A Latvian man convicted in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in suburban London will spend the rest of his life in a United Kingdom prison.

Viktor Dembovskis, 43, was found guilty March 29 in London’s Central Criminal Court of the May 2005 rape and murder of Jeshma Raithatha, described in British media as a promising and talented student.

Raithatha, who disappeared May 16 after a day of shopping, was found dead in a wooded area of west London. Suspicion soon fell on Dembovskis, who lived nearby and worked in a local car wash. Dembovskis fled to Latvia and his hometown of Līvāni, from which he was extradited to Britain.

Dembovskis was charged with one count of murder and two counts of rape. A jury took three hours to arrive at its verdict, according to British media reports. Dembovskis was sentenced to three life terms.

Following the sentencing, Raithatha’s family issued a statement in which it questioned how Dembovskis, who twice has been convicted of rape in Latvia, was allowed to immigrate to the United Kingdom.

The new MTV Latvija television channel, part of the global music network’s expansion into the Baltic states, will be led by a veteran of the television, music and advertising business, the network announced March 28.

Liliāna Ozoliņa, whose previous experience includes working for Latvijas Neatkarīga televīzija (LNT) where she was responsible for the show “Mūzikas video,” is the new director of MTV Latvija. She will report to the MTV Baltic office in Lithuania and the MTV Networks Europe office in London.

MTV announced March 6 that it will expand into the Baltics. MTV Baltic will include three channels—MTV Eesti, MTV Latvija and MTV Lietuva—each broadcasting in the national language of the respective country. All three channels are expected to begin transmission later this year.

“Our local launches in the Baltic states will provide viewers with an exciting mixture of locally produced and MTV signature programming,” Dean Possenniskie of MTV Networks Europe said in a press release. “It will also offer multiple platform sponsorship for advertisers and will help drive take up of cable and satellite in the Baltic republics.”

The channels, which are expected to reach about 1 million viewers in the Baltics, will be aimed at the 15- to 35-year-old audience.

MTV Baltic will be led by chief executive officer Marius Veselis, a veteran of Lithuanian television.

MTV, now owned by Viacom International Inc., began in the United States in 1981.

Sweden’s foreign minister, the Latvia-born Laila Freivalds, has resigned amidst criticism of her reaction to an extremist group’s Web site running cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, the government announced March 21.

Freivalds appeared in a brief press conference with Sweden’s Prime Minister Göran Persson to explain the resignation. Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm will take over temporarily until a new foreign minister is named.

Criticism of Freivalds had escalated in Sweden in the weeks since early February, when she strongly condemned SD-Kuriren, a far-right newspaper, for running the cartoons as a response to reaction caused by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and its publication in September of 12 caricatures of the prophet, whose depiction is generally prohibited under Islamic law.

“I will defend freedom of the press no matter what the circumstances, but I strongly condemn the provocation by SD-Kuriren,” Freivalds said in a Feb. 9 statement. “It displays a complete lack of respect.”

Shortly thereafter, a Foreign Ministry official contacted the hosting company on which the SD-Kuriren Web site was located and asked to shut it down. Freivalds initially denied knowing anything about the action, but documents showed that she had been informed, according to Radio Sweden.

Sweden’s constitution forbids government interference in the media.

Freivalds also was criticized for Sweden’s response to the December 2004 Asian tsunami. About 500 Swedish citizens died in the natural disaster that left nearly 230,000 dead or missing.

Freivalds, born in Rīga in 1942, became foreign minister in 2003. She replaced Anna Lindh, who died after being stabbed in a Stockholm department store. Freivalds earlier served twice as Sweden’s justice minister.