Riga  - Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis appeared Tuesday to back a controversial plan by his defence minister to buy 25 horses for an honour guard to welcome visiting dignitaries.

"I cannot agree it is a waste of money," Goodmanis said of the horse project that would cost 120,000 lats (250,000 dollars) from a defence budget of 304 million lats, plus
70,000 lats annual upkeep.

The horse guard would revive a tradition and could also be used in sporting events such as the modern pentathlon, said the premier, who originally questioned the idea.

Riga - Latvia's annual inflation rate reached 17.9 per cent in May, up from 17.5 per cent in April, as the Baltic nation's economy slows down, the Central Statistical Bureau said Monday.

Riga  - The Latvian parliament on Thursday rejected constitutional amendments, giving voters a right to call for snap elections, forcing the small Baltic EU nation to hold a referendum on the issue

Riga/Vilnius - The parliaments of Lithuania and Latvia on Thursday ratified the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, bringing to 13 the number of member states signed off on the document.

Riga  - More than 650 passengers, mostly elderly Germans, who were evacuated from a cruise ship stranded off Latvia were beginning to head home, LNT TV reported Tuesday.

Rezekne, Latvia - Sergejs Cakss swerves his 2002 Volkswagen Golf around potholes in one of the poorest parts of the European Union, near the Russian border.