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The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

VILNIUS, Lithuania — As soon as Google Maps Street View was rolled out in Lithuania earlier this year, tax authorities were ready. Sitting in the comfort of their own offices, inspectors used the free Internet program for a virtual cruise around the streets of some of the Baltic country's big cities, uncovering dozens of alleged tax violations involving housing construction and property sales. They identified 100 homeowners and 30 construction companies as suspected tax dodgers thanks to Street View, finding homes where they shouldn't be and other suspicious activity, Darius Buta, spokesman for the State Tax Inspectorate, said Wednesday. ......

Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print. While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.

The Daily Telegraph has seen confidential spending proposals and internal documents planning an unprecedented propaganda blitz ahead of and during European elections in June 2014. Key to a new strategy will be “public opinion monitoring tools” to “identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens’ interest”. Spending on “qualitative media analysis” is to be increased by £1.7 million ($2.7 million), and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets, an additional £787,000 ($1.24 million) will be need to be...

Miss Lithuania 2012: Greta Mikalauskyte (Missology) More/swimsuit video at Reaganite Republican...

Palestine can count on about 12 Yes votes by EU countries when it tries to upgrade its UN status, in a move expected later this month. … A senior EU diplomat told this website the Union remains divided on the question, however. He noted that member states’ votes “will probably follow the same pattern as with UNESCO,” referring to a decision by the UN’s Paris-based cultural wing to admit Palestine as a member last year. At the time, 11 countries—Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Spain—backed Palestine’s UNESCO bid. Another 11—Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy,...

Nick Clegg clashed with the Prime Minister today after criticising plans to claw back powers from the EU. The Deputy Prime Minister said that only 'populists, chauvinists and demagogues' could benefit from a treaty negotiation, even though David Cameron yesterday re-affirmed his intention to repatriate powers. Mr Clegg warned that European politicians should focus on 'jobs and growth' rather than attempting to reform EU institutions. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061798/EU-treaty-change-Nick-Clegg-clashes-David-Cameron-reform.html#ixzz1dnt5E4wa

New cars and vans in the European Union will produce one-third less carbon dioxide within eight years, under proposed new rules set out on Wednesday (11 July) in Brussels. By 2020, the average emissions from new cars will have to be no more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven (5.4 oz/mile), a cut of more than 40 grams from today's levels and of 35 grams per kilometer compared with the 2015 target, if the proposed new regulations are accepted. Connie Hedegaard, climate chief of the European commission, said the goals were "ambitious but achievable" and would benefit...

The European Parliament on Wednesday (13 June) approved draft laws that would strongly increase Brussels' power over eurozone countries' budgets. But they tempered the previously austere proposals with measures for growth, debt redemption and democratic scrutiny. "This is the core of a fiscal union," said Austrian MEP and socialist leader Hannes Swoboda. "This is the first time that there is a structural solution [to the eurozone crisis] on the table," said Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt. His Green counterpart Daniel Cohn-Bendit called it a "milestone" for the strength of agreement among MEPs. The pair of laws—also known as the two-pack—is among...

More than 20 years after the fall of communism, the wealth gap between the east and west of Europe persists, and countries from the Black Sea to the Baltic are shedding people at an alarming rate. While membership in the European Union has brought prosperity to many, it has also made it easier to emigrate, drawing young people out of the east, especially rural areas, and leaving behind an ever older and poorer population. Romania, the EU’s second-poorest member with an average monthly wage of US$450, is one of the worst affected, with a 12% population drop in a decade,...

Once again the world economy has proved the naysayers wrong and there's been a "real rebound" so far this year, Barclays CEO Robert Diamond told CNBC Wednesday. "One of the lessons we’ve learned in the last couple of years is every time it’s doom and gloom ... the economy is far more resilient," he said. "We see China at 8 percent to 9 percent growth, and reduction in unemployment [cnbc explains] in the U.S. So we’ve seen a real rebound." That even extends to Europe, which was stabilized by the European Central Bank's [cnbc explains] second liquidity injection. President Mario...

