Belarus authorities are planning to auction off the airplane confiscated from the two Lithuanian amateur pilots who violated Belarusian airspace earlier this summer. The German made, single motor CS-TW is valued at $85,000 (66,521 euros), but the starting price for the auction was $65,000. Due to a navigational error, the brother and sister team accidentally flew into Belarus airspace and were forced to land by fighter planes. The two were fined 1,450 euros each and held in a containment cell at a Belarus border-guard post. After being held for several days, they were deported from the country.
Vilnius will become a sister city to China's Guangzhou. A delegation from Vilnius will sign the contract during its official visit to China this October. The cities plan to establish deeper economic, scientific, technological, cultural, sport, and health care ties. Chinese delegations are interested in investment and economic cooperation, and have visited the capital several times over the past two years.
The Lithuanian Animal Protection Society (LAPC) interrupted the public slaying of a lamb in Vilnius on Sept. 21. The LAPC received an anonymous telephone call warning that a local artist was planning to slay a lamb during a live performance at the Contemporary Art Center. The society forwarded the information to the State Food and Veterinary Service and the police immediately rushed to the Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius and prevented the slaughter. "To slay an animal without drugging runs counter to many provisions of the animal's well-being and morals. Disguising the act as 'art' is absurd," said LAPC board member Benas Noreikis. Artist Evaldas Jansas and the organizers of the event said the slaying was a form of "art." Organizers of the international festival, Dimensija 1, had included Jansas' concept into the program. They warned the audience of approximately 50 people about the "potentially cruel images," asking underage youth to leave the hall.
State institutions currently offer 5,000 job opportunities, an analysis carried out by the Interior Ministry shows. Out of the 62,426 state jobs recently available, 10 percent or 4,999 posts are still vacant, and 1,684 new jobs have been created during the past three years. Asked to indicate reasons behind the state's failure to fill all vacancies, institutions pointed to poor salaries and intensive staff turnover, said the Interior Ministry. Regardless of the high number of vacancies, the Interior Ministry prepared a draft resolution for the establishment of another 225 new positions under an order from the prime minister. The Interior Ministry has proposed a resolution to the government, stipulating that ministries and other state institutions with vacant positions should fill them without delay. If the jobs are not filled by December, the Interior Ministry will propose the elimination of all vacant positions at the beginning of next year
