Daugavpils, Belarus News

Belarus' general consulate in Daugavpils and the Latvian consulate in Vitsyebsk on February 1 started issuing permits for visa-free travel under an interstate local border traffic agreement, BelaPAN said.

Latvian Foreign Minister Aivis Ronis and his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Martinov signed a deal in Riga on Monday simplifying the visa regime between the two countries.

Now that Latvia has become part of the broader European arena, the issue of foreign citizens who want to spend some of their lives in Latvia has become increasingly important.

The first exhibition of work by the abstract painter Mark Rothko to be held in Moscow raises a question: How much was Rothko affected by the decade he spent in Russia? Of course, Rothko was a U.S. citizen, and a leading member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionist painters.