France offered Lithuania its support to ensure safety in the D-6 oil field, according to the Communications Ministry. On March 9 Lithuanian representatives met with French National Assembly deputies in Vilnius, who pledged to bring up the issue in their meeting with Russian representatives in Kaliningrad. The D-6 deposit, which has been exploited at full capacity since last year, is situated near the Curonian Spit, a UNESCO World Heritage List site.
Twelve new HIV cases were registered in February this year, with 9 men and three women diagnosed last month. Over the same period last year, five cases were registered. Since 1988, a total of 1,002 people have been diagnosed, most of them intravenous drug users.
An award from the Adomas Mickevicius Foundation was posthumously granted to Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, an active NATO supporter who passed away earlier this year aged 91. During a meeting in Vilnius on March 9, President Valdas Adamkus and his Polish counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski, signed the Jerzy Giedroyc Prize in honor of Nowak-Jezioranski, who was a long-standing director of Radio Free Europe's Polish division and an active supporter of Lithuania's strategic goal of NATO membership.
President Valdas Adamkus is the most trusted politician in the country, according to a RAIT survey conducted Feb. 17-22. The leader of the Labor Party, Economy Minister Viktor Uspaskich ranks second. Adamkus was chosen by 29 percent of respondents from a list of 16 politicians.
