Kaunas general prosecutor's office applied to Kaunas Regional Court on May 25, accusing the former Parliament Speaker Viktoras Muntianas of bribery and misuse of authority. If the accusations are proven in the criminal court Muntianas faces sanctions including up to 6 years of imprisonment. Several former Kaunas municipality officials and two Kaunas businesswomen are also the suspects in the case. The prosecutor of organized crime and corruption investigations of the General prosecutor's office, Aidas Mazeika, said the former parliament speaker is suspected of forging documents and misusing his factual position for personal gain.
Petras Grazulis from the Lithuanian Order and Justice party, run by the former impeached President of Lithuania Rolandas Paksas, registered amendments of the Criminal Code on May 25 establishing sanctions for public promotion of homosexuality. If the amendments are adopted by the Parliament, the promotion of zoophilia, necrophilia, and homosexuality will be punishable by a fine of between 1-5 thousand litas (289-1448 euros) and up to one year imprisonment. "It's not a big fine and not much imprisonment, only up to a year, but maybe they'll understand that their processions and meetings are not allowed" said Grazulis.
Former President and former Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Brazauskas has spoken about his fight with lymph nodes cancer. The 76-year-old former politician admitted he has had five sessions of chemotherapy, must drink hormones three times a day and is afraid that the doctors might apply very aggressive measures after four unsuccessful chemotherapies. Brazauskas had prostate cancer a few years ago but he claimed he was cured after 35 sessions of radiology.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius announced the end of the economic crisis would come on June 21. At the sitting of the ruling coalition Kubilius relied on Bloomberg's credit default swap which indicates that the Lithuanian financial situation is improving for the third month in a row. Kubilius said that as a physicist he came to a conclusion that after a month Lithuania shall reach the same economic results as in September 2008, thus the crisis shall be over on June 21. The liberal Arturas Zuokas also suggested that anyone who mentions the word "crisis" should pay a 100 litas fine.
Lithunian retail trade chain Maxima has lowered prices of 500 of its most popular consumer items as of May 25. Prices of dairy products, coffee, tea, fruit drinks, chocolate, household cleaning stuff, hygiene and other goods are to be slashed by 15 percent. Representatives of the company explained the decision was taken to decrease the prices of a large variety of goods with lower demand, with the aim of stimulating consumption and giving people the opportunity to continue buying the products they were accustomed to.
