25 – 37^o C (77 – 100 F) more or less continuously for the period June - August ...

Lithuania's unemployment offices (darbo birža) are getting busier.

89% THINK THE SITUATION IN LITHUANIA IS GETTING WORSE

A recent survey shows that 89 percent of Lithuanians think the situation in the country is getting worse for them. After two years of crisis, most people have seen their wages fall along with their living standard. Less people now go on holidays and citizens in the country are buying less goods. The Baltijos Tyrimai survey, carried out 26-31 May showed only 10 percent of respondents thought the country is turning for the better, while one percent had no opinion. unemployment, already nearly at 20 percent, continues to rise in spite of improving macro-economic trends.

FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS FOR PRIME MINISTER KUBILIUS

Lithuanian economy grew faster than initially estimated in the second quarter of 2010, Statistics Lithuania said in a latest report on Friday. The annual growth rate was revised upwards to 1.3% from 1.1% estimated previously. It followed a 2.8% contraction in the first quarter. Gross domestic product turned positive after declining for the past six quarters. In 2009, the economy shrank 14.8%. On a seasonal and working day adjusted basis, GDP rose 3.2% from the first quarter, revised up from 2.9% reported initially. This compares to a 4% fall in the first three months of the year. Annually, the seasonally and working day-adjusted GDP rose 1.4%.

Erikas Vaitekūnas, one of the prosecutors from Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office, was arrested this summer, on suspicion of bribery, by the Special Investigation Service (STT).

SUMMER FRAUD AND CORRUPTION CASES (WILL THEY EVER LEARN?)

VILNIUS — Lithuania’s Minister of Culture Remigijus Vilkaitis has ordered the National Audit Office to compile evidence to incriminate the management of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre because of alleged graft. He has asked for them to prepare evidence and punish those involved in suspected violations in public procurement procedures that run into the millions.

KAUNAS — The general prosecutor’s office is initiating a criminal investigation into the mayor of Kaunas, Andrius Kupčinskas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, for allegedly falsifying city council vote records to change disputed municipal policies. The Mayor is saying the investigation is politically motivated.

VILNIUS — About 1 million litai (€290,000) in funding for the Vilnius Guggenheim Museum, set to be built in the Lithuanian capital, appears to have gone missing according to state auditors.

KLAIPĖDA — A court in Klaipėda is trying to recover 689,209 litai (€199,800) after 58 city employees were implicated in an illegal benefits scheme. The four main suspects, Vice Mayor Judita Simonavičiūtė and city council members Valentinas Greičiūnas, Vygantas Vareikis and Antanas Gintautas Murauskas were called to court in June.

VILNIUS — The ongoing criminal investigation of Vilniaus Vandenys, the Lithuanian capital city’s water utility, heated up with the country’s Public Procurement Office accusing management of hiding key documents. Four senior officials from the state-run Vilniaus Vandenys water utility company, including the CEO have been arrested in a bust by anti-corruption police

PRAVIENIŠKĖS — Lithuania’s Ministry of Justice announces that it is launching an investigation into the construction of a prison hospital complex in the village of Pravieniškės, alleging that millions of euros were wasted on faulty work.

VILNIUS — The Vilnius municipality is demanding an audit of the Sapiega Hospital, alleging 2 million litai (€580,000) are missing and that corrupt personnel policies have crippled the institution’s finances. The dispute comes as the Vilnius municipal government took authority over at the beginning of the month from the Vilnius regional government.

KAUNAS — President Dalia Grybauskaitė sacked a judge this week after it was found that she acted in breach of the law including fraudulently seizing high-value real estate. Disgraced former Kaunas City District Court Judge Daiva Mekšraitienė had the decree signed against her sacking her from the position after an investigation against her. 

VILNIUS — Erikas Vaitekūnas, one of the prosecutors from Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office, was arrested on suspicion of bribery by the Special Investigation Service (STT). The case is yet another blow for the credibility of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which has been under fire all this year.

KLAIPĖDA — The general director and procurement department manager of a Lithuanian oil transport company Naftos Grupė have been arrested by police under suspicion of embezzling 30 million litai (€8.7 million) via fraudulent sales.

VILNIUS — Lithuania’s National Audit Office says that the country’s economic stimulus for small and medium-sized businesses has not been implemented properly, with only 155 million litai out of the total 2.1 billion litai (€608 million) allocated.

