Archive for the Category ‘Lithuania’

 Opposition gains popularity, poll shows

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania, TOP NEWS Apr 2, 2010

VILNIUS — After being trounced in Lithuania’s 2008 parliamentary elections, polls show that if the 2012 election was held now the left-wing opposition would return to power. The austerity measures taken by the conservative coalition since being elected in 2008 are taking their toll on the electorate’s patience, as a recent article in the New York [...]

 Dalai Lama to get street in Kaunas

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania Apr 2, 2010

KAUNAS, Lithuania — The Dalai Lama may soon have a square or street named after him in Kaunas in a sign of solidarity for his nation of Tibet. Kaunas already has a square named after Chechnya, the troubled federal subject of Russia in the north Caucasus that continues to try and break away from Moscow. However, [...]

 Illegal cigarette factory raided

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania, TOP NEWS Apr 1, 2010

VILNIUS — Police in Lithuania’s capital busted an illegal cigarette factory Tuesday that employed six workers, three of them Ukrainian. Posing as a legitimate factory, the workers drank rum and worked to create thousands of boxes of cigarettes under the brands of West, Viceroy and Jin Ling. The cigarettes were likely headed for the Russian market, [...]

 Head of postal service arrested, fired

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania, TOP NEWS Mar 31, 2010

VILNIUS — In a bit of déjà vu, the head of the Lithuania’s scandal-plagued national postal service Lietuvos Paštas was arrested Wednesday on charges of swindling and extortion. Lietuvos Paštas General Director Andrius Urbonas, who started at the job only in October, was removed by the Minister of Transport and Communications Eligijus Masiulis from the post [...]

 Čaplikas: coalition’s days are numbered

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania Mar 30, 2010

VILNIUS — Following the second failure Monday to vote in the coalition’s candidate for the parliamentary vice speaker’s position, Seimas member and former Minister of Health Algirdas Čaplikas warned Lithuania’s government is on its last legs. The ruling coalition, which had 71 members until March (just over half of the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament) now has only [...]

 Two Lithuanians accused of killing countryman in U.K.

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania Mar 30, 2010

LONDON — Two Lithuanian men have been charged with the murder of fellow countryman Alvydas Miksys in the northern London’s neighborhood of Walthamstow on March 20. Sigitas Grigaliūnas, 31, and Titas Januškevičius, 22, who both reside in the U.K. stand accused of murdering Miksys in Gillards Mews, Walthamstow. Miksys, 32, was discovered with severe head and chest [...]

 No Balts harmed in Moscow attack

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania Mar 29, 2010

VILNIUS — No Baltic citizens were harmed or killed in the Moscow bombings today, the ministries of foreign affairs in each country reported. Some 35 people were killed and many more injured in two separate suicide bomb attacks in Moscow on Monday morning in the Park Kultury and Lubianka subway stations. Millions of Muscovites use the [...]

 Kubilius to Putin: revise Russian gas prices

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania, TOP NEWS Mar 29, 2010

MOSCOW — In the first meeting of its kind in six years, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that Russia should reconsider its gas prices. The meeting, which took place in Putin’s Moscow residence on Friday, is a sign of thawing relations between Russia and Lithuania. Putin usually receives a cold [...]

 Anti-corruption czar asked to step down

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania Mar 26, 2010

VILNIUS — The fight against corruption could soon move into a new era after the head of the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) was asked to resign from his post on Wednesday. Minister of Interior Raimundas Palaitis confirmed on Wednesday that FNTT head Romualdas Boreika had been asked to resign and would respond within a few [...]

 Roads closed, homes submerged

Written by Adam Mullett Lithuania, TOP NEWS Mar 26, 2010

VILNIUS — Traffic is being diverted across Lithuania as flooding submerges roads, rendering them impassable and scores of villages are being evacuated. The small Baltic state is in the grips of a flood caused by the quick melting snow and ice deposits that collected during the winter, which set records for its heavy snowfall and low [...]

Archive for the Category ‘Latvia’

 Estonia hit with floods

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Apr 6, 2010

TALLINN — As the spring thaw moves north in the Baltic states, so is the flooding after this winter’s record snowfall. Widespread floods hit Estonia over the Easter weekend, with the greatest threat in the country’s second-largest city Tartu. The water is up over the riverbanks of the Emajõgi River in Tartu and the municipal government [...]

 Linnahall renovation stalls

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Apr 2, 2010

TALLINN — Estonia’s Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi turned down the Tallinn municipal government’s request to negotiate with the Washington, D.C. law firm Hills, Stern & Morley LLP to secure a €178.9 million loan, guaranteed by the U.S. government, to renovate the Linnahall. Although the Linnahall concert hall was completed just in 1980, the concrete, Brutalist-style [...]

 Crashed gas truck sorted out

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Apr 1, 2010

MUSTVEE, Estonia — A gas truck that drove into the ditch hit the road back to its native Poland around 7:40 a.m. Friday morning with police escort, avoiding larger settlements on the way. The truck went off the road on Wednesday morning around 6 a.m. near the small town of Mustvee in eastern Estonia. It was [...]

 Crashed gas truck may explode

Written by Kai Joost Estonia Mar 31, 2010

MUSTVEE, Estonia — A gas truck that went off the road on Wednesday morning around 6 a.m. near the small town of Mustvee in eastern Estonia could cause an 800 m blast if the tank explodes. The Southern Estonian Rescue Service Center announced that the gas tank of the truck, which went off-road on the Jõhvi-Tartu-Valga [...]

 Death threats disrupt school

Written by Kai Joost Estonia Mar 31, 2010

TALLINN — Four unidentified men threatened a female student with her life at the Estonian Business School in central Tallinn. Four men entered the school, located on Lauteri Street at approximately 2 p.m. and approached a 22 -year old female Estonian student, with one threatening to kill her. The police was called out a while later [...]

