Thursday
2013.05.23
Arūnas Gelūnas – former minister of culture and now Lithuania's ambassador to UNESCO – has fixed his attention on his native town, Kaunas. He has mentioned he will be seeking to have Kaunas and its modernist architecture – particularly on Donelaičio Street – made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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One and a half months of acclimatization, training, uneventful waiting at the Base Camp, and freezing weather – all for a fleering moment on the world's highest peak. In the early morning of Wednesday, May 22, Edita Uksaitė Nichols finally did it – she reached the top of Mount Everest.
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Lithuanian Economy Minister Birute Vesaitė's flight to Kazakhstan on a plane booked by a private company casts a shadow on the entire cabinet, the country's President Dalia Grybauskaitė says.
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Lithuania's bankrupt bank Snoras says that it has secured the redemption of its investment in the Cayman Islands' funds and continues negotiations with Cypriot companies over the recovery of loans they own.
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Last Tuesday, the Lithuanian parliament held hearings on two bills related to LGBT rights in the country. As many as 50 MPs (out of 141) supported an initiative by notoriously homophobic politician Petras Gražulis to introduce fines for promoting LGBT rights. Learning about that, Lithuanian showbiz celebrities came out with unprecedented support for the LGBT community.
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Laurynas Juozas Liutkus, a second-year student at Klaipėda University, says he did not waver when two Russian-speaking men approached him near the White Bridge in Vilnius last Friday and offered to pay for voting in the Eurovision Song Contest. The student, who is doing a degree in journalism, realized at once it was some dirty business and resolved to look into it. On Saturday, he shared his the story with 15min.
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Sietse Bakker of the Eurovision Song Contest has informed 15min that organizers of the event will investigate a possible case of vote rigging in Lithuania.
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A Lithuanian delegation led by Economy Minister Birutė Vėsaitė flew to a business forum in Kazakhstan on a charter eight-seat business-class airplane paid for by Arvi company.
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Access to university education in Lithuania is low, say analysts of the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Center in their first education and study reviews.
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Cyprus' gross domestic product can contract by 10 percent this year, the island nation's finance minister Haris Georgiades says.
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On Tuesday, the parliament of Lithuania opened discussions into Civil Code amendment bill which, according to its authors, should bar LGBT people from being foster or adopted parents.
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Eighty volunteers will assist during events held in the framework of Lithuania's presidency over the European Union (EU) Council in the second half of 2013.
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Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius expects a European-gauge railway line from Lithuania's border with Poland up to Kaunas to be completed next year, while the Rail Baltica Project Directorate plans to finish work by the end of 2015.
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Head coach of the Lithuanian national basketball team Jonas Kazlauskas has announced a list of 15 candidates for the national team that will compete in the European Basketball Championship, also known as EuroBasket 2013, in Slovenia in September.
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Lithuania's law enforcement institutions are preparing to ensure security during EU presidency events in Vilnius.
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The three Baltic prime ministers will meet in Jūrmala, Latvia, next Thursday to discuss the future of the Visaginas nuclear power plant project, the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan, Rail Baltica, and other issues.
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Lithuania’s nuclear facility project is more than seven years old but nothing has been done, Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has said.
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Lithuania's business ties with the United States have the biggest development perspective and influence on bilateral relations, according to Jovita Neliupšienė, an adviser to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė.
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The European Commission, which is currently assessing the so-called “25 percent rule”, a Lithuanian legislative provision under which large gas users will have to purchase 25 percent of their gas supplies from the future liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, is likely to tell Lithuania to scrap this clause, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius believes.
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LHV, one of Estonia’s biggest banks, and its Lithuanian partner, the company RAZFin created by the Rakauskas family and Alvydas Zabolis, seek to acquire Finasta, an investment bank controlled by Snoras, after signing the deal on the acquisition of Snoro Lizingas (Snoras Leasing), a consumer finance company owned by the collapsed Lithuanian bank, the web portal eversus.lt reports.
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Russia’s energy giant Inter RAO UES says that the days when electricity generated in Russia was almost exclusively cheaper than that sold on Nord Pool Spot exchange are gone, the Verslo Žinios business daily reports.
