en.15min.lt - Lithuanian news in English

Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant director Rimantas Vaitkus: The plant is our bread

To live in a stone age or drive modern cars – these are two alternatives that Rimantas Vaitkus, director of Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, weighs one against the other discussing the future development of Lithuanian energy sector. In an interview to 15min, he admits that the project of building a new nuclear power plant could have been started while the old one, Ignalina plant, was still operational. Besides, he adds, the new plant will not be a cure-all – Lithuania will still have to get almost 40 percent of its electricity from other sources.
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Lithuanian Government sets up panel to prepare for Soviet damage compensation talks

The Lithuanian Government has agreed to set up an ad hoc commission to draft provisions and an action plan for negotiations on compensation of damages caused by the Soviet rule in the country.
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Two thirds of Lithuanians unfavourable to building new nuclear facility

Almost two-thirds, or 65 percent, of Lithuanians disapprove of building a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas, the latest poll commissioned by the Green Policy Institute has shown.
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President Dalia Grybauskaitė's gaffe further sours Lithuanian-Polish relations

Diplomatic difficulties between Poland and Lithuania are showing no signs of abating. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė is reported to have taken a swipe at Poland while on a visit to the US - a step that did not go unnoticed in Warsaw.
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UK court freezes 492-million-euro assets of Lithuanian bank Snoras' ex-owner

At the request of Snoras' administrator, a UK court has granted an injunction freezing up to 492 million euros of assets owned by Vladimir Antonov, the former majority shareholder of Snoras bank which was nationalized last year and is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.
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Lithuanian emigrants come back home feeling nostalgic

Many Lithuanian residents emigrate to foreign countries, but some also come back, longing for home and families being the main factor behind their return, shows a new study.
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International folklore festival to start in Vilnius

International folklore festival "Skamba Skamba Kankliai" starts in Vilnius on Thursday. The traditional festival, held for the last 40 years, will last until Sunday.
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Supertalent but not Superplayer yet: is Jonas Valančiūnas ready for NBA début?

Jonas Valančiūnas has concluded his last season in Europe and is now moving to the NBA. Next season, Vilnius Lietuvos rytas forward is making his début with Toronto Raptors that chose Valančiūnas as the fifth pick in the NBA Draft. Has Valančiūnas made as much progress as everyone expected of him before the season? Is Lithuania's most promising basketball player ready for challenges in the NBA?
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Parliament declares 2013 the year to commemorate Polish-Lithuanian uprising of 1863

Lithuania's parliament has declared 2013 the year of commemorating the 1863 uprising.
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Lithuanian President's incident in Lemont discussed with US officials

An incident involving Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė in a Chicago suburb has been discussed with US officials. During the incident, protesters unhappy with the outcome of a child custody case in Lithuania, blocked the president's cortege.
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Lithuanian president thanked Barack Obama for NATO decisions important for Baltic security

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with United States President Barack Obama on Monday on the sidelines of the NATO summit and thanked him for his personal contribution to decisions important for security of the Baltic states, the Lithuanian president's press service said.
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Lithuanian EuroBsket coin recognized as world's most beautiful

Lithuanian EuroBasket coin recognized as world's most beautiful

Most foreign visitors to Lithuania’s websites come from UK and Scandinavia

Rimvydas Valatka: Satanic Mass of Garliava moves to Presidential Palace

At first, the Satanic Mass of Garliava moved to television. On all channels, the all-Lithuanian judge, Neringa Venckienė, was condemning the entire state leadership, including President Dalia Grybauskaitė, calling them fiends, perverts, dogs, and using other legal terms so characteristic of this particular jurist but which, in the President's view, are not sufficient basis for sacking a judge.
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Poetry Spring laureate Eugenijus Ališanka plunges into profundity through life's surface

This year's Poetry Spring will award its prize to 52-year-old poet Eugenijus Ališanka who receives the honours for a poetry book called “If.” I met with the poet to talk about things – not how they would be if they were, but how they are if they are.
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Parliamentary panel calls for keeping EU Gender Equality Institute in Vilnius

Transport Minister calls to review ban on Google Street View in Lithuania

Lithuanian dinghy sailor Gintarė Scheidt wins world gold

Lithuanian dinghy sailor Gintarė Scheidt won World Championship in Laser Radial class in Germany on Sunday.
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NATO chief announces extension of Baltic air-policing mission without dates but with possibility of review

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has announced the decision made by leaders of the Alliance's member-states to extend the Baltic air-policing mission without fixing specific dates.
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Jews in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Their Sense of Belonging

In his three-volume history of Jews who used to live in present-day Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia ("The Jews in Poland and Russia"), historian Anthony Polonsky vividly reconstructs Eastern Europe as a place of Jewish life rather than of Jewish death.
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Ethnicity, Economics and Energy – Russia’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe

Russia’s energy supplies ensure that Moscow maintains a geopolitical foothold in the European part of the former Soviet space, despite some of them having long drifted westwards in terms of their political orientation.
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US historian Timothy Snyder: Society, not courts, should fight Nazis and Stalinists

US professor Timothy Snyder, who specializes in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, has said in Vilnius that open societies should rely on argumentation, not courts, in their efforts to fight people who deny crimes committed by Nazi and Soviet regimes.
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Darius Udrys: Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis is no hero

