A credit card processing company in Latvia has been warned by the Michigan attorney general that it is violating the state’s laws against child pornography.

Rīga-based Trust-Bill.com is one of six companies Attorney General Jennifer M. Granholm said is breaking the law by processing credit card payments for Web sites that deal in child pornography. If the companies don’t stop accepting payments, they could face criminal prosecution.

“By going after the online money changers of the child porn world, we are trying to target a choke-point in the industry,” Granholm said in a press release. “Even if a Web site is located in a foreign country, we can cut off its business if we disable its ability to accept credit card payments from U.S. customers.”

The Trust-Bill.com domain name is registered to Anatoly Loginov, who is associated with a software company called SIA Sadeks, according to domain name and business data maintained by VeriSign and Lursoft Ltd. Latvians Online was unable to contact Loginov and Trust-Bill’s Web site could not be accessed as this story was being published.

With Latvia’s parliamentary election fast approaching, concern has been raised that eligible voters living in Brazil might not get the chance to cast their ballots.

The Central Elections Commission in Rīga has not been able to contact honorary consul Jānis Grimbergs in San Paulo, according to the Baltic News Service. As a result, information about the elections may not reach an estimated 100 eligible voters in Brazil.

In the 1998 parliamentary election, 118 votes were cast by Latvian citizens in Brazil.

The elections commission has asked the Foreign Ministry, to which Grimbergs reports, for assistance.

Immigrants in the United States seeking permanent resident status will have from Oct. 7-Nov. 6 to apply for the fiscal year 2004 diversity immigrant visa lottery, the U.S. State Department has announced.

Up to 55,000 permanent resident visas, known as green cards, will be granted under the program. The visas are reserved for persons from countries that have fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the United States annually.

In the fiscal 2003 lottery, a total of 172 Latvians won permanent residency.

Further information on the visa program is available from the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site.