Another excellent paper by Simon Tilford from the Centre for European Reform. Eurozone policy-makers – from President Sarkozy and Wolfgang Schäuble to the former President of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet – advocate that Italy and Spain should emulate the Baltic states and Ireland. These four countries, they argue, demonstrate that fiscal austerity, structural reforms and wage cuts can restore economies to growth and debt sustainability.Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ireland prove that so-called "expansionary fiscal consolidation" works and that economies can regain external trade competitiveness (and close their trade deficits) without the help of currency devaluation. Such claims are highly misleading....

...Turkey has grown in influence and authority as a regional power in the Western Balkans, Central and South Asia and the Horn of Africa. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been a key interlocutor, not least on Afghanistan where he made a huge personal contribution to last month's conference in Istanbul. With Turkey as host, for the first time, Afghanistan's neighbours have agreed to implement political and security measures to underpin the cause of reconciliation... Turkish economic growth has been exponential. Turkey is the 16th largest economy in the world and will assume the Presidency of the G20 in 2015....

Open Letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and President Barack Obama Gentlemen, For the last seven years I have written about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have covered the US Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy. I’ve also covered the British, Lithuanian, Afghan and Iraqi forces, among others, in places ranging from Iraq to the Philippines and beyond. My most recent embed in Afghanistan was at personal invitation from then-General David Petraeus. It is said that I have spent more time with American combat forces than any writer in US history. I do not know if this...

A diplomatic row between Lithuania and Austria erupted after Austrian authorities released a former KGB officer implicated in a 1991 massacre in Vilnius. Mikhail Golovatov was arrested at Vienna airport on July 14 but released after 24 hours and allowed to travel to Moscow. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman said Austrian authorities had decided that the arrest warrant issued by Vilnius, which alleges crimes against humanity, lacked details of the man's suspected criminal actions. Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene said the country had recalled its ambassador from Vienna and delivered a protest note. ...

Lithuania is torn apart over what stance to take toward its own gay population. As the country grapples with how much tolerance it will tolerate, it is facing strong pressure from the EU. ­Local deputies have recently voted for the draft law banning “homosexual propaganda”. The European Parliament reacted immediately, lancing those who disapprove of what many see as the agitation of homosexuality in schools and, what is even more surprising, in kindergartens. The struggle escalated in 2009 when the National Association of Parents and Families petitioned the Lithuanian Ministry of Labor and Social Security, complaining about a teaching technique...

- Perhaps, but Northern Europe didn't get rich by adopting policies resembling what Obama today is doing to the US.

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- The skeletons of 18 of Napoleon's soldiers were laid to rest Monday in Lithuania - 200 years after the French emperor tried in vain to invade Russia. ... The remains of the soldiers were discovered last year by road builders outside the Lithuanian capital. Experts said the soldiers were members of the infantry, hussar and dragoon units that retreated from Russia in one of history's most catastrophic military campaigns. The new graves were added to around 2,000 others found eight years ago during excavations in Vilnius. Studies have helped explain how soldiers in Napoleon's Grand Army perished...

Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff is fighting libel charges filed by an alleged war criminal in Hungary. The case, being heard in a Budapest courtroom, began Oct. 8 and is scheduled to continue through a final hearing Dec. 16.It is likely the first time that a man under investigation for mass murder has sued his accusers, Zuroff told JTA. Zuroff, who has been searching for Nazi war criminals under the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Operation Last Chance program, submitted documents to the Hungarian authorities in August 2006 to prove that Sandor Kepiro, while serving as a Hungarian gendarmerie officer in World War...

Not every recession-hit country in Europe is like wayward Greece, Portugal and Spain. Recently Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania dropped by our offices to discuss his small country's economic prospects. Unlike Greece, which has garnered headlines for its economic woes, Lithuania more than a year ago firmly faced up to the economic crisis and took stern measures. Government spending was slashed by 30%. Public-sector salaries were cut 20% to 30%. And pensions were knocked down an average of 5%. The prime minister himself took a pay cut of 45%. Yes, some taxes were raised, and the corporate rate was...

