Latvia

Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki is expected to arrive in Philadelphia tonight and see the team's orthopedic doctor, Bill DeLong at Temple Sports Medicine, tomorrow. Niittymaki was injured while playing for Finland in the World Hockey Championship in Latvia. According to Flyers trainer Jim McCrossin, Niittymaki underwent an MRI exam of his left groin, and the Finnish doctor reported that the goalie had a four-centimeter tear of the muscle in his left groin. McCrossin said the injury is in an area where it should heal quickly.

Hours after landing in Europe, Patrick O'Sullivan scored the go-ahead goal and the United States held off Latvia, 4-2, yesterday to clinch a quarterfinal berth in the World Hockey Championship in Riga, Latvia. The center made an 11-hour flight from Houston, where he plays for the AHL Aeros, and arrived only three hours before the game. The Americans join Group E's Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. Latvia and Norway were eliminated. Colleges Katelyn Martin scored four times, set the NCAA Division II career scoring record, and led the West Chester women's lacrosse team to its fifth championship-game appearance in six years with a 10-8 win over Limestone College, 10-8, in the Division II semifinals in Lisle, Ill. The Rams (18-2)

You might not want to turn your head at Villanova basketball games this year. If you do, you miss plays like Jonathan Haynes dropping a blind pass to a trailing James Bryson that turns into a slam dunk; or Haynes whipping a no- look, alley-oop pass to Anthony Pelle, who slams down a basket hard enough to rattle the windows in the Mercedes in the parking lot. The Wildcats got their running game going in the second half of last night's 80-63 exhibition...

Worldwide Hostels From Hostelworld.com: Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon Florence Budapest, Hungary Cardiff, Wales Lisbon Krakow, Poland Riga, Latvia Lisbon Geoquiz Saguaro cactus can only be found in which desert? (Answer below) SOURCES: Hostelworld.com, Chicago Tribune

The otherwise interesting Sept. 16 report about the "cultural exchange" of Americans and Soviets in Riga, the capital of Soviet-occupied Latvia, omits the fact that in 1940 the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on the basis of his infamous treaty of friendship with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, occupied the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This Soviet occupation continues to this day, imposing terrible suffering and hardship upon the unfortunate three Baltic nations. The U.S. government has refused and still refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Soviet occupation of these three, previously democratic republics.

Poland is ready to establish diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Foreign Minister Krzysztof Skubiszewski said today. "Taking into account recent declarations by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia concerning their independence, the Polish government expresses its readiness to establish normal inter-state relations with these republics," Skubiszewski said after an emergency meeting of Poland's inner cabinet. Estonia and Latvia declared independence last week during an attempted coup by Soviet hardliners.

In an off-season dominated by medical news, the Flyers said yesterday that Simon Gagne had undergone surgery, Peter Forsberg was ready for his first ankle operation, and Eric Desjardins had decided against surgery. The Flyers also said R.J. Umberger was suffering from dizziness in Riga, Latvia, where he was on the U.S. team at the world championships. Trainer Jim McCrossin said Gagne had surgery on his right hip Wednesday in Vail, Colo., performed by Dr. Mark Philippon. The trainer added that the left winger was on his way home to South Jersey last night and would begin rehabilitation today.

Flyers forward Jeff Carter traveled to Vancouver, but he won't be an Olympian. Carter was left off the Team Canada roster today, when the team decided to stick with Ryan Getzlaf, who returned to the lineup for the Anaheim Ducks - just in the nick of time. Getzlaf, who injured his ankle last Monday, would have needed to be replaced by Carter to meet today's roster deadline. Carter flew to Vancouver yesterday morning just in case Getzlaf couldn't compete, something that seemed like a possibility given Getzlaf's absence in the Ducks lineup on Saturday in Calgary.

Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh yesterday chided Western nations, saying they had reacted too emotionally to recent events in the Baltic republics without fully understanding the nature of the crisis. In his first major interview since he assumed the post, Bessmertnykh told the Communist Party organ Pravda that because the West "does not fully understand what is going on" in the three Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, "it is easy to fall prey to emotions.

Nearly two million residents of Latvia are expected to go to the polls today in what officials of this Baltic republic are calling an "advisory vote" on the question of independence. But nearly everyone, the Kremlin included, regards the vote as crucial to Latvia's chances of breaking away from the Soviet Union. "After the vote, there will be no more argument in Moscow and the world about whether our people want independence," said Dainis Ivans, Latvia's vice president. "Everyone is seeing this as a stay in, get out poll," said Inese Birzniece, a spokesman for the republic's pro-independence legislature.

