New ambassadors from Japan and Lithuania have begun their work in Latvia, the president’s press office has announced.

Seiichiro Otsuka is Japan’s new ambassador to Rīga. In her March 29 meeting with the ambassador, Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga said her country recalls that Japan’s diplomatic representative was the last to leave Latvia when it was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940.

Although Latvia does not have an embassy in Japan, Vīķe-Freiberga told Otsuka that opening one is a priority that she hopes soon will be realized.

The president also met with Lithuania’s ambassador, Osvaldas Čiukšys, the press office said. The two noted the symbolism of the day, when both countries became members of the NATO defense alliance.

Toronto Ziņas, a biweekly electronic publication in Canada that claims to be “the world’s only bilingual Latvian e-zine,” has launched a new Web site.

Started as an e-mail newsletter in 2000, the publication is edited by Māra Gulēna, a freelance writer and editor based in Toronto. Creation of the new Web site was coordinated by Gulēna between workers in Canada and a Web programmer in Latvia.

Launch of the new site, torontozinas.com, was timed to occur a month before Latvia joins the European Union, Gulēna said in a press release.

“The timing is perfect,” she said. “Latvian sites with any news component tend to be either only in Latvian, or only in English. Since Torontozinas.com is bilingual, it is accessible to Latvian speakers and non-speakers around the world.”
 
The publication is centered around an events calendar for the greater Toronto area. About 14,000 Canadians of Latvian descent live in Ontario province, about half of them in Toronto, according to the 2001 federal census.

The publication also carries news and commentary.
 
Gulēna also hosts the “Sveiks” Latvian program on Toronto’s OMNI Television and writes a column for the daily newspaper Diena in Rīga.

Torontozinas.com has received major financial support from the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība), the Latvian National Association in Canada (Latviešu nacionālā apvienība Kanādā) and the Latvian Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto.

Latvia’s national airline, airBaltic, will begin direct flights six days a week to London from Rīga on March 28, the airline has announced.

The Rīga-London route will not be flown on Saturdays.

The flight is one of three new flights announced by the airline. The first flight from Rīga to Dublin will take off April 3 and will go to twice weekly (Tuesdays and Saturdays) on May 1.

Direct flights between Rīga and Milan also commence May 1. The route will be flown Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the airline said in a press release.

Air Baltic Corp. is a joint stock company in which the Latvian state owns 52.6 percent. Scandinavian Airlines System is the largest private sector shareholder, controlling 47.2 percent of the stock. Last year airBaltic carried 336,000 passengers.