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The 2013 Eurovision song contest can only be won with bought votes, allege two Russian-speaking men who, before the final concert on Saturday, were offering Lithuanians money to vote for the entry they work to promote. The two men drove in a white BMW to a meeting with 15min journalists and, five minutes into the conversation, presented a bundle of euro notes to show they meant business. The men were frank: they were doing this in fifteen different countries. And perhaps quite successfully – in Saturday's Eurovision finals, Lithuanian gave 12 points to the country they were promoting.
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Poland's outgoing Ambassador to Lithuania Janusz Skolimowski says the relations between the two neighboring states and nations are very good, adding that attitudes of Lithuania's incumbent center-left government is different from the earlier center-right Cabinet.
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Some Lithuanian ministers plan to chair EU Council meetings in Lithuanian during the country's turn at the rotating EU presidency, the Lithuanian Television's news service reports.
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Vilnius University continues topping the list of Lithuanian universities published by weekly magazine Veidas. It was placed number one for the 16th time.
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Russia's Rusline will operate flights between Lithuania's second-biggest city Kaunas and Moscow's Domodedovo Airport during the summer season.
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Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office is asking Prosecutor General Darius Valys to turn to the Lithuanian Seimas in order to get MP Egidijus Vareikis stripped of his legal immunity.
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Expanding the role of culture in solving social and economic issues will be one of priorities of the upcoming Lithuanian EU presidency, Lithuania's Minister of Culture Šarūnas Birutis says.
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During the upcoming presidency of the EU Council, in discussions on youth policies, Lithuania will stress the need to integrate young people who don't work or study into public activities, Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labor Algimanta Pabedinskienė says.
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The results of an exam on Europe, which were announced on Friday, have shown that Lithuanian schoolchildren scored better than their teachers.
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Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, accepting honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, encouraged its students to embrace challenges and take on responsibilities.
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When secondary school pupils show a lack of diligence in their studies, teachers still sometimes use a somewhat old-fashioned disciplinary measure – threatening they will end up in a vocational school instead of a university. Nowadays, however, many a university graduate in Lithuania struggle to find a job and therefore flock to vocational schools to learn a trade.
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A “decision-in-principle” on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas should come by July 1, Lithuania’s Energy Minister Jaroslav Neverovič has said.
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ILGA-Europe, an LGBTI rights organization, has published its annual review of the situation of LGBTI rights in Europe.
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The Czech Republic has no plans to rush into introducing the euro as the existing flexible koruna rate is beneficial for the country's economy, Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas has said in Vilnius on Thursday.
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Persons who were detained in Vilnius on Wednesday for allegedly illegal trade in oil products are linked to an international smuggling scheme that has been detected in Lithuania, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has said on Thursday.
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Zabolis Partners, an investment banking company headed by Alvydas Zabolis, and Estonia's bank LHV are buying Snoro Lizingas (Snoras Leasing), a consumer finance company formerly owned by the collapsed bank Snoras, the Vz.lt news website reports citing unofficial sources.
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Over a half of people in Lithuania are in favor of the legalization of dual citizenship, a recent survey has shown.
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Lithuanian MEP Leonidas Donskis, who has recently organized a discussion on Ukraine, hopes for civil and not political changes in the country.
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Vilnius police are carrying out an investigation into an incident on May 9 when Valerij Ivanov, former leader of post-Soviet organization Yedinstvo, displayed a portrait of Stalin at Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius.
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A project to launch the production of aluminum oxide crystals, or industrial sapphires, in Kaunas free economic area next year will bring an investment of 41 million litas (EUR 11.9m) into the Lithuanian chemical industry, the business daily Verslo Žinios reports.
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The council of Punsk, in Poland, intends to go back to the issue of the three Lithuanian-language schools faced with closure on Friday.
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Air Lituanica, an airline company controlled by the local authority of Vilnius and private investors, plans to launch operations in late June with a flight to Brussels and hopes to generate 40 million litas (EUR 11.6m) in revenues by the end of the year.
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The Bank of Lithuania will issue two coins to commemorate the country's EU Council presidency.
