On Monday, the Westminster Magistrates Court in London announced that it approved of Lithuania's extradition request against Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas, former owners of the bankrupt bank Snoras.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė - at the invitation of President Andris Bērziņš - attended the official opening ceremony of „Riga: European Capital of Culture 2014".

In spring 2014, the prohibition of smoking at the public transport stops which has been approved of the Board of Kaunas city will come into effect.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė together with her Latvian counterpart Andris Bērziņš visited the site of the former supermarket in Riga which had collapsed in November, to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy. At the tragedy site where 54 people had been killed and dozens injured, the Lithuanian President laid flowers and lit candles.

The European Commission on Wednesday warned that European Union citizenship "must not be up for sale" following controversy over a Maltese initiative to grant passports to wealthy foreign investors.

Did Lithuanian authorities get mad with hatred? Or is it a kind of an incurable disease named anti-polonism? This kind of questions must be asked by every sane observer of Lithuanian public life, especially after the recent scandalous events of the end of Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The dramatic increase of chauvinistic political, administrative and judicial decisions is slowly becoming a threat to the preservation of an identity of national minorities in Lithuania. It is Lithuanian Kulturkampf.

The Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, who is visiting the Vatican City, invited Pope Francis to come to Lithuania. On 15 January, the Foreign Minister took part in the audience of Pope Francis.

Today, the Forum of Parents of Polish School in Šalčininkai district issued a statement in which the support for yesterday's speech by the Member of the European Parliament Valdemar Tomaševski was expressed. The members of the Forum also state that they have presented the evidence that
yesterday's speech of the President of Lithuania in the European Parliament contained many lies. 'On 14th January 2014 an event important for all the representatives of national minorities in Lithuania took place in the European Parliament. Our representative Valdemar Tomaševski, Member of the European Parliament stood up for us, for the protection of our rights. We want to thank and congratulate him!' the above mentioned statement says.

Yesterday in the Lithuanian electronic media a comment of a man named Artūras Jančys, previously an unknown author, appeared. The comment was provided with a tabloid title Churlish spit of Polish politicians in the face of Lithuania, while the content of the comment did not digress from the unrefined character of the title: it is rough and deprived of a greater value.

Palanga was flooded with visitors during New Years' and is still full of people today. Russians are coming to spend their winter holidays here. Local entrepreneurs welcome the generous holidaymakers with various gifts and discounts.