VILNIUS — Lithuanian parliamentarians Linas Karalius and Aleksandr Sacharuk were in June facing impeachment votes in the Seimas after a commission set up to consider their fates found that they had seriously infringed on their responsibilities.

BALTIC - RUSSIAN - BELARUSIAN ENERGY WAR HEADING FOR CLIMAX
The relationship between Russia and the Baltic States has hardly been tenser since the Soviet invasion in 1991, and it’s all about energy. The Russians are doing what they can to prevent the Baltic countries from building their new nuclear power plant, and is also trying hard to get total control of everything that has to do with gas, oil and electricity. It now appears, however, that the EU and not least Sweden, has seen this danger and is now planning for support to the Balts, i.e. by supporting an undersea cable from Sweden to Lithuania (the NordBalt project) by allocating € 131 million for the project now in August. The money will pay for the connection Between Nydro, Sweden and Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas

on its way toward the Presidential Palace in Vilnius

BRAZAUSKAS BODY BARRED FROM THE VILNIUS CATHEDRAL

Though it is customary to have the remains of public figures on display in Vilnius Cathedral, the Lithuanian branch of the Catholic Church did not allow it during the funeral mass for late Algirdas Brazauskas, who served as both president and prime minister. Brazauskas, revered by many Lithuanians for his role in securing the country’s independence from the Soviet Union, did not have his remains on display in the cathedral because he was part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Kaunas Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevičius revealed. He said that people couldn’t be rich and powerful without following the ways of the church and still expect the rewards. Brazauskas died on the 26^th of June after a long time struggle against cancer.

BELARUSIAN KGB ARRESTS VILNIUS POLICE CHIEF

The company commander of the municipal mounted police of Vilnius, Laimonas Bankauskas, who was detained on 16 August by Belarusian KGB on alleged accusations of drug smuggling, was released in the evening on 25 August. Mr. Bankauskas was detained in the town of Ashmyany (Hrodna region) on 16 August. 45.5 grams of amphetamine were found on him. Bankauskas denied his guilt. His family says the drugs were planted on him.

Lithuanian Jewish community executive director Simonas Alperavicius

WILL THE TENSION BETWEEN LITVAKS AND LITHUANIA EVER COME TO AN END?

Disagreements and misunderstandings are still far too frequent in the relations between Lithuania and the Litvaks, the Lithuanian Jews who once had its heyday in this country and now today stands at the head of a lot of 'Jewish' in this world.

The last unfortunate ‘incident’ took place last week, when a pig’s head was left at the door of a synagogue in the second largest city in Lithuania, Kaunas – a particularly offensive attack due to the non-kosher status of swine in Jewish dietary laws. Chief Rabbi Chaim Burstein and Lithuanian Jewish community executive director Simonas Alperavicius together issued a statement condemning the incident. “The Lithuanian Jewish community and the religious community of Lithuanian Jews judge this as a Nazi provocation aimed at insulting the ethnic and religious feelings of Lithuanian Jews,” they said. “We hope that Lithuanian society will not be impassive as this act of a few anti-Semitic vandals does not reflect the attitude of Lithuanian society,” Gurevicius added in a subsequent comment.

DONALD TRUMP FILES SUITE AGAINST LITHUANIAN COMPANY

US billionaire Donald Trump’s company has filed an illegal trademark use motion against Mrs. Universe 2010 beauty contest which was held in Lithuania last week.  The suit against Lithuanian company Pramogu Akademija was filed a week ago. The Lithuanian company denies the accusation of usage of an illegal trademark.  The law company will insist on banning the trademark Mrs. Universe 2010.   ”We filed a motion with the Vilnius County Court over illegal use of Mrs. Universe trademark and its Lithuanian version Misis Visata. We filed the lawsuit on behalf of US Company Miss Universe,” Erikas Saukalas of the law office Metida told Baltic News Service

LITHUANIAN NEWSPAPER PREDICTS PRESIDENT CLINTON'S DEATH

According to the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Žinios has former President Clinton only about six months to live. In the middle of August the paper said that Clinton is losing weight and looking worse every day that passes. It also claims that it has come as a great shock to Americans that the former president that once was so popular now has so little time left to live. 

'It is difficult to predict anything, especially with regard to the future', said the noted Danish poet Piet Hein once. But this sort of wisdom does not stop a renowned Lithuanian newspaper…