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Andrius Kupčinskas, mayor of Lithuania's second-largest city Kaunas, says he will seek to have the city host 2014 Euroleague finals in Žalgirio Arena.
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According to prosecutor Arūnas Meška of the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office, not only are people sold to sex slavery, but more and more children are taken abroad to shoplift and adult men sold to forced labor.
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Sweden’s Ikea proceeds with the staffing of its shopping center that will be opened in Vilnius in August, the Verslo Žinios business daily reports.
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Lithuania’s banks press the government to impose restrictions on cash payments. However, the consumers and businesses are not too happy about these ambitions while the central Bank of Lithuania and the Finance Ministry seem to be in no rush to issue a clear position on the matter, the Verslo Žinios business daily reports.
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The head of the Lithuanian Government Algirdas Butkevičius is not averse to making public statements. He is even more prone to changing his positions, qualifying them, or complaining that reporters misinterpret him. 15min looks at why the prime minister is misunderstood so often.
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A huge shipment of drugs was apprehended at the Lavoriškės checkpoint on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.
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The Lithuanian subsidiary of US energy giant Chevron plans to increase its authorized capital by 10.623 million litas (EUR 3.08m).
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The Seimas of Lithuania has rejected a Cabinet proposal not to carry out a state audit at a fund in charge of compensation for nationalized Jewish assets.
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The more the European Union and Russia work together, the more they both benefit, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has said in Vilnius on Tuesday.
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It is worthwhile for small countries to have nuclear energy, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has said on Thursday after a meeting with the president of Finland. Finland is currently constructing its fifth nuclear reactor.
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The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the country's embassy to Vilnius are planning to organize a Japanese business mission to Lithuania this year to explore for and establish potential trade and investment contacts, the business daily Verslo Žinios reports.
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Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says she has "allergy" to political parties because she used to be a member of the Communist Party.
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Following the resignation of Paulius Lukauskas as managing director of Enterprise Lithuania, the government's export promotion agency, business people are worried that foreign direct investment and exports are no longer a priority for the Economy Ministry, the media reports.
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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Konstantin Gryshchenko says that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is being treated in accordance to the law, and pledges that Kiev will ensure "the best medical treatment" for the politician who has health problems.
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Tallinn has, for the first time since 2007, overtaken Vilnius as the most expensive Baltic capital in terms of apartment prices, according to the real estate services company Ober-Haus.
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After a week spent in a base camp at the foot of Mount Everest, Edita Nichols and her team finally received good news – ropes for climbing were installed and ready, there was to be a window of good weather, and other climbers had already climbed the world's highest peak on the southern slope from Nepal. So Altitude Junkies also packed their bags and set out on the summit push on the northern slope.
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Following the government’s decision to authorize Energy Minister Jaroslav Neverovič to consult with regional partners – the Latvians and the Estonians – whether they find the new terms of the project on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas acceptable, the three Baltic countries have opened consultations on the issue.
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A fund in charge of compensations for the Jewish property has received about 1,000 applications from Holocaust survivors.
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More than one-fifth, or 22 percent of the Lithuanians, had unreported labor income in 2012, a poll by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LLRI) has shown.
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Eastern Europe, including Lithuania, has become one of the most attractive regions for investments, the Baseline Profitability Index (BPI) – a new ranking by the monthly Foreign Policy magazine – has shown.
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The popularity of Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius and government has dropped over the past month, shows a survey published in Delfi.lt news portal.
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Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says Minister of Economy Birutė Vėsaitė might continue working in the cabinet, provided that she takes note of the criticism levied against her.
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President Dalia Grybauskaitė says she will not reveal her intentions of running for the President of the European Council before the end of Lithuania's EU Council presidency.
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On Thursday, the police reported an arrest of nine youngsters for hanging an anti-Soviet banner from an overbridge in Vilnius. The public reaction was critical of the police, saying the law enforcement overreacted, but it is possible that the arrest was part of a much bigger operation. Sources tell 15min that the banner was just an excuse for detaining the youths in order to prevent “something much more serious that was being planned.”
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