Riga - Latvia's economy shrank by 4.2 per cent in the third quarter, the government said Friday, while a downgraded credit rating added to the Baltic country's woes.

Fears about the future of the three Baltic economies grew as the flash estimate showed Latvia's gross domestic product (GDP) falling more than analysts had expected. Second-quarter growth in 2008 was 0.1 per cent.

Riga- Latvia and Belarus formally demarcated their border Thursday in a signing ceremony in the Latvian capital, Riga.

The move officially sets part of the European Union's eastern border.

The final protocol of the Latvia-Belarus state border demarcation was signed by Irina Mangule of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Colonel Alexander Arhipov of the Belarus Border Guard. The ceremony ended a process that had gone on for more than ten years.

Riga - The three Baltic stock exchanges registered small losses overall Thursday, despite a handful of companies seeing sharp falls in their share prices by the close of trading.

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia was down 0.52 per cent, and the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was down 0.63 per cent, while the Riga exchange in Latvia actually rose by 0.25 per cent.

Riga - The foreign and domestic policies of the Russian government continued to receive a mauling in the Latvian capital, Riga, Saturday with a trio of presidents joining other political figures in criticism of the Kremlin at a NATO-sponsored conference.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia claimed former Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him "he would make us Northern Cyprus" long before territorial disputes in South Ossetia turned into armed conflict in August.

Riga- The foreign and domestic policies of the Russian government continued to receive a mauling in the Latvian capital, Riga, Saturday with opposition political figures and international relations experts lining up to criticize the Kremlin at a NATO- sponsored conference.

Speaking Saturday afternoon, Boris Nemtsov, a one-time deputy prime minister of Russia under Vladimir Putin and now a leading opponent of his former boss, said: "Putinism means monopoly. Monopoly means corruption, no competition and no transparency."

Riga - The three Baltic stock exchanges stayed fairly flat
Thursday in a day of thin trading, but a pharmaceutical company
provided some cheer.

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia was down 1.76 per cent,
the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was down 1.13 per cent and the Riga
exchange in Latvia rose by a marginal 0.12 per cent.

The Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, closed down 1.45 per cent at 273.9.

Most notable company news of the day came from Latvian