Two short films by Latvian directors will be screened during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which runs June 8-13 in France.

The films are Spārni un airi (Wings and Oars) by Vladimir Leschiov and Birth by Signe Baumane.

In Spārni un airi, a former pilot examines his life. All work on the film, except for sound and music, is by Leschiov.

Leschiov was born in 1970 in Daugavpils and in 2007 started his own business, Lunohod Animation Studio, in Rīga. Leschiov’s first professional film, Bezmiegs (Insomnia), was completed in 2004 and has won several awards, according to his studio’s Web site.

Baumane’s Birth tells the story of a 17-year-old girl, Amina, who is pregnant. The film is a U.S. and Italian co-production.

Born in 1964 in Auce, Baumane grew up in Tukums and on Russia’s Sakhalin Island. She started her professional career in 1989 at the Dauka Animation Studio in Rīga, according to her Web site. Since 1995, she has lived in New York. Besides work on a several award-winning animation films, she also does illustration for children books and other publications, including Utne Reader.

A schedule for screenings has not yet been announced. For further information about the festival, visit www.annecy.org.

One of the 16 people on board a helicopter that crashed April 1 into the North Sea was a resident of Latvia, police in Scotland have confirmed.

Mihails Žuravskis, 39, is the last person whose identity was released by Aberdeen-based Grampian Police. He was an employee of KCA Deutag Drilling Ltd., police said.

KCA Deutag, which has its headquarters in Aberdeen, confirmed Žuravskis’ identity in an April 3 press release. He was one of 10 company employees traveling in the helipcopter.

“One of KCA Deutag’s management team has been mobilized to Latvia to join the local authorities in supporting Mihails’ next-of-kin,” the company said in the press release.

The cause of the crash is under invesigation, but KCA Deutag said in a press release that weather conditions were not good at the time of the accident.

The helicopter belonged to Bond Offshore Helicopters. Grampian Police said the aircraft, a Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter, crashed in the North Sea approximately 14 miles from Rattray Head, or 38 miles northeast of Aberdeen. The helicopter, chartered by energy company BP, was returning to Aberdeen from the Miller platform in the North Sea.

The others on board, including the pilot and co-pilot, were residents of the United Kingdom. Eight of the bodies have been recovered, police said. At one point, 30 boats and helicopters were involved in the search, which ended April 2. The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch is now working to salvage the wreckage and recover the helicopter’s cockpit voice and flight data recorder.

Citing progress in reforming Latvia’s political system and shoring up its economy, President Valdis Zatlers has backed off a threat to dismiss the Saeima if it did not fulfill certain demands.

In a March 31 speech over state radio and television, Zatlers said the points he raised in a Jan. 14 ultimatum have been addressed. One of them, approval of a constitutional amendment that would allow for the popular recall of the parliament, is to be finalized April 8, the president said.

One day after a huge Jan. 13 anti-government demonstration in the Dome Square was followed by a small riot in the Old Town district of Rīga, Zatlers issued an ultimatum to the Saeima. By March 31, it had to approve the constitutional amendment, reform the country’s election law to get rid of the so-called “locomotive problem,” and create a board to oversee Latvia’s economic development plan and the EUR 7.5 billion in loans it is getting from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and others.

“If by today the Saeima and the government had not completed the jobs I outlined,” Zatlers told the broadcast audience, according to a transcript provided by his press office, “I would start the process of dissolving the Saeima so that, in accordance with the law, we would gain a new set of representatives who would be trusted by the voters.”

According to Latvia’s constitution, the president may call for the dismissal of the parliament. A national referendum is then held and, if successful, the Saeima is considered dissolved and new elections are scheduled. However, if the referendum fails, the president has to resign and the parliament chooses a replacement.

Under the constitutional amendment supported by Zatlers, the electorate also would have the ability to call for the Saeima’s dismissal. Zatlers told the broadcast audience that on March 31 he received assurances from leading political parties that the amendment would be approved April 8.

“I understand that my Jan. 14 announcement about the possibility of dismissing the Saeima, and the assignments for the parliament and the government, was an unexpected step,” the president told the broadcast audience, “but it was the only way to steer the political process into a constructive channel.”

Zatlers noted that in addition to the promised amendment, a new government is in place headed by Prime Minister Valdis Dombrosvkis, an economic stimulas plan has been developed, and a new head of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs) has been approved.

However, the president also said that a number of chores remain, including approval by the Saeima of a revised budget that conforms to demands from the IMF, easing of restrictions on business operators’ access to European Union funds, approval of a social security program and continued work on reforming Latvia’s political system.