While in Vilnius, I went to the NKVD/Gestapo/KGB Museum, and on my last day, the massacre site at nearby Ponary/Panieriu. In between, I got a rental car and drove about 100 km to the west of Vilnius to a city called Kovno/Kaunas -- site of the infamous 'Ninth Fort'. And no, the trip wasn't all death and gloom. In fact, I found Vilnius and its inhabitants to be charming and worthy of another visit. But I did draw a series of lessons from what I saw on my excursions; part I is below:

April 30, military contingents conducting the QRA Baltic Air-policing mission will change during a ceremony at the LAF Siauliai Air Base: Polish Air Contingent with four MiG-29 will replace French soldiers. Polish forces are deploying air assets for the Baltic Air-policing mission for the third time (after service on January-March 2006 and March-June 2008 with MiG-29 fighter-jets). The majority of the present shift come from the 23rd Air Base and the 1st Tactical Squadron of the Polish Air Force based in Minsk Mazowiecki near Warsaw. The third Polish rotation named „Eagle 3" will comprise 100 troops, 8 of them pilots....

If a picture is worth a thousand words then what are a thousand crosses worth? How bout 100,000 crosses? The Hill of Crosses boasts in excess of 100,000 crosses to remind on-lookers of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid for the sins of mankind.

Colonel Sebastien Vallette swings back in his desk chair, minutes after landing his Mirage fighter on a Soviet-era runway. A detailed map on his wall shows Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, flanked by bold warnings: "Do Not Enter Russian Airspace". For six years, NATO allies have taken turns patrolling the airspace of the three Baltic states, minnows which won freedom from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and have testy ties with Moscow. Vallette and six other French flyers under his command are the current eyes in the sky. "The point about airspace sovereignty is to know who's doing what in...

France's plan to sell Moscow four warships has triggered anger in former Soviet republics now firmly anchored in the European Union and NATO, fearful their new western allies underestimate the Kremlin. In interviews with AFP, top officials in the Baltic states questioned France's willingness to go ahead with what would be an unprecedented transfer of advanced military technology by a NATO member to Russia. They insisted that, while they too want better ties with their Soviet-era master, Paris's stance is wrong-headed and sends the wrong signal to a Moscow government already all-too keen to assert itself in its region. France...

Note: Contact info deleted by me. # Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Designates 11 New Countries as Eligible for H-2a and H-2b Nonimmigrant Visa Programs Release Date: January 22, 2010 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano this week designated 11 new countries as eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant visa programs, which allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary or seasonal jobs for which U.S. workers are not available. The 11 newly designated countries—Croatia, Ecuador, Ethiopia,...

When people think of the public morals of Europe, the word "decadence" comes to mind. Sex, drugs, and the decline and fall of the churches all define the trend. Amsterdam, for example is celebrated as "San Francisco times ten." But that portrait doesn't fit as well in Eastern Europe. Take Lithuania, a small Catholic country of 3.3 million people that was forced to be a captive nation within the Soviet Union for five decades. At the end of 2009, their parliament, the Seimas, amended a new law passed in July for the protection of minors. It passed 58 to 4,...

I live and I work in Lithuania. Our resource "Patamushta" is opened to communicate for all comers: serious and cheerful, idlers and workaholics, clever and not so. Dialogue on a portal of "Patamushta" are any burning topics. Lithuania - the country where we live, but not frameworks of our inquisitiveness. Litva - russkij sait

School children from Chaghcharan district in Ghowr province participate in an award ceremony supported by ISAF forces Dec. 29 (Photo courtesy of ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan) NEWS RELEASEISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan 2010-01-CA–006 For Immediate Release CHAGCHARAN, Afghanistan (Jan. 2) – About 500 school children from Chaghcharan district in Ghowr province participated in an award ceremony supported by ISAF forces Dec. 29. The head of the provincial education department, local authorities and the chief of staff of the Lithuanian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team there attended the event. "The local government put a lot of effort into facilitating education for the people...

NEWS RELEASE ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan 2010-01-CA–007 For Immediate Release CHAGCHARAN, Afghanistan (Jan. 2) – A Lithuanian Army corporal presented a photographic exhibition to the local Department of Culture and Information on behalf of the Lithuanian-led Chagcharan Provincial Reconstruction Team. The exhibition, called "Our Memories," featured images taken by Corporal Vilius Dziavecka during his deployment in support of the PRT here three years ago. Eid Gul Aazim, director of the education department in Ghowr, supported the art exhibit initiative, authorizing its indefinite stay in the department so all visitors could see and enjoy it. During the opening ceremony, community...

