A foreign policy expert is scheduled to discuss the status of NATO enlargement in the next Webcast sponsored by the Joint Baltic American National Committee.

Stephen Flanagan, director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, is scheduled to appear in the Webcast from Washington at noon (EST) Aug. 8. E-mail questions to Flanagan can be sent to jbanc@jbanc.org.

The Webcast is one in a series of such programs hosted by JBANC. Previous guests have included NATO experts Bruce Jackson and Ron Asmus, the three Baltic ambassadors to the United States and Ojārs Kalniņš, director of the Latvian Institute and the former Latvian ambassador to the United States.

Further information about the Webcast is available from JBANC’s Web site.

Quebec police have asked the public for information in the shooting death early last year of a 40-year-old Latvian man suspected of having ties to the Russian mafia, according to the Montreal Gazette.

The body of Voldes Ousinsh (Valdis Osiņš) was found Jan. 4, 2001, in Pointe Fortune, Quebec, near the Ontario border. The Surete du Quebec issued its public appeal July 9 after discovering that a gun involved in the accidental wounding of a teenager in Cote St. Luc also was used to kill Ousinsh.

The teenager was injured May 4, the Gazette reported, when another teenager was showing off the gun to friends. The youth is not a suspect in Ousinsh’s murder.

Investigators have said they believe Ousinsh was killed elsewhere and his body dumped in Pointe Fortune, the newspaper said. Ousinsh had a record of credit card fraud and had used several aliases since 1997 when he arrived in Canada, the Gazette reported.

A 22-year-old Latvian is among winners of a YouthActionNet award for leading social change. Aksels Ribenis, a member of the Latvian Medical Students Association, received the USD 500 award for his work in educating the public about the risk of cancer and heart disease, the nonprofit Baltimore, Md.-based International Youth Foundation announced.

His work involves organizing medical students to travel to various Latvian cities to offer free medical screening and education.

A total of 15 awards were made from 200 applications from 53 countries.

YouthActionNet, a joint project of the youth federation and telecommunication company Nokia, began the awards competition in January and plans to continue the program on a semi-annual basis. Further information about the program is available from the YouthActionNet Web site.