Afghanistan

Four local men who worked with Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan have come to live in Lithuania, with one of them still waiting for asylum, the Joint Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces told BNS.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces' Joint Staff Headquarters in Vilnius are hosting on Tuesday a farewell ceremony for Lithuanian troops leaving for the NATO-led multinational Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and the US-led multinational mission Inherent Resolve in Iraq, the Defense Ministry said.

As NATO prepares to send more troops to Afghanistan, Lithuania also plans to increase its contingent in the volatile Central Asian country.

Lithuania should increase its contribution to international operations, new Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis says.

The family of an Afghan refugee granted asylum in Lithuania is to rejoin him on Friday. aHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRmVuLmRlbGZpLmx0JTJGc3Vic2NyaWJlJTJGJmNhbmNlbHVybD1odHRwJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3LmRlbGZpLmx0JTJGbWlzYyUyRnBheXdhbGwucGhwJTNGZG8lM0RjYW5jZWwlMjZyJTNEaHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRmVuLmRlbGZpLmx0JTJGc3Vic2NyaWJlJTJGJmNh...

The biggest threat to NATO is our own inertness and unwillingness to protect our values, said Kurt Volker, former NATO Ambassador and Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership. To read this article, try a €5.99 monthly subscription by clicking here.

Few Lithuanian employers would we willing to hire refugees. Reluctance to deal with unfamiliar working cultures and differing attitudes towards work is one of the reasons, but companies that have experience of hiring migrant workers say Lithuania needs to open up its labour market to make up for the...

A case in which a Russian citizen and an former officer of the Lithuanian Air Force Aviation Base are charged with spying has been handed over to the Šiauliai Regional Court, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghan national who once worked as interpreter for Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan's Ghor Province and was relocated to the Baltic state a month ago, has been granted refugee status.

Lithuania will not respond to an asylum request via YouTube video from an Afghani refugee saying he has worked with Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan, despite having flown in another Afghani interpreter who made his plea several weeks before.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, tension with the West has been high, affecting eastern Ukraine, Syria and hot spots across the former Soviet sphere. Less overtly, Moscow has been working to protect areas vital to Russian interests by raising the stakes of U.S. operations there.

A second Afghani refugee has made plea for asylum in Lithuania via a youtube video. The country's defence minister says, however, that not all Afghanis who worked with Lithuanian troops deserve to be relocated.

The story of Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghani interpreter who used to work with Lithuanian forces in Ghor Province but had to flee his country for fear of the Taliban's retribution, introduced a new angle into the refugee debate in Lithuania.

Local interpreters who worked with NATO troops in Afghanistan knew they were risking their lives and the compensation many of them received turned out to be inadequate, especially after the Alliance pulled out.

Lithuanian politician-businessman Antanas Guoga has pledged to give a job to Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghani refugee who caught the nation's attention last week with a youtube video where he asked, in Lithuanian, for a refuge in the country.

Abdul Basir Yoususi, the Afghani refugee who caught Lithuania's attention in a video revealing himself to have worked as a Lithuanian-speaking interpreter for Lithuanian NATO forces in Afghanistan's Ghor province, arrived in Lithuania on Wednesday.

Basir Yousof, the Afghani refugee in Greece who made waves in Lithuania after appearing in a video asking for asylum in Lithuania and revealing himself to have worked with Lithuanian forces as an interpreter in Afghanistan's Ghor province, may have his request granted after a positive reception from...

With the wave of recent terrorist attacks in Europe there is a perception that the threat from terrorism on the continent is higher than ever, but the statistics show that the number of deaths from terrorist attacks in Europe is far lower now than in previous decades.

"Laba diena visiems iš Lietuvos," Basir, a refugee from Afghanistan's Ghor Province, addresses people of Lithuania and the country's president in a youtube video posted by an American journalist from a refugee camp in Greece.