Of insult and mockery Dec. 22, 2009 EFRAIM ZUROFF , THE JERUSALEM POST Last month, I was invited to attend two important conferences convened to combat contemporary anti-Semitism. The larger and ostensibly more important one was the annual meeting of the Global Forum to Combat Anti-Semitism, which is sponsored by the Foreign Ministry and deals with the diverse forms of the problem all over the world. Its 500 participants include government officials, representatives of all the major Diaspora NGOs in the field and leading intellectuals and activists. From past experience, I know that it is a good venue to meet...

Lutheran Churches in Eastern Europe have added their voices to those of Lutherans worldwide who are critical of the decisions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to endorse same-sex unions and to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships. The leaders of the Lutheran Churches in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania met Nov. 3-4. The bishops issued a message noting the crisis of faith and fellowship caused by the actions of the ELCA and the Church of Sweden in endorsing same-sex sexual relationships. These churches are all members of the Lutheran World Federation. “At the present time a common witness...

Animal lovers and computer hackers have helped hunt down a Lithuanian man who hurled a dog off the side of a bridge and posted the footage on the Internet. Harrowing mobile phone footage shows the man, named by the Daily Mail newspaper as Svajunas Benuik, carrying the dog to the side of the bridge. He then jokes to a friend who is filming him that he is about to prove "dogs can fly". Benuik waits for the traffic to clear before dropping the dog over the edge. Amazingly the dog survives the fall and can be heard crying over the...

EXCLUSIVE: CIA Secret 'Torture' Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy ABC News Finds the Location of a "Black Site" for Alleged Terrorists in Lithuania By BRIAN ROSS and MATTHEW COLE Nov. 18, 2009 — The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

Shootings and solidarity: a very problematic case Two murders shocked my hometown Kaunas. When I heard that a judge was murdered, I thought, 'Mafia shootouts - here they go again'... We have more or less forgotten about them since the 90s. However, the case proved to be quite different. It provokes thousands of comments on news portals every day now. Apparently, almost a year ago, or so they say, the judge, the other victim and the judge's colleague were accused of child molesting by Drasius Kedys, the father of the child concerned, and he is now the key suspect. The...

Lithuania Parliament Rejects CIA Prison Probe By REUTERS Published: September 10, 2009 VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania's parliament on Thursday rejected holding an inquiry into a U.S. report that the country hosted a secret CIA prison for al Qaeda suspects. ABC News reported in August that Lithuania was the third European country after Poland and Romania to have provided the Central Intelligence Agency with facilities for detaining and, possibly, interrogating suspects. "The committees have concluded that there is no factual information, confirming at least in part the media allegations, and also, that there is no ground to conduct any new investigation,"...

"Irresponsible" To Identify Secret Sites, Says CIA; Lithuania Denies Allegation A third European country has been identified to ABC News as providing the CIA with facilities for a secret prison for high-value al Qaeda suspects: Lithuania, the former Soviet state. Former CIA officials directly involved or briefed on the highly classified program tell ABC News that Lithuanian officials provided the CIA with a building on the outskirts of Vilnius, the country's capital, where as many as eight suspects were held for more than a year, until late 2005 when they were moved because of public disclosures about the program. Flight...

Baltic economies - a painful downfall after years of prosperity In the first six months of 2009, the Baltic states' GDP shrank by nearly 20%, which was the worst result in Europe. As a consequence of job cuts in private enterprises and the public sector, the unemployment level has tripled in comparison with the preceding year to exceed 15% in all three countries. It is still unclear from the economic data for the past few months whether recession in the Baltic states will continue to worsen. However, it seems that the economic indices will not fall so rapidly in the...

