Member of the Lithuanian Seimas Julius VESYALKA, a well-known politician who served as Minister of Economy in the early 1990s, shared his assessment of the events of Black Friday on January 16 in Vilnius with Vremya Novostei. - - You were among the few deputies of the Sejm who came out to the protesters. What are your impressions?

At the end of February, Egypt will host an international conference to help the Palestinians, who suffered greatly this month during the military conflict with the Israelis. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised that Moscow would take an active part in the event and in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. What do the Palestinians expect from Russia and the United States, since the representative of the new American president left for the Middle East just yesterday?

Lithuanians are preparing for new protests Vilnius is preparing for a large-scale anti-government rally scheduled for February 3. The Association of Small and Medium Businesses of Lithuania threatened to gather three times as many people for this event as participated in the demonstration on January 16 on Independence Square. Then the protest action ended with an attempt to storm the Sejm (parliament) building and mass pogroms.

Serbia intends to apply to join the European Union during the first half of 2009 while the Czech Republic holds the EU presidency. This was stated recently by Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration in the Serbian government Bozidar Djelic.

Congolese rebel leader on trial in The Hague The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002, began its first trial in The Hague yesterday. The defendant was 48-year-old citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Thomas Lubanga. He is accused of recruiting about 30 thousand children under the age of 15 to participate in the armed conflict. This crime is punishable by at least 30 years in prison.