National Oct 15, 2020
Campaigners are raising funds to preserve the former office of a Japanese diplomat who saved Jews during World War II.
World / Politics Aug 22, 2020
U.S. No. 2 diplomat to visit Russia and Lithuania to discuss Belarus
The No. 2 U.S. diplomat will visit Russia and Lithuania soon for talks on Belarus, two sources familiar with the matter said Friday, as Washington seeks a peaceful resolution to that country's election crisis that averts Russian intervention. Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun's planned ...
National / History Aug 10, 2020
Jewish refugee's wartime escape from Nazis, aided by Japan diplomat, highlights unsung heroes
by Magdalena Osumi
Around 300 people are believed to have traveled through Japan with visas issued by Yoshitsugu Tatekawa and other Japanese officials.
World / Politics Mar 11, 2020
Lithuania seeks to heal Soviet trauma after 30 years of freedom
Seeking justice for victims of the Soviet regime to heal historical trauma has become a top priority for Lithuania as it marks 30 years since it became the first republic to break away from the USSR. Take Auksute Ramanauskaite Skokauskiene, one of Lithuania's most prominent ...
Asia Pacific Sep 3, 2019
Lithuania criticizes Chinese diplomats for raucous behavior at pro-Hong Kong protest
Lithuania said on Monday it had lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy after some of its diplomats were involved in disruptions at a pro-Hong Kong protest in the capital of Vilnius last month. Lithuania's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Chinese diplomats acted ...
Basketball | HOOP SCOOP Aug 2, 2019
Bill Bradley details Chiune Sugihara's heroism in award-winning radio documentary
by Ed Odeven
Bill Bradley, captain of the U.S. gold medal-winning basketball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was recently involved in another winning (and historically important) project with ties to Japan. And it has nothing to do with basketball. The weekly satellite radio program "American Voices with Senator ...
World Sep 24, 2018
Pope pays tribute to hundreds of thousands of victims of Nazis, Soviets in Lithuania
Pope Francis paid tribute on Sunday to Jews killed by the Nazis and victims of murder and deportation by the Soviet KGB, in twin visits to memorials marking the darkest periods of Lithuania's history. On the 75th anniversary of the wartime liquidation of the Vilnius ...
World / Politics Jan 18, 2017
Lithuania to build fence along Kaliningrad border, fearful of Russian 'little green men'
Lithuania plans to build a 2-meter-high wire fence along its border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad, its interior minister said on Tuesday, amid continued tensions between Moscow and the Baltic states, which are members of NATO. Eimutis Misiunas acknowledged that such a fence would ...
World Sep 8, 2016
Isolated Russian outpost Kaliningrad withers under confrontation with West
The Baltic Sea outpost of Kaliningrad was once touted as Russia's future Hong Kong: separated from the mainland, with a special status that would allow it to thrive through trade. But for Igor Pleshkov, who employs 300 workers in a cement factory in this region ...
World Feb 7, 2016
NATO plans biggest build-up against Russia since the Cold War
Backed by an increase in U.S. military spending, NATO is planning its biggest build-up in Eastern Europe since the Cold War to deter Russia, but it will reject Polish demands for permanent bases. Worried since Russia's seizure of Crimea that Moscow could rapidly invade Poland ...
World / Crime & Legal Nov 21, 2015
Blunders rock Lithuanian police after distribution of AK-47s
It seemed a good idea at the time — arm Lithuania's police with AK-47s routinely as extra security against any militant plots following the Paris attacks. But, in just days, the decision had led to the accidental shooting of a homeless man, a manhunt for ...
National / History Jul 11, 2015
Chiune Sugihara: man of conscience
by Roger Pulvers
Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, awoke on the morning of July 18, 1940, to a disturbing sight. He peered through the curtains of his bedroom window just before 6 a.m. Sugihara and his wife had been living in the consulate building since ...