One of the ships trying to get through Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is a former Latvian-owned vessel, according to news reports. However, it was not one of the ships intercepted by Israeli commandos on May 31.

The MV Rachel Corrie, which is owned by the Free Gaza Movement Ireland, used to be known as the MV Linda and was the property of Rīga-based Forestry Shipping. The ship was detained last year in Dundalk, Ireland, because Forestry Shipping had failed to pay the vessel’s Ukrainian crew.

In March, the ship was sold at auction for EUR 70,000 to the Free Gaza Movement, according to the Irish Times. The MV Linda was rechristened the MV Rachel Corrie in memory of an American activist killed in 2003 while protesting Israeli incursions into Gaza.

The MV Rachel Corrie sailed from Ireland in mid-May. As of June 1, the vessel had not yet reached the eastern Mediterranean Sea and was not part of the Free Gaza flotilla that was stopped by Israeli forces, according to a statement by Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin. The ship is carrying cement, educational materials and medical equipment. The MV Rachel Corrie could arrive at Gaza by Friday, according to CNN.com.

Nine people on board the Free Gaza Movement’s ship Mavi Marmara were killed by Israeli forces who raided the vessel. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement posted on its website, has said the commandos opened fired on activists only after they were attacked.

Latvia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the Israeli raid, noting that it took place in international waters and that the commandos used disproportionate force against the activists.

Perhaps only geeks will find this interesting, but it’s worth noting nonetheless: Latvia has the second-fastest broadband download speeds in the world, according to the U.S.-based diagnostics company Ookla.

Ookla runs Speedtest.net, a service that allows consumers to test the speed of their Internet connections. Tests run during the past 30 days, Speedtest.net reported May 24, show that consumers in South Korea have the fastest download speeds, while Latvia ranks No. 2.

South Koreans on average experience a download speed of 34.14 Mbps (megabits per second), while Latvians get 24.29 Mbps.

The rest of the Top 10 includes Moldova, Japan, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Portugal.

Estonia came in No. 19. The United States is 26th and Russia is 28th.

On a city-by-city basis, Speedtest.net found the Seoul ranked No. 1 with an average download speed of 34.66 Mbps. Rīga ranked No. 2 with a speed of 27.90 Mbps. Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, ranked No. 10 with a speed of 17.48 Mbps.

Upload tests showed South Korea at No. 1 and Latvia at No. 2. Lithuania ranked No. 4 and Russia was No. 10.

However, when comparing the quality of broadband connections, a different picture emerges. In that index, Romania ranks No. 1, Russia is No. 2 and Portugal is No. 3. The United States ranks ninth.

At least 10,000 “packet tests” had to have been run for countries to be listed in the Top Ten rankings.

Singer Goran Gora, now teamed up with a band called The Yrs, has released his sophomore album. Titled Mystyrys Yrs, the compact disc includes 13 tracks, all in English.

The artist, whose real name is Jānis Holšteins, released his first album, Jet Lag, in 2007.

Although the album was released May 24 during a presentation at the I Love You Bar in Rīga, it will not be available for sale until after mid-June. Until then, according to a note on the bar’s website, Mystyrys Yrs can be heard streamed on ORB, draugiem.lv and MySpace.

The album includes guest performances by six artists: frYars of Great Britain on the song “A Dance Away”; Thomas Denver Jonsson on “Old Friends”; Astro’n’out lead singer—and Holšteins’ wife—Māra Upmane–Holšteine on “Garden”; Ksenija Sundejeva, lead singer of the on-indefinite-hiatus Tribes of the City on “Silly Tunes”; Detlef on “Hard Case Heartbreak”; and Andris Grīva on “The List.”

Work on the album took one and a half years. Gora worked on the songs with musicians Kaspars Ansons, Valters Sprūdžs and Edgars Runcis. Together they will now perform as Goran Gora and The Yrs.

The album was released by I Love You Records.