The Court of Appeals has upheld the verdict of a lower court refusing to extradite Lithuanian citizen Darius Reika for prosecution in the United States. Reika, who denies all charges against him, is accused of bribing an U.S. Embassy employee in Vilnius while seeking to obtain nine U.S. visas for Lithuanian citizens.
Internal disagreement within the Lithuanian Jewish Community led to the temporary closure of Vilnius' only working synagogue. According to the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the synagogue was closed when a small group of supporters of Rabbi Shalom Ber Krinsky (photo) insulted Head Rabbi Chaim Burstein during a religious ceremony. The insults reportedly resulted from a disagreement over who is Lithuania's chief rabbi.
The armed forces announced plans to destroy Lithuania's final batch of land mines on June 6, the second country among Baltic and Scandinavian states to do so. The 4,000-odd landmines left in Lithuania after the pullout of Soviet forces in 1993 are being destroyed in accordance with the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which bans their use and production.
Lithuanian Foreign Ministry delegation met with Georgian diplomats in the southern Caucasia to discuss bilateral relations and the integration of their countries into the politics of EU. During the meeting, Lithuanian and Georgian diplomats also discussed a possible use of EU security and defense instruments that could help in combating organized crime and corruption in Georgia.
Official reports revealed that the number of people emigrating from Lithuania is continuing to increase. When compared with the same period last year, almost twice as many people left Lithuania during the first three months of 2004. While the numbers of people migrating to countries of the former Soviet Union remain the same, migration flows to Western countries show a significant growth from 896 people last year to 2,161 this year.
The Lietuvos Rytas daily reported that Boston's St. Peter's Cathedral, which was built by Lithuanian immigrants 100 years ago, might be sold by the Catholic diocese as a way of handling the wave of pedophile-related lawsuits leveled against the church.
