of the Baltic people.

Riga - Authorities in a Latvian town are encouraging residents to strip naked and run across a downtown bridge as the Baltic nation prepares to celebrate summer solstice.

The western town of Kuldiga - population 13,500 - will host the eighth annual naked run across the 18th-century, 150-metre bridge at 3 am (0000 GMT) on June 24, marking Latvia's most popular holiday, Jani.

In another part of the country of 2.3 million people, at the Pedvale Open Air Museum near the town of Sabile, a group of men plans to gather at 4 am for a traditional naked run.

Riga - Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis sustained

Riga  - The three small Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania paid moving tribute on Saturday to the tens of thousands of men, women, and children who were rounded up and deported to Sibe