Latvia is still seen as the most corrupt of the three Baltic states, while its relative position in a ranking of 146 nations remains unchanged, the Berlin-based Transparency International said in an annual report released Oct. 20.

Latvia placed 57th in the latest Corruption Perception Index survey, equal with Slovakia. However, its score on Transparency International’s 10-point scale improved to 4.0 from last year’s 3.8.

Latvia also is perceived as the second-most corrupt of the 10 new European Union nations, said Delna, the Latvian anti-corruption organization affiliated with Transparency International. Only Poland is seen as more corrupt.

The Corruption Perception Index is based on polls of business people, academics and country analysts. This year it measured how experts view the level of corruption in 146 nations.

Lithuania ranked 44th, alongside Kuwait and South Africa, a drop of three spots from last year’s ranking of 41st. It is the second year in a row that Lithuania fell in the ranking. Its score also slipped to 4.6 from last year’s 4.7.

Estonia climbed to 31st, equal with Botswana and Slovenia, after falling to 33rd last year. Estonia’s score improved to 6.0 after dropping to 5.5 last year.

Finland once again was perceived as least corrupt, scoring 9 on the 10-point scale. Bangladesh continues to be seen as one of the two most corrupt,  joined in last place this year by Haiti. The United States ranked 17th and Russia ranked 90th.

Larisa Mondrusa, a popular singer who left Latvia during the 1970s to live in exile in West Germany, will return for a 15-city tour of Latvia beginning Oct. 29 in Cēsis, Baltic Records Group has announced.

BRG in December 2003 released Kā senās dienās, a collection of Mondrusa’s most popular songs. Mondrusa at that time returned to Latvia to perform a number of concerts in Rīga and Jūrmala, the recording company said in a press release.

Two albums of her old hits in Russian were released in 2002 and 2003 in Moscow. The singer now is at work on more albums.

Mondrusa became popular as a jazz and schlager singer in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Soviet-occupied Latvia and in Moscow, according to her official Web site. But the lack of “patriotic” material in her songs caused her to fall from grace and Mondrusa decided to emigrate in 1973. In Germany she became popular using the stage name Larissa.

The concert in Cēsis is scheduled at 19.00 hours Oct. 29 in the city’s cultural center.

More information about Mondrusa is available on her Web site, www.mondrus.info.

A concert tour by pianist Armands Ābols of Latvia will take the artist to four cities in the United States before he returns home to play two concerts in honor of his late teacher, Ilze Graubiņa.

The tour, sponsored by the New York-based cultural organization TILTS, begins Oct. 23 in Houston, Texas, and concludes Nov. 6 in Sigulda, Latvia.

Ābols first gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, Spain. Since then he has performed in Europe, North America and South America.

Ilze Graubiņa was a well-known professor at the Latvian Academy of Music. She died in 2001.

Concerts in the United States are scheduled at 8 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Houston First Baptist Church Morris Chapel, 7401 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas; at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th St., New York; at 5 p.m. Oct. 30 in St. John’s Church, 301 N. Newtown Street Road, Newtown Square, Penn., and at 3 p.m. Oct. 31 in the First & Second Church, 66 Marlborough St.,  Boston, Mass.

In Latvia, concerts are scheduled at 19.00 hours Nov. 5 in Rīgas Latviešu biedrība,  Merķeļu ielā 13, Rīga, and at 18.00 hours Nov. 6 in Baltā flīģeļa zāle, Šveices ielā 19, Sigulda.