The Senate of the Czech Republic in a 60-2 vote has ratified expansion of the NATO, moving Latvia and six other nations closer to membership in the defense alliance.

The Aug. 7 vote in Prague brings to nine the number of current NATO members that have approved expansion, according to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All 19 NATO members must ratify englargement.

The lower house of the Czech parliament ratified the expansion on July 24.

Besides Latvia, the NATO candidates include Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The seven countries were formally invited to join NATO during a November 2002 summit meeting in Prague. Accession is expexted to be completed by May of next year.

The first to ratify the expansion was Canada. Other nations that have ratified expansion are Norway, the United States, Denmark, Hungary, Luxembourg, Germany and Italy.

Latvia finished eighth overall in the under 21 women’s basketball championship, which concluded Aug. 3 in Sibenik, Croatia. A total of 12 teams, including China, Russia and the United States, competed in the tournament.

Latvia, led by top scorer Anete Jēkabsone, surprised other teams in early games, rising to the top of Group B with five straight victories and earning a spot in the quarterfinals. But then, according to media reports and official International Basketball Federation results, the Latvian team stumbled.

In decisive games, the Latvians lost 45-55 to hometown favorites Croatia, 60-68 to Russia and, in the match that finished it, 77-85 to China.

The championship was won by the United States in 71-55 victory over Brazil.

The Latvian team nonetheless left its impression on the tournament.

Jēkabsone, a 19-year-old guard, finished as the top scorer overall, according to basketball federation statistics. She averaged 24.25 points per game, earning a total of 194 points in her team’s eight games.

Teammate Ieva Kubliņa finished sixth overall, averaging 15 points per game for a total of 120 in eight games.

Jēkabsone and Kubliņa also ranked in the top 10 in free throws.

The drummer for the legendary Latvian guitar rock group Līvi, as well as the band’s sound engineer, were killed July 27 in a one-vehicle accident near Daugavpils, according to Latvian media reports.

Dead are drummer Dainis Virga and sound engineer Juris Jakovļevs. Guitarist Ainars Virga, who was driving the car, and bass player Jānis Grodums were injured.

Ainars Virga apparently lost control of the vehicle as the four were returning to Riga from a rock music concert in Daugavpils, media reports said.

“Latvian rock music has experienced one more heavy shock,” the group’s recording company, MICREC, said in a prepared statement, “and only in time will it be possible to understand what we have lost.”

The group is based in the port city of Liepāja.

One of the group’s founders, guitarist Ēriks Ķiģelis, also perished in a traffic accident in 1985. A former member, the popular singer Igo (Rodrigo Fomins), almost lost his life in a car accident in 2000.

The rock music festival “Saldus saule,” started as a memorial to Ķiģelis, also will recognize Dainis Virga and Jakovļevs, the newspaper Kurzemes Vārds reported. Līvi were scheduled to perform Aug. 1 during the two-day festival in Saldus.