Royal Dutch Airlines KLM will suspend its flights from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Rīga International Airport beginning this summer, the company has announced.

“The last flight will be on June 28th,” KLM spokeswoman Marisca Kensenhuis said in an e-mail.

The airline cited the global economic crisis, which has especially affected the Baltic routes in KLM’s network, Kensenhuis said.

KLM has offered two daily flights to Rīga. The flight takes 2 hours, 30 minutes.

With the departure of KLM, the Rīga airport will still be served by Russia’s Aeroflot, Latvia’s airBaltic and Latcharter, Czech Airlines, Finland’s Finnair, Poland’s LOT, Germany’s Lufthansa, Norwegian, discount Irish airline Ryanair, Turkish Airlines and Uzbekistan Airways, according to the Rīga airport’s Web site.

Two years ago, British Airways ended its Rīga-Gatwick route.

Irish police are investigating the death of a 29-year-old man from Latvia whose body was discovered March 24 in a house in Newbridge, southeast of Dublin in County Kildare.

A 42-year-old man has been charged in the death, according to Sgt. Gerry Curley of the Garda Press Office.

Neither the victim nor the suspect was named by Irish police.

The Latvian man’s body was taken to Naas General Hospital in nearby Naas, where a post-mortem examination determined that he had died from head injuries.

The suspect was arrested the same night the body was found, Curley said in a press release. The suspect has been charged under Ireland’s Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act. His next appearance in Naas District Court in County Kildare is scheduled April 1.

It may be the year of the ox, but a pig is the star of the latest commemorative coin issued by the Bank of Latvia.

The one-lat coin features a picture of a pig (cūciņa) drawn by Emīlija Adumāne of Rīga when she was six years old. Above the image of the pig is Adumāne’s phonetic spelling of the coin’s value, “LAC 1.” Her drawing was one of about 4,000 entries in a 2008 contest, “Mana sapņu monēta,” according to a March 26 press release from the Bank of Latvia.

The pig is an archetypal character in the Latvian consciousness, according to the press release, symbolizing well-being, goodness and comfort. The pig also has been a favored character in popular culture, from the fable of the three pigs and the wolf, to more recent examples such as the Australian film Babe.

The silver proof coin was minted by Finland’s Rahapaja Oy based on a plaster mould by Ligita Franckeviča. The averse of the coin features Latvia’s coat of arms, while the reverse has the drawing of the pig. Circulation of the commemorative coin is limited to 5,000. It will be available for sale in banks, souvenir shops and jewelry stores. At the Bank of Latvia, the coin will retail for LVL 23.10.