Running naked through the streets ...
VILNIUS - Sauna lovers in the port town of Klaipeda are poised to stage an unusual protest rally in front of the city council. Protesters are going to march stark naked through the city to show their disapproval of the plan to privatize the city’s only public bathhouse. The demonstration, which is sure to attract widespread media attention, is the latest part in a lengthy drama in this coastal city of 187,000 residents. In 2002, a group of Klaipeda residents collected signatures to stop privatization of the bathhouse, and the facility was excluded from the list of the city properties that were slated to be sold. Six years later, however, several city council members have re-initiate...

  Multilingualism and legislating...
VILNIUS - Most Lithuanian parliamentarians would never be confused when visiting foreign countries: they speak several languages and feel at home in the most distant and exotic locations. However, some Lithuanian MP’s completely rely on their interpreters when visiting abroad. Lietuvos Zinios newspaper has studied the issue by examining questionnaires filled out by deputies at the Seimas (parliament) chancellory. All members of Lithuania’s parliament have stated that they are fluent in Russian. Several MP’s admitted that Russian is regrettably the only foreign language that they have mastered. But most parlamentarians in Lithuania claim proficiency in 2-3 foreign languages, and some have ...

  Adamkus won’t budge on power plant...
The row over the Ignalia nuclear power plant is set to continue following an announcement from the president that he is determined to hold his ground on the issue. President Valdas Adamkus made the statement while meeting with European Parliament Chairman Hans-Gert Pottering during an official visit to Lithuania. Adamkus assured his guest that Lithuania was prepared to strictly adhere to the international obligations the country assumed after accession into the European Union. The Lithuanian president stressed, however, that global changes in energy resources were having a massive impact on the country.  “Lithuania hopes that the European Union will take into consideration the ...

  Golden Age for amber may be over in the Baltics...
The time when huddled masses of foreign tourists headed straight from the airport to local gift shops to buy amber artifacts may be coming to an end in the Baltics. Merchants are concerned that amber jewelry sales are declining and complain that public interest toward amber is fading away. “I can’t say that amber sales are sky-rocketing, it’s quite the opposite,” says a manager at the Vilnius Amber Museum. Most buyers are tourists from Italy, Spain, and Japan. Tourists like animal figures carved out of amber, yet little ship models are not very popular with them, no matter how elegantly they are designed. Edita Koziroviciute-Miuvene, who owns the largest chain of souvenir shops in Lith...

  Guest workers firebombed in Northern Ireland...
VILNIUS - Four Lithuanian guest workers were forced to leave their home after local racists attacked them with a petrol bomb. Two men and two women were in the house at Millburn Park, Cookstown, when a device was hurled at the front window in the early hours of April 20. The victims of the attack, including a young woman who is eight months pregnant, barely escaped injury after the firebomb failed to penetrate the window of their residence. A car belonging to one of the occupants was destroyed by fire. This was the third time that the Lithuanians, who have lived in the house for just a month, have been targeted. Police believe the attack was racially motivated and have asked anyone w...

  ‘Garbage wars’ erupt in the Baltics...
VILNIUS - A Lithuanian civic group has launched a major trash removal program in an attempt to outdo a similar initiative which was recently launched in Estonia. The Estonian civic group “Teeme Ara 2008” (Let’s do it) will launch its anti-garbage campaign on May 3. Tiina Urm, a member of the organizing committee, said 21,975 volunteers are ready to participate in the action. The organizers plan to bring this number to 40,000 by the starting date. The Estonian event hopes to collect more than 200,000 bagfuls of garbage and transport them to 270 temporary garbage stations all over the country. Hundreds of garbage trucks will take the bags from these locations to their final destination. ...

  Sad farewell for murdered woman in Scotland...
VILNIUS - On April 19, citizens of the Scottish city of Arbroath said farewell to Jolanta Bledaite, a Lithuanian woman who came to the country in search of a better life. Bledaite instead met with an untimely death at the hands of vicious killers. The memorial service was conducted by Reverend Kevin Golden of the St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church. Lithuanian Ambassador to the U.K. Vygaudas Usackas and British representative to Lithuania Bill Toner attended the remembrance ceremony. Sue Smith of Arbroath, the organizer of the ceremony, has returned from Alytus in Lithuania with pebbles from Jolanta’s family and fresh flowers from the city mayor. The pebbles were blessed by Father Golden ...