Off the wire

SHAME: The Lithuanian Football Federation's general secretary Julius Kvedaras has sent a letter of apology to the country's Jewish community for Nazi-style chants made by teenage soccer fans during a match between teams from Lithuania and Israel last week. Over 100 Lithuanian soccer fans yelled out the German-language phrase "Juden Raus" (Jews Go Away) during the UEFA cup return match between Vilnius Zalgiris and Tel Aviv Maccabi in Vilnius on Aug. 23. The game handed Maccabi a 1:0 victory. The Nazi calls could be clearly heard on the TV broadcast from the stadium. Similar insulting slogans were made during a friendly between the Lithuanian and Israeli teams in Kaunas on Aug. 15. The head of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Simonas Alperavicius, mailed a written address to the Lithuanian Football Federation and the head of the national broadcaster LTV on Aug. 24 calling for severe punishment of the soccer fans.

NOSEDIVE: A Boeing 737-300 of Germany's Lufthansa had a "slight malfunction" and made an emergency landing at Vilnius Airport on Aug. 27. Alvydas Sumskas, acting director of the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Administration in charge of flight safety, said that the crew of the Lufthansa airliner, which was on its way from Moscow to Frankfurt, requested permission to land in Vilnius after noticing a malfunction in the aircraft's air-conditioning system. The plane was at an altitude of 9.5 kilometers over Lithuania. The malfunction posed no actual threat to the plane, but was the cause of discomfort to its passengers. The Boeing is currently under examination by Lufthansa representatives.

NEW PLANET: The International Astronomers Union's discovery bureau in Cambridge has confirmed that Lithuanian astronomers Kazimieras Cernys, Vygandas Laugalys and Kazimieras Zdanavicius discovered on the night from July 27 to July 28 this year a previously unknown minor planet, which was given the temporary name 2001 OM65. According to the head of the observatory of the Theoretical Physics and Astronomy Institute, Vytautas Straizys, the minor planet, about three kilometers in diameter, is revolving around the Sun in the asteroid zone between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The period of its revolution around the Sun is three years and six months. The planet is the fourth discovered in the Moletu observatory in Central Lithuania. Three were found in 2000, but only one was confirmed.

JUST IN TIME: Despite coming below the top 15 countries in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Latvia has been given the chance to take part in next year's event held in Estonia. Latvian TV reported that Latvia has been given the chance following a decision by the European Broadcasting Organization to invite additional two countries from last year's final to join the 22 expected participants for next year's song contest. It was previously set that the top 15 places from this year's final and another seven countries not participating this year would make up the 22 countries. The additional two countries were to be those taking 16th and 17th place this year - Israel and Portugal. But Portugal has declined the offer, allowing Latvia, which came 18th, to take part. Latvia has already confirmed its participation.

WRECK ON FILM: German television producer Jutta Rabe ended filming on Aug. 24 at the wreck of the ferry Estonia, and left the site on board the Godenwind sailing under the German flag. Rabe, who filmed the wreck and its surroundings with robot cameras the previous day, was closely watched by Swedish and Finnish coast guard vessels. The German TV producer organized a diving expedition to the wreck in August 2000 together with American businessman Gregg Bemis. Bemis and Rabe announced after the expedition that the cause of the tragedy - the worst peacetime tragedy in the Baltic Sea, claiming 852 lives - may have been a bomb. However, experts of international renown said after tests on pieces of metal from the wreck that they found no traces of an explosion. The Estonia went down en route from Tallinn to Stockholm in a storm in the night of Sept. 28, 1994. A report by an Estonian-Finnish-Swedish commission blamed faulty locks on the bow doors, heavy weather and excessive speed for the disaster.

RUSSIANS PAN APPEAL TO PUTIN: The Union of Russian Compatriots' Associations and the Estonian United People's Party have condemned appeals, spread through leaflets, for the introduction of Russian peacekeepers into Estonia. Chairman of the Union of Russian Compatriots' Associations Arkadi Prisyazhny said the union's board members had found that the leaflets were distributed in the name of the Tallinn Union of Russian Citizens and contained an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the government and the Duma. Chairman of the Soviet and Russian Army and Navy Veterans Union, Adm. Sergei Smirnov, said that such appeals are damaging to the interests of Russian speakers in Estonia. The leaflets, which complained about, among other things, the recent "pogrom against Russians in Paldiski," were also condemned by the Estonian United People's Party.

HONEST COP: Police officer Jurate Bieliauskiene from the Northern Lithuanian town of Siauliai was not tempted by $50,000 she found in a bag. Walking her dog late in the evening Aug. 24, Bieliauskiene, 44, found a man's bag left on a bench near her home. Inside she found several packets of $100 bills. Bieliauskiene is deputy chief of the Interrogation Department of Siauliai's police squad, and is currently acting chief. "I should dismiss those colleagues of mine who were surprised at my decision to hand the cash in, since only people with crystal-clear purity may serve as police officers," Bieliauskiene said. An examination will prove whether the notes are counterfeit. Bieliauskiene, an officer of outstanding authority among her colleagues, has not made a fortune in her career. She earns 2,000 litas ($500) per month and admits that her family is planning to refuse the fixed telephone service as it is becoming a luxury.