RIGA Latvia came under renewed pressure to accelerate financial reforms as a senior U.S. official, at a meeting with its prime minister, underscored the urgent need for stricter controls after a money laundering scandal.
STOCKHOLM Bill Browder, an investor who campaigns to expose corruption, has taken a criminal complaint against Swedbank to Latvian authorities, alleging it was involved in a Russian money laundering scandal.
STOCKHOLM, April 17 Bill Browder, an investor who campaigns to expose corruption, has taken a criminal complaint against Swedbank to Latvian authorities, alleging it was involved in a Russian money laundering scandal.
RIGA A year after closing one of its largest banks for money laundering and the detention of its central bank governor for alleged bribery, Latvia is struggling to deal with the fallout from the corruption scandal.
FRANKFURT Latvia's prime minister has promised to accelerate an overhaul of the banking sector as fears grow that money laundering scandals could single the country out as high risk, prompting Swedish lenders to leave and isolating the Baltic state.
RIGA Latvia's president nominated Janis Bordans of the New Conservative Party as prime minister on Wednesday and the lawyer immediately pledged to form a government that would fight corruption and seek to restore faith in the rule of law.
RIGA Dissatisfied Latvians rejected the right-of-centre ruling coalition in Saturday's parliamentary election but suspicion of the left-leaning pro-Russia party makes it likely the next government will be another formation of ethnic Latvian parties to the right.
RIGA Latvia's ruling coalition lost its majority and two newly formed parties took more than a quarter of the votes amid widespread disillusion with the Baltic country's politicians, the result in Saturday's parliamentary elections showed with 80 percent of the votes counted.
RIGA Latvians are set to vote on Saturday in parliamentary elections in which the rise of an anti-establishment party will test Riga's long-standing role as one of West's bulwarks against Russia.
RIGA, Latvia Pope Francis on Monday urged Latvians, who broke with the Soviet Union nearly 30 years ago, to cherish their hard-won freedom and to not forget the sacrifices of those who died for it.
Iran has taken a British-flagged oil tanker seized in the Strait of Hormuz to a nearby port, where the vessel and its crew will remain while an accident it was involved in is investigated, Iran's Fars news agency said on Saturday.