Lithuania in Russia customs row Tension has risen between Lithuania and Russia over inspections of Lithuanian goods lorries, many of which are now stuck at Russian customs. Lithuania accuses Russian customs officials of singling out Lithuanian lorries trying to enter Russia from neighbouring Latvia. Reports say hundreds of Lithuanian lorries are stuck at the Latvia border. Russian officials say the tighter inspections follow breaches of customs regulations by Lithuanian hauliers. Both Latvia and Lithuania - former Soviet republics - are EU members. Lithuania's transport ministry says the delays are causing daily losses of up to 500 euros (£429) per lorry....

Lithuania MPs ban gay ‘promotion’ AFP/Vilnius Lithuanian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to overturn a presidential veto of a child-protection law that bans what supporters say is the promotion of homosexuality. The law, due to come into force in March 2010, bars the “public dissemination” of information favourable to homosexuality, claiming it could harm the mental health and physical, intellectual and moral development of youngsters. The legislation - which also covers bisexuality, polygamy, images of heterosexual intercourse, death and severe injury, the paranormal, foul language and bad eating habits - does not specifically define public dissemination nor set down the punishment...

An Open Letter to the Obama Administration from Central and Eastern Europe 2009-07-15 by Valdas Adamkus, Martin Butora, Emil Constantinescu, Pavol Demes, Lubos Dobrovsky, Matyas Eorsi, Istvan Gyarmati, Vaclav Havel, Rastislav Kacer, Sandra Kalniete, Karel Schwarzenberg, Michal Kovac, Ivan Krastev, Alexander Kwasniewski, Mart Laar, Kadri Liik, Janos Martonyi. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Adam Rotfeld, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Alexandr Vondra, Lech Walesa. We have written this letter because, as Central and Eastern European (CEE) intellectuals and former policymakers, we care deeply about the future of the transatlantic relationship as well as the future quality of relations between the United States and the countries of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A group of 25 US lawmakers urged Lithuania and Poland in letters released Wednesday to enact laws this year to address restituting property the Nazis stole during the Holocaust. Democratic Representative Robert Wexler and 24 colleagues wrote to prime ministers Donald Tusk of Poland and Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania to push for action on the legislation during a June 26-30 conference on Holocaust-era assets to be held in Prague. "We believe that the Prague Conference may represent the last and best opportunity to resolve outstanding Holocaust-era issues during the lifetime of Holocaust survivors," wrote Wexler. He urged...

Poland Follows Lithuania in Considering Law to Protect Youth from Promotion of Homosexuality By Peter J. Smith WARSAW, June 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Poland may soon consider passing a new law, similar to the one passed this week in neighboring Lithuania, that bans the media and schools from promoting adverse behaviors to the development of young people, including violence, suicide, and homosexuality. MP Artur Górski, deputy head of the parliamentary commission on Polish-Lithuanian cooperation, has stated he intends to copy the Lithuanian law and introduce it before the nation’s parliament for passage. "I have already asked for the translation of...

Riga - The economic gloom afflicting the Baltic states got several shades darker Tuesday with a fresh forecasts revising expectations downwards. Until mid-2007 the so-called 'Baltic Tigers' of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia recorded Europe's fastest growth rates, but their economies have stalled spectacularly in the wake of the global downturn. According to a spring forecast from the Estonian Ministry of Finance, the economy in the smallest of the Baltic states will contract by 8.5 percent in 2009. "Estonia is undoubtedly at a difficult time. At the same time this gives us a real opportunity to use the downturn to create...

<p>In these difficult times for creditors, a Lithuanian debt collector is offering an unconventional service to retrieve arrears: witchcraft.</p> <p>The Vilnius-based firm has hired Vilija Lobaciuviene, the Baltic nation's most famous self-styled witch, to hunt down companies and individuals who are failing to pay their debts amid the credit crunch.</p>

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2008 – The number of daily attacks in Iraq has dropped nearly 95 percent since last year, a U.S. military official said yesterday. Iraq suffered an average of 180 attacks per day this time last year. But over the past week, the average number was 10, Army Brig. Gen. David G. Perkins, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said. “This is a dramatic improvement of safety throughout the country,” Perkins told reporters during a wide-ranging news conference in Baghdad yesterday. He added that the country’s murder rates have dropped below levels that existed before the start of American...