NATO's northern air operations leaders met at the Zokniai air base for their annual meeting last week. General William T. Hobbins, head of the Allied Air Component Command Headquarters in Ramstein, Germany, the subordinate leaders of five Combined Air Operation Centers, and Arturas Leita, commander of Lithuania's Air force, participated in the confidential meeting. Information about the conference was announced only after the meeting was over. The generals discussed NATO patrolling within Baltic airspace, air control and NATO's participation in international military missions.
One-hundred new cases of HIV were registered in 2006, the Lithuanian AIDS Centre reported, 78 of whom are men. Forty new cases were reported in Klaipeda County, and 20 in the Vilnius area. Three HIV-positive women gave birth in 2006, but preliminary tests show their babies to be HIV-negative. Some 62 percent of the HIV carriers contracted the virus through shared needles and 24 percent through sexual intercourse, 14 percent of whom couldn't identify the infected partner. The oldest person infected with HIV last year was 65. The average age of those infected is 32 years. A total of 1,200 HIV cases have been reported in Lithuania since Jan. 1, 2007. Five people died of AIDS last year.
President Valdas Adamkus will visit the United States Feb. 6-13 and meet with U.S. President George W. Bush. The Lithuanian will also attend a working dinner hosted by U.S. Vice-President Richard Cheney, and is due to meet other high-ranking officials of the U.S. administration. He will also visit the U.S. Congress and meet members of the House of Representatives and Senate. Adamkus will also attend the U.S.-Baltic Foundation's annual conference, where he will be honored with the Baltic statehood award. Before arriving in Washington, Adamkus will visit San Francisco, where he plans to meet City Mayor Gavin Newsom, deliver a lecture at the World Affairs Council and attend a working dinner with the heads of information technology companies.
The first hydroelectric power plant built on Lithuanian funds was opened in the Sang Bar settlement of Afghanistan's Ghor province. The facility will supply energy to some 200 local families, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said. With a total cost of some $40,000, the project was implemented in coordination with the local administration. The local community contributed some $4,000 to the project. The construction of two more small hydroelectric power plants - also financed by Lithuania - is currently underway in the province. Since the summer of 2005, Lithuania has been leading one of NATO's Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan.
Dalius Cekuolis, Lithuania's permanent representative to the United Nations, has been elected to chair the UN Economic and Social Council for a period of one year. He is the first Lithuanian diplomat that's been elected to chair one of the key UN bodies. A total of 54 of the UN's 192 members are elected to the UN Economic and Social Council for a period of three years. Lithuania was elected as ECOSOC member for 2005-2007. The ECOSOC chairman is elected every year from each regional group.
