As the Day of Restoration of Lithuania's Independence is approaching, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite is calling on Lithuania's citizens to celebrate February 16 in an inventive way.

According to Lithuania's Speaker of the Seimas Loreta Grauziniene, the priority of the spring session which was to commence in March was the compensation of the pensions.

According to the data presented by Regitra, State Enterprise providing public services of registration of motor vehicles, examination of future drivers and issuance of driving licenses, the car park in Lithuania is still expanding.

During 2013, the number of the cars in Lithuania increased by 2.2% – until 1.146 million of cars.

The most rapid increase in the number of cars was registered in Trakai city (4.8%), Alytus city (4.4%), Vilnius city (4.3%) and Kaunas city 4.2%).

The average of the age of the cars that underwent mandatory technical inspection was 14 years.

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MIPIM 2013, the leading international real estate and investment fair, is held every year in Cannes, France. This year Air Lituanica launches a special flight for Lithuanians heading to the 25th edition of the fair to Cannes and back on 11-14 March.

Industry MEPs approved Copernicus, the EU's new Earth Observation System, on Thursday, thus endorsing an informal deal reached with the Council of Ministers in late December. Replacing the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, Copernicus will have a €3.79 billion budget for 2014-2020. Its data will serve many purposes, including monitoring climate change and protecting public security.

The international Vytautas the Great Army Command and Staff Course which will involve officers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Georgia began at the General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania on January 20. The 44 students admitted to the 4-month course include 34 Lithuanians, reported BC the Ministry of National Defence.

Ryanair, Europe's favourite low fares airline, today (22 Jan) announced that its low fares are now available on Google Flight Search, allowing even faster access to its 1,600 routes and ensuring Google Flight Search users can see just how much cheaper Ryanair's fares are compared to every other European airline, informed BC Elina Hakkarainen.

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.