Visa-free travel for Latvian citizens to the United States continues to be pursued by government officials. A delegation will travel Oct. 31-Nov. 1 to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. officials over the issue, the Latvian Foreign Ministry announced Oct. 26.

Led by Normans Penke, the ministry’s state secretary, the delegation is expected to meet with officials at the U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

While U.S. citizens can enter Latvia without a visa and stay up to 90 days, Latvian citizens must apply for a visa.

In May, U.S. and Latvian officials agreed to a “roadmap” that may lead to the visa requirement being waived. The plan includes a campaign in Latvia to publicize problems that occur when U.S. visas are abused or when a visitor overstays a visa.

In 2004, a total of 10,140 Latvian citizens entered the United States for business, pleasure, study or other reasons, according to the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

A Soviet propaganda pamphlet about the Latvian war veterans’ group Daugavas Vanagi, which reportedly led Western investigators to pursue war crimes charges against many individuals, is the topic of a new book by historian Andrievs Ezergailis.

The new book, Nazi/Soviet Disinformation About the Holocaust in Nazi-Occupied Latvia: “Daugavas Vanagi: Who Are They?” Revisited, was scheduled to be unveiled during an Oct. 27 ceremony at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in downtown Rīga, according to a museum press release.

The propaganda pamphlet Daugavas Vanagi: Who Are They? was the 1963 English translation of a Latvian-language work released in 1962. Ezergailis has previously written that the pamphlet “became a kind of a handbook for war-crimes prosecutory offices in West Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia.”

The book, which costs LVL 8, is published by the Occupation Museum Fund. A total of 1,000 copies were printed, said Zanda Dūma, the museum’s public affairs coordinator.

Ezergailis, a professor emeritus of history at New York’s Ithaca College, is the author of a number of books, including The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1944 : The Missing Center, released in 1996, and Stockholm Documents: The German Occupation of Latvia, released in 2002.

Chocoholics needing to indulge themselves now will have a new venue—the new Emihls Gustavs Chocolate bar set to open Oct. 27 in the Old City district Rīga.

It will be the first chocolate bar in the Baltic states, according to a press release from SIA Emila Gustava šokolāde. The bar will offer not just sweets but also delicatessen foods, cheese and alcoholic beverages.

“The new chocolate bar has been a long-held dream of the company,” co-owner Zane Bērziņa said in a prepared statement. “We are very happy that there will be a place in Rīga where chocolate can be enjoyed in all its forms, for example, with chili peppers, delicatessen meats or alcohol.”

The bar will be located at Tirgoņu iela 8.

The company also is unveiling a new international brand name, Emihls Gustavs Chocolate.

The confectionary company was formed in 2001 by the same group that runs Stendera ziepju fabrika, a maker and retailer of luxury soaps.

Stendera earlier this year announced the further international expansion of its marketing into Marshall Field’s department stores in the United States. It already has stores in various European locations, including in Germany and Russia.