 Justice minister calls journalists “retarded”

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Mar 30, 2010

TALLINN — Estonia’s proposed source protection law is fueling discord between the government and journalists, with the justice minister calling journalists “retarded” in his blog and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers protesting. The government submitted the draft act to Estonia’s parliament on March 16. If passed, the law would allow the arrest of [...]

 Apartment explosion kills two

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Mar 29, 2010

TALLINN — Two people were killed by an explosion early Sunday morning in the nine-story apartment building they lived in, located in Tallinn’s Kristiine neighborhood, about 4 km south of Old Town. Police say that the explosion was allegedly caused by one of the people killed, a 39-year-old ex-convict named Sergey. The explosion also claimed the [...]

 Lake Ülemiste not contaminated

Written by Kai Joost Estonia Mar 29, 2010

TALLINN — The cargo airplane that landed on a frozen lake in Tallinn was transported to Tallinn International Airport on Saturday morning at 1 a.m. to be dismantled and investigated for the causes of the accident. The cargo carrier AN26, belonging to the Polish EXIN company, was forced to make an emergency landing on Lake Ülemiste, [...]

 Pension reform moves ahead

Written by Kai Joost Estonia, TOP NEWS Mar 25, 2010

TALLINN — Estonia’s parliament agreed to send the State Pension Insurance Act amendment draft to the third reading Wednesday despite stiff resistance from the Center Party. The retirement age debate has been raging in Estonia, as the country seeks to find a solution to the demographic problem of an aging population and shrinking labor pool. By [...]

 Corrupt judge sentenced to jail

Written by Kai Joost Estonia Mar 24, 2010

TALLINN — The Pärnu County Court convicted Viru County Judge Jüri Sakkart of accepting a bribe to disclose classified documents Monday, sentencing him to jail time. Sakkart has to spend two years and eight months in incarceration and has to pay 10,875 krooni (€695) for court procedural costs. Sakkart was arrested on Feb. 3 by police [...]

Archive for the Category ‘Estonia’

 Bonus payments to new parents abolished

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Apr 6, 2010

RIGA — Starting Monday, Latvia abolished additional payments for parents of newborn children as part of the emergency cutbacks. The measure, though expected, is expected to deal a further blow to the country’s already dire demographic predicament. The Ministry of Welfare said that additional payments of 100 lats (€140) for the first child, 150 lats for [...]

 Repše tepid to World Bank proposals

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Apr 1, 2010

RIGA — Latvia’s Minister of Finance Einars Repše has reacted coolly to the World Bank’s tough recommendations for the 2011 budget by calling on the Latvia’s political and social leaders to draft alternative proposals. While not criticizing the World Bank’s recommendations outright, Repše on Thursday appealed to all ministries, political parties, business organizations and so-called social [...]

 Čigāne jumps into political fray

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 31, 2010

RIGA — Lolita Čigāne, head of the non-governmental organization Delna, has announced that she will throw her hat into Latvia’s tumultuous political ring by teaming up with former Diena editor Sarmīte Ēlerte in the October elections. The widely-respected Čigāne said Tuesday she was quitting her post as head of Delna, an organization that has fought against [...]

 Šlesers agrees to back government

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 29, 2010

RIGA — Latvia’s First/Latvia’s Way, a center-right political union with 10 seats in Parliament, has announced it will extend its support to the minority government of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis until October’s elections. It was not clear whether the party would join the government and take control of up to three ministerial positions, but party leader [...]

 Nord Stream construction begins

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 26, 2010

RIGA — They fumed and protested, but in the end neither Estonia, Latvia nor Lithuania’s objections and suggested alternatives could stop the Nord Stream pipeline. A massive pipe-laying vessel set to sea Friday in Copenhagen, marking the beginning of the construction of the €7.4 billion Nord Stream gas pipeline project that will connect Russia and Germany, [...]

 Huge pot farm busted

Written by Nathan Greenhalgh Latvia Mar 24, 2010

RIGA — The largest indoor marijuana farm ever detected in Latvia’s history was busted by police Friday, resulting in the seizure of 3,500 marijuana plants and more than 9 kg of dried marijuana. The customs criminal investigation board of the State Revenue Service in the Kurzeme Region is currently holding two suspects in custody in relation [...]

 Thaw brings widespread flooding

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 23, 2010

RIGA — It was obvious to all that the snowiest winter in nearly a century would bring spring floods, and as the thermometer continues to remain above freezing temperature, Latvia is now facing the harsh reality from one end of the country to another. Throughout Tuesday reports trickled in hourly about rising waters in villages and [...]

 Ēlerte forms nonprofit “to improve politics”

Written by James Dahl Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 22, 2010

RIGA – A group of progressives concerned about the future of Latvia has announced the creation of a new nonprofit organization that will focus on facilitating more transparency and popular involvement in politics. Founders said that The Meierovics Society for Progressive Change will “aim to unite people who care for Latvia’s future and are ready to [...]

 Dombrovskis weighs options

Written by James Dahl Latvia Mar 20, 2010

RIGA – Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis’ minority government launched a series of talks with opposition parties to gauge the level of support it can count on as Latvia enters the turbulent waters of pre-election. Opinions vary as to the challenges that the center-right government will face now that it has been deprived of its majority in [...]

 Drunk nearly rams Riga’s Freedom Monument

Written by Adam Mullett Latvia, TOP NEWS Mar 19, 2010

RIGA — A drunken Latvian man disillusioned with the state of the country drove his car head-on at the capital’s iconic freedom monument on Thursday, braking only at the last moment. Eduards Gabrjunas, 43, was drunk at the time when he went to ram the monument, but said he stopped because he saw flowers on the [...]

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