A NATO heads of state summit will in fact take place in Rīga next year, Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga announced Dec. 7, confirming long-running hopes of political leaders.

Leaders of the defense alliance meeting in Brussels have given the go-ahead for the summit, the president said during a press conference. A firm date has not been determined, but it will be in November.

“It will give us another opportunity together with our partners—Estonia, Lithuania and the other NATO member states—to use Rīga as a venue of debates about the very essence of NATO, about the improvement of its work and about the future prospects of NATO as an alliance,” the president said.

Latvia formally became a member of NATO in March 2004.

The U.S. ambassador to Latvia, Catherine Todd Bailey, congratulated Latvia on news of the selection.

“From President Vīķe-Freiberga on down, I know that many, many Latvians have worked very hard for many months to ensure that today’s announcement was a positive one,” she said in a prepared statement. “I’m also certain that their excellent work will continue and will make the November 2006 NATO summit an extremely successful one for all the NATO allies.”

(UPDATED 07 DEC 2005)

The English-language version of a book examining the Baltic road to independence from 1988-1991 is being released Dec. 8, the publisher has announced.

The Baltic Way to Freedom is the translation of Baltijas brīvības ceļš, which was published in May in Latvian, the publishing house Zelta grauds announced in a press release. The three-year period includes the 1988 formation of the Latvian People’s Front (Latvijas Tautas fronte) as well as the August 1991 events that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The book is compiled by Jānis Škapars, chair of the Latvian Intelligence Association (Latvijas Inteliģences apvienība), and includes 170 photographs and works by 50 authors from the Baltic republics, Sweden, Germany, Iceland, the United States and European Union institutions, the publisher said.

Copies of the book will be presented to embassies in Latvia as well as to the national libraries of their home countries.

A Latvian version was published on May 3 on the 15th anniversary of the 1990 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

A Russian version of the book is to be published next year.

A 10-year retrospective compilation is the latest album by the long-running Latvian guitar rock group Līvi, the Rīga-based recording company MICREC announced Dec. 7.

Entitled Dziesmu izlase, 1995-2005, the album includes 20 tracks. The compilation draws on five earlier albums: K.M.K.V.P. ( 1996), Bailes par ziņģēm ( 1997), Viva (1998), 2001 ( 2000) and Pāri visam (2004). The tracks were chosen by Līvi guitarist Ainars Virga, who views them as the group’s most successful songs from the past 10 years, MICREC said.

Also included is “Aiziet garām,” a new song recorded this year.

Although the band’s official Web site announces that the new album would include fresh recordings of the songs, MICREC’s Guntars Račs confirmed in an e-mail that the only new recording is “Aiziet garām.”

Līvi is one of Latvian popular music’s legendary groups. Formed in 1976 in the port city of Liepāja, the group has seen both long-running success as well as its share of tragedy, notably the early death of founder Ēriks Ķiģelis and, just two years ago, the deaths of drummer Dainis Virga and sound operator Juris Jakovļevs in an automobile accident.

The group has released more than a dozen recordings.

Current members of the band include Ainars Virga on guitar and vocals, Jānis Grodums on bass and vocals, Vilnis Krieviņš on drums, and Guntars Mucenieks on keyboards.