Digimarc Corp. of Tualatin, Ore., has been awarded a USD 9 million contract to create Latvia’s new digital driver licenses, the company announced Feb. 13.

The five-year contract with Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate calls for Digimarc to serve as the prime contractor for the design, installation, maintenance and servicing the new digital driver license system. The new licenses will conform to European Union standards.

More than 744,000 driver licenses in all categories have been issued in Latvia as of Jan. 1, according to Road Traffic Safety Directorate statistics.

Digimarc is based in Oregon and describes itself as “a leading supplier of secure media solutions used in a wide range of security, identification and digital media content applications.” The company provides secure driver license solutions in 32 U.S. states and in about 20 other countries.

Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga will lead a delegation of government officials and business people on a three-day state visit Feb. 16-18 to Malta, the president’s press office has announced.

The visit comes in response to an invitation from Maltese President Guido de Marco. Both Latvia and Malta are set to join the European Union in May.

Joining the president will be her husband, Minister of Culture Ingūna Rībena, Rīga Mayor Gunārs Bojārs and other officials.

In addition to meetings with Maltese political leaders, Vīķē-Freiberga is scheduled to participate in a discussion at the University of Malta about the opportunities and challenges facing small nations in a globalized world.

The president, along with Latvia’s Honorary Consul Mark Anthony Sammut, also will officially open an honorary consulate in Malta.

Latvian- and Filipino-American figure skater Larisa Spielberg of Michigan and her partner and fiancé, Craig Joeright, have announced they are ending their skating career.

Spielberg and Joeright have been competing together since 1996, winning several medals. They had set their sights on representing the United States during the 2006 Winter Olympics, according to the Web site for U.S. Figure Skating

“We have chosen to stop skating to focus our attention on our relationship off the ice,” the pair, who became engaged in August, said in a Feb. 4 announcement. “We have closed the door to our skating career and are opening the door to our future.”

Their final performances were scheduled in a trio of Feb. 7 ice shows in Michigan.

The pair’s record includes winning bronze medals in the 1998 and the 2000 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The 23-year-old Spielberg is a student at Oakland University in Michigan. She is the daughter of Jānis and Neneng Spielbergs of East Lansing, Mich. Larisa attended Latvian school in Lansing, Mich., and participated six years in the summer camp at the Gaŗezers center near Three Rivers, Mich., according to her father.