A chef at the La Mama restaurant in Vilnius' Old Town was detained on suspicion of murdering one of the restaurant's waiters. When police arrived at the scene on Nov. 18, they found the waiter dead with knife wounds on his head and back. Officers suspect the two men had been in a drunken brawl. The incident echoes an instance three months ago when a chef of another restaurant was chased around at gunpoint by security guard of ex-President Algirdas Brazauskas, officer of the VIP security department, Jonas Paulikas. After the incident, the officer lost his post.
Zilvinas Marcinkevicius, one of the executives of retail chain Vilniaus Prekyba, which is slated to participate in the new Ignalina power-plant project via subsidiary NDX energy, on Nov. 19 publicly accused Darius Mockus, the main shareholder of another large corporate group, MG Baltic, of having connections with the Russian secret services and aspirations to destroy the project. Mockus, after hearing the accusations made on the TV show "Forumas," said that he would not comment on Marcinkevicius' "lie." MG Baltic did originally bid to participate in the atomic plant project, but its overtures were rejected. Mockus has publicly denied that he would seek revenge for being cold-shouldered.
Parliament took a thinly-veiled jab at Russia on Nov. 20 when it passed a resolution censuring "any attempts by third countries" who interfere with Georgia's internal affairs with the goal of destabilizing the country on the path to democracy and supporting separatist movements inside the country. Georgia recently lifted the state of emergency it declared following Nov. 7 clashes between the police and the opposition in the capital Tbilisi. The Georgian administration accused Moscow of causing the unrest.
About 13 percent of Lithuania's eleven-year-olds have psychological disorders according to a recently concluded study. Aggressive and malignantly disobedient behavior were found to be most prevalent problems. Behavioral and emotional disorders as well as hyperactivity were considered psychological disorders in the study. While the figures are ordinary in comparison with other countries, researchers warn of a lack of attention being paid to this problem on a national level in Lithuania. A total of 3,000 children from all over Lithuania participated in the study, which was conducted from 2003 to 2006.
A Lithuanian-Russian intergovernmental commission will meet in the Kaliningrad city of Svetlogorsk Dec. 3 - 4 to discuss bilateral cooperation in economic, social and cultural spheres. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place a month ago, but was postponed due to the death of the father of Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas. The commission is co-chaired by Vaitiekunas and Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin. During the meeting, the panel plans to sign an agreement on navigation in the Curonian Lagoon and Lithuanian and Kaliningrad water paths, and discuss a proposal by the Lithuanian Industrialists' Confederation to establish a standing Lithuanian-Russian business forum.
