Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his concern for the plight of Christian communities in the Iraqi town of Mosul and in other parts of the Middle East.

Lithuanian Ambassador to Ukraine Petras Vaitiekunas was awarded by Lithuanian Business Confederation award The Business Ambassador for his contribution representing Lithuania's business and political interests in Ukraine and for active efforts in developing democracy in Ukraine.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended condolences, both on behalf of the Lithuanian people and personally, to the King of Malaysia over the tragic plane crash, resulting in the death of many people.

A Malaysian airliner has crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border when flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Flight MH17. Most probably about 300 people were on the board.

With 422 votes in favour, the European Parliament elected Jean-Claude Juncker in a secret ballot on 15 July as President of the new European Commission to take office on 1 November 2014 for a five year term. The minimum number of votes required was 376.

The collective solidarity that inspired cross-border rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of the May 2014 floods in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia must be matched by EU aid and funding, said President Schulz, opening the July II session.

The European Union on Friday, July 11th, slapped a travel ban and asset freeze on 11 people allegedly linked to separatist violence in eastern Ukraine.

This week the Parliament's political groups had the opportunity to quiz president-designate of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. Although the former Luxembourg prime minister was nominated for the Commission presidency by the European Council on 27 June, he still requires the Parliament's backing. The plenary vote on his candidacy will take place on 15 July.

Lithuanian national television LRT will launch new channel broadcasting authentic news about Ukraine's struggle for the freedom of choice. On 14 July, the national television LRT will start broadcasting news shows News.Ukraine prepared by Ukrainian journalists.

"Isn't it rather that Europe turns away from the people?" This question from a Danish woman during a debate on why people turn away from Europe got Martin Schulz thinking for months. "This sentence really touched me," he told us a few months later in an interview. "Maybe it isn't true, but we have to take this seriously, otherwise the European Union will fail."