Latvia still is viewed as the most corrupt Baltic state, is seen as the second-most corrupt in the expanded European Union, but nonetheless has improved since last year, according to the latest Corruption Perception Index by the Berlin-based Transparency International.

Latvia ranked 51st on the list released Oct. 18, an improvement from last year’s ranking of 57th. The nation shared the spot with the Central American countries of Costa Rica and El Salvador and with the Indian Ocean country of Mauritius.

The Corruption Perception Index is based on polls of business people, academics and country analysts. A total of 159 countries are included in the index, which measures opinion about the level of corruption and is based on a 10-point scale.

Latvia’s score continues to improve, climbing from 3.8 in 2003, to 4.0 last year, to 4.2 this year.

But Transparency International, as well as its Rīga-based affiliate Delna, warned that scores below 5 indicate “serious levels of corruption.”

Among the three Baltic republics, Estonia climbed four spots to a ranking of 27th with a score of 6.7, while Lithuania maintained a ranking of 44th with a score of 4.8. Transparency International singled out Estonia as among those countries where wealth is not a prerequisite for controlling corruption.

Among European Union members, only Poland scored lower than Latvia. Poland ranked 70th with a score of 3.4.

Iceland this year edged out Finland for the top spot on the index, scoring 9.7. Finland and New Zealand shared the No. 2 slot, scoring 9.6. The United States maintained its 17th place ranking, but Russia sank to 126th, sharing the spot with Albania, Niger and Sierra Leone. Last year Russia ranked 90th.

The Montréal Canadiens professional hockey team has a new enforcer. Raitis Ivanāns measures 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 meters) and weighs 263 pounds (119 kilograms). He’s the biggest Canadien in the team’s storied history. But unlike most hockey pugilists, he’s from Latvia.

Ivanāns has attracted a lot of attention since making the Canadiens roster.

Now 27, Ivanāns came to Canada as a 17-year-old to play Tier 2 junior hockey near Toronto. Since then he has played in just about every minor hockey league in North America. His tour has included the Flint Generals, New Haven Knights and the Rockford IceHogs of the United Hockey League, the Macon Whoopee and the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League, the Pensacola Ice Pilots, Toledo Storm and Baton Rouge Kingfish of the East Coast Hockey League and the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League.

By the 2003-2004 season he was established in the AHL as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals, one step away from the National Hockey League. He was on the Admirals roster that won the league’s championship and the Calder Cup. The following summer he was signed as a free agent by the NHL’s Montréal Canadiens and played during last year’s lockout with their Hamilton Bulldogs AHL farm team.

Ivanāns started out as a defenseman. Along the way he shifted to forward and learned how to use his size and fight. The penalty minutes racked up, 270 in New Haven, 208 with Rockford and 259 last year in Hamilton.

The Canadiens were looking to add muscle to their young and fast lineup and Ivanāns fit the bill. He beat out veteran minor league enforcer Peter Vandermeer for the tough-guy spot after taking on Toronto’s Nathan Perrott and Ottawa’s Brian McGrattan in exhibition games. A healthy scratch for Montréal’s first two regular season games, he suited up Oct. 8 for Montreal’s 5-4 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs and logged just under three minutes. He had no penalties and went down in the books as the latest Latvian to play in the world’s best hockey league.

While Ivanāns’ role is to protect his teammates when the going gets rough, he shouldn’t be discounted as a hockey player.

“He certainly earned himself a spot,” Canadiens Coach Claude Julien told the Toronto Sun. “He’s a good person who came from a long way to adapt to the North American lifestyle, made sacrifices to leave his country and groom himself to be a hockey player. Sure he has a role on this team. Anyone who watches him sees he’s not a bad skater for his size. He creates some space for himself. He does have skills and he earned his spot with us. He deserves a lot of credit.”

Ivanāns also has taken young Russian-speaking players under his wing helping them with English and adjusting to life in Canada. Last year in Hamilton, his protege was Belarus rookie sensation Andrei Kostitsyn. Canada’s Rogers Sportsnet broadcast a 10-minute segment showing the two on and off the ice—in the dressing room, going out for fast food and bowling. This year he’s interpreting for talented Russian Alexei Perezhogin on the Canadiens roster.

Last winter parents and students of Toronto’s Latvian School Valodiņa went out to watch Ivanāns play in Hamilton. Afterwards he took time to meet with them, spoke to them in perfect Latvian and patiently signed autographs. However, he was stumped when asked to name every Latvian’s most favorite food in order to receive a present from the school. His answer was “kaposti” (sauer kraut). Not quite, but he still walked away with a box a 40 pīrāgi.

On the Latvian Web sites Hockey.lv and Delfi.lv, some readers have downplayed Ivanāns’ skills as a player due to his role as a “policeman.” However, most have cheered his success and are urging that he be given a place on Latvia’s national team. By all accounts the team could use someone who’s not afraid to go into the corners to dig the puck out or to park his massive frame and screen an opposing goalie. But then come springtime, it’s very likely that Ivanāns will be in the thick of Stanley Cup playoff action with the Canadiens. The World Championships may have to wait. —Viesturs Zariņš

Hijacking an airplane from Rīga International Airport, where security is not as high as in some Western European facilities, may have been explored two years ago by terrorists intent on striking Heathrow Airport in London, the newspaper The Sunday Times reported Oct. 9.

Citing British intelligence sources, who were responding to a White House list of Al-Qaeda attacks prevented by the United States and its partners, the newspaper reported that terrorists considered hijacking an airplane in Eastern Europe and crashing it into Heathrow, potentially killing hundreds of people.

The paper reported that “an Al-Qaeda cell had been spotted carrying out reconnaissance at an airport in eastern Europe, possibly in Poland, Latvia or Estonia.”

The list of 10 terrorist plots thwarted by the United States and its partners was released by the White House on Oct. 6 following President George W. Bush’s speech on the war on terror. No. 6 on the list refers to the Heathrow Airport plot.

“In 2003 the U.S. and several partners disrupted a plot to attack Heathrow Airport using hijacked commercial airliners,” according to the list. “The planning for this attack was undertaken by a major 9/11 operational figure.”

British authorities, according to The Sunday Times, considered closing Heathrow in response to the threat. Also suspected was a potential mortar attack against a passenger plane at Heathrow. The attacks were expected in February 2003.

About 712,000 passengers were served at the Rīga airport in 2003, according to the airport’s Web site. That number has almost doubled this year. A total of 19,504 aircraft movements were logged at the airport in 2003.