Somewhere down there in the darkness, a runway has to exist. The view from the Baltic Air commuter flight during the lingering summer twilight (which lasts until 11 p.m. in July) suggests that the ground is near. But where are the lights? The terminal? Once on the ground in the Latvian capital of Riga, only a dollhouse-size building off in the distance is seen on the flat terrain. How can there be so much open space in a micro-country? This puzzling prelude to one of Europe's most storied capitals became typical over my 10 days in the Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia, where cities are like avocados: mundane and crusty on the outside, rich and exotic on the inside - and all eerily uncrowded by northeastern U.S. standards.

SO, DO YOU KNOW where Latvia is located? Well, neither did Villanova's James Bell. But since he was heading there, he consulted a map to find out. "I knew it was somewhere in [Eastern] Europe," said the 6-5 sophomore wing guard, a member of the U.S. National Team that competed in last month's Under-19 World Championships. "It's like right under Russia. When I found out, the first thing I thought about was it's a long flight. " And for the guy who's better known by his middle name of Taj, it turned out to be a rewarding one. He started all nine games for former Villanova assistant and new George Mason coach Paul Hewitt, averaging 3.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16 minutes for a squad that went 7-2. The Americans finished fifth, after losing in the quarterfinals to eventual bronze-medal winner Russia.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Russians are back. Twenty years after Soviet troops left to the delight of a liberated nation, Russian schools, businesses, newspapers, and communities are thriving in and around Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. But while many Czechs seem to be leaving decades of bad blood behind them, there's alarm in Russia at the economic impact of a new wave of middle-class emigration to Eastern Europe, where life seems far simpler and where European Union membership brings dynamism.

Japan's premier survives a vote SEOUL, South Korea - Vowing to stay in office only a few more months to guide the response to the nation's nuclear crisis, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Thursday survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote aimed at driving him from power. Kan, who assumed his job last June, cut a backroom political deal with members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan only hours before the parliamentary vote. "I want the younger generation to take over my duties after I fulfill the role I should play in handling the disaster," a somber Kan, 64, told legislators.

By David Bezmozgis Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 356 pp. $26 Reviewed by Mike Fischer The Free World , David Bezmozgis' first novel, begins its journey in much the same way as the Krasnansky family it features: with the promise of good things ahead. We first meet the Krasnanskys in a crowded train station in Vienna, Austria, where three generations of them are midway in their journey from Latvia to the West. It is 1978. The Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky is about to be convicted of spying and treason, and Leonid I. Brezhnev is in power.

NAISSAAR, Estonia - In the Baltic Sea, about 45 minutes from Tallinn, the boat full of music devotees arrives at this near-desert island, then rides in army-style trucks past rusty Soviet war machinery and defused mines to a concert hall called Omari Barn - for music they can't hear anywhere else. Tanglewood meets Robinson Crusoe here at the Nargen Festival, an out-of-the-comfort-zone break from the venerable concert halls of Tallinn as well as an immersion into Estonian identity. It leaves little question why tiny Baltic republics, particularly Estonia and Latvia, have become a fierce force in classical music - a force heard with increasing frequency in Philadelphia, leaving audiences both startled and entranced.

Worldwide Hostels From Hostelworld.com: Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon Florence Budapest, Hungary Cardiff, Wales Lisbon Krakow, Poland Riga, Latvia Lisbon Geoquiz Saguaro cactus can only be found in which desert? (Answer below) SOURCES: Hostelworld.com, Chicago Tribune

FOUR YEARS ago, Peter Laviolette had plenty to think about on the 9-hour flight back to the United States from Turin, Italy. When his plane's wheels touched down on the runway, Laviolette was left with just one thought: "I came back and I thought: 'Mission not accomplished,' " Laviolette said. As the head coach of the United States' men's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, it was hard for him to feel otherwise. An eighth-place showing equaled the United States' worst ever in ice hockey - with or without NHL players.

Flyers forward Jeff Carter traveled to Vancouver, but he won't be an Olympian. Carter was left off the Team Canada roster today, when the team decided to stick with Ryan Getzlaf, who returned to the lineup for the Anaheim Ducks - just in the nick of time. Getzlaf, who injured his ankle last Monday, would have needed to be replaced by Carter to meet today's roster deadline. Carter flew to Vancouver yesterday morning just in case Getzlaf couldn't compete, something that seemed like a possibility given Getzlaf's absence in the Ducks lineup on Saturday in Calgary.

WITH THE Olympic cauldron being lit tomorrow night - possibly by former hockey star Wayne Gretzky - and the men's hockey-puck drop just 5 days away, we wanted to give you 10 players to watch during the most anticipated hockey tournament since Salt Lake City in 2002: 1 Ryan Miller, United States: It's arguable that no player will have a bigger impact on how his team finishes than Miller. The U.S. team has no chance to medal without Miller being at the top of his game. The Sabres goalie has been at the top of the NHL in save percentage all season.