If there’s one thing civilized people should all be able to agree upon, one would think that it would be not to make heroes out of Nazi collaborators. Yet here in Lithuania, we are about to witness just such a moral travesty. Somebody apparently decided it would be a good idea to move the remains of Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis, acting prime minister of Lithuania during the first months of the Nazi occupation, from the United States to Lithuania.
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Palanga summer season kicks off, expecting more tourists

Palanga has kicked off the summer season with a buzzing main-street fair, a number of concerts, sports contests and the Baltic Assembly, which saw the participation of all the chairwomen of the Baltic States’ parliaments.
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New Lithuanian Film Centre – without Lithuanian filmmakers

Lithuania, following examples of many European Union states, is finally setting up a Film Centre. It is something that Lithuanian filmmakers have long awaited. However, there is a shadow of a doubt to their joy over the good news.
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Jewish property restitution: Is Lithuania a good or a bad example?

After years of negotiation, the Lithuanian Government has assigned 128 million litas to Jewish organizations and proudly declared itself an example to other countries with unsettled historical issues. Sceptics, however, claim that Lithuania makes for a very bad example.
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Over third of Lithuanians would ask to replace homosexual teacher

36.6 percent of people in Lithuania would ask to replace a teacher in their child's school after learning that he or she is homosexual, a survey has shown.
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MP Petras Gražulis: Let's chase gays and ambassadors out of Lithuania

Lithuanian MP Petras Gražulis, who has earned notoriety for his homophobic statements and a police record for his behavior during a Gay Pride event in Vilnius in 2010, has made another stunt right in the Parliament building.
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Journalist hooked on making difference in media coverage of HIV

If you were to flip through Lithuanian periodicals in search of anything on HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, you would likely stumble upon vociferous, judgment-charged headlines in relation to the virus and its carriers. Formidable health challenge or life-threatening infection would probably be the mildest expressions you would see.
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Lithuania's military commander Arvydas Pocius: The army must do its missions with whatever money it is given

Once Lithuania joined NATO, it courageously took on responsibility for rebuilding Afghanistan's Ghor Province, but it can now barely scratch up half of the sum agreed upon by the Alliance members. We have to do with whatever the military is given for carrying out missions, General Arvydas Pocius, chief commander of the Lithuanian army, sighs.
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Lithuania's software piracy rate at 54 percent

Lithuania is the Baltic leader in terms of software piracy, with 54 percent of software used in the country being illegal and the value of illegal software amounting to 32 million euros, a study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has shown.
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Horror museum of Cold War

Missile base, where military men used to make plans how to sweep Western Europe from the face of the earth, is now bustling with tourists. The Cold War Museum reopens after renovation in Plateliai, Žemaitijos National Park.
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Vilnius sees growth in tourist numbers

Numbers of visitors in Vilnius are forecast to rise during this year's tourism season after several years of slowdown, the daily Vilniaus Diena reports.
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Leonidas Donskis: The end of modern politics?

The question whether modern politics, the way it has existed for centuries, will survive the 21st century is no joke nowadays. The Manichaeism of the left and the right, which, in Milan Kundera’s words, “is as stupid as it is insurmountable,” and which is deeply grounded in Western Europe and North America, is much more than partisan politics.
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Conference planners expect to cash in from Lithuanian EU presidency

Business conference organizers are clapping their hands: in anticipation of Lithuania’s EU presidency in mid-2013, business is picking up the pace and is expected to roll into full swing by the middle of next year. As many as 190 official EU conventions, conferences and workshops are planned to be held as part of the EU chairmanship in Lithuania next year.
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More than half of Lithuanians do not read books

More than half of Lithuanian people (52 percent) say they do not read books at all, and a quarter (25 percent) spend up to 3 hours on reading a week, according to a recent survey by public opinion and market research company Vilmorus for publishing group Alma Littera.
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Lithuanian entrepreneurship: Young business and risk-shunning businesspeople

Lithuania is a leading economy in terms of young people going into business, while it is number one in Europe by the number of new businesses. Such is the picture painted by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, where Lithuania took part for the first time. It also says that the greatest obstacle for Lithuanian businesspeople to move forward is their fear of taking risks and lack of confidence.
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Findings by Snoras’ commission will expected to affect proceedings against Vladimir Antonov in UK

Lithuanian Railways set to launch 75-million-euro bypass project

Lithuania‘s VAE establishes subsidiary VAE-SPB for participation in new nuclear facility project

Soviet monster: A tour around defunct Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant

The Soviet Union has left a huge burden on Lithuania's shoulders. One could not stop thinking about it while on a tour in Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INP). The monstrous structure has been silent ever since its reactors were shut down several years ago. But does silence mean peace?
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Alytus – industrial town without industry

Upon the Soviet authorities' decision, Alytus was made into an industrial centre of the Lithuanian SSR. It was famed for its entrepreneurship. Over two decades ago, the town was thriving. Since there was no competition, all it took was to produce as much as possible and then steal it. Factory workers would bring their produce home and then sell it on the black market. Stealing was so profitable that some factory workers managed to build themselves lofty houses.
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Stuffed Cabbage From the Polish Border

The first time I visited Lithuania in 2006 I was overwhelmed by the extraordinary sensation that I was traveling through a giant Jewish deli that extended across the entire country. Blintzes! Latkes! Sour cream! Herring! Smoked fish! Black bread! And even — on the breakfast buffet of one hotel I stayed in — vodka, at